How is AI being used in Bloodstock? Jesse Rodrigues of BloodstockAI explains all to Holly Harte I am truly passionate about seeing the bloodstock and racing industry moving forwards and I believe any technology that enhances welfare and our ability to breed sound horses can only be a bonus. This week I sat down with Jesse Rodrigues, founder of BloodstockAI, to find out what his company can offer our industry. Jesse combines both technology/startup experience and years of hands-on experience within the Thoroughbred industry. He has worked and studied across some of the world's leading operations and institutions, including Coolmore, Darley, The National Stud, Lane's End and Keeneland. The main objective of BloodstockAI is to provide data-driven intelligence to assist bloodstock agents and owners at the sales rather than buyers being dependent on the ‘gut-feeling’ when purchasing a horse, This is done through deeper genetic analysis, improving predictive breeding intelligence and contributing towards producing sounder horses with greater durability and longevity on the racetrack. The bloodstock industry has traditionally relied on instinct and experience. How has Bloodstock AI been received? Initially there was curiosity, but also scepticism, something natural in an industry built on tradition, experience and intuition. More than three years of research, development and international testing across the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland and France were dedicated to training the AI to operate like an experienced bloodstock agent. Over time, many professionals came to understand that BloodstockAI was not created to replace bloodstock agents, but to add a new layer of intelligence and analysis to the decision-making process in an extremely competitive market. How often do you hear ‘great horses can’t be found by algorithms’? Quite often. And to some extent, I agree. Great horses will never be found by algorithms alone. Human judgement will always remain essential. Our goal is to help professionals reduce risk, process more information and identify opportunities that may otherwise be missed in the speed and volume of the modern bloodstock market. What does your technology see that the elite judges may not? The technology can measure biomechanical consistency, movement patterns and athletic efficiency frame by frame, while simultaneously correlating this with pedigree, performance and market behaviour at scale. Great horsemen instinctively feel many of these qualities; we help quantify part of that intuition through data. Have there been cases where your AI disagreed with the market and was proved right? Yes. We have already seen cases where the commercial market underestimated certain individuals while our data indicated significantly greater upside. In bloodstock, the market often reacts to pedigree first; we try to balance genetics, athleticism and commercial value together. Do you think AI could cause an inflation in prices around certain bloodlines? Possibly in some sectors over the short term. However, long term I believe AI will make the market more efficient by helping buyers identify value beyond the obvious commercial families and fashionable pedigrees. What has surprised you most since launching the company? What surprised me most was how open the industry is to innovation when the technology solves real problems. With sale catalogues becoming larger every year, BloodstockAI allows clients to upload entire catalogues into the platform, apply customised filters based on their objectives, and let the AI scan page by page and lot by lot to identify the horses with the greatest potential. This has become an extremely efficient tool for bloodstock agents and buyers operating across multiple sales simultaneously. Are we close to seeing real time AI assisted auction bidding? I believe so. Not as a replacement for human judgement, but as a real-time support system for risk analysis, valuation, biomechanics and athletic profiling during live sales. If you could change one thing about the bloodstock and racing industry, what would it be? I would like to see more emphasis placed on durability, soundness and long-term athletic longevity not simply precocity and immediate commercial return. What surprises people most about your service? The depth of the platform and the number of industry problems it addresses. Many people initially assume we only provide breeze-up analysis, but BloodstockAI was built to help buyers, agents and breeders reduce risk, save time and make more informed decisions. The platform combines biomechanics, pedigree analysis, performance data, market intelligence and catalogue analysis into a single ecosystem. This allows professionals to filter large volumes of horses more efficiently and gain a more structured understanding before investing. What does AI bring to the bloodstock industry that it did not have previously? Scalability and analytical standardisation. For the first time we can compare large volumes of biomechanical, pedigree, performance and commercial data in a structured and measurable way. Could AI influence the breeding towards stronger horses rather than just precocious ones? Absolutely. If the industry begins placing greater value on biomechanical efficiency, recovery, durability and long-term athletic output, this will naturally influence breeding and selection decisions over time. Could AI improve the public's trust around welfare standards? Yes. The more biomechanical monitoring, movement data and injury-risk analysis we have available, the greater the transparency and accountability the industry can provide regarding welfare standards. About BloodstockAI BloodstockAI has been built over the course of more than three years through extensive research, practical industry exposure and collaboration with bloodstock agents, veterinarians and racing professionals. A significant amount of time has been invested studying auction markets, biomechanics, pedigree-performance correlations and commercial trends in order to build what BloodstockAI is today. There is still a great deal to improve and develop and the long-term vision extends far beyond breeze-up analysis alone.
