The board of directors of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation has approved funding of 12 new projects plus an unprecedented three Storm Cat Development Awards. The 12 new regular projects are in addition to five projects that are now in their second year. The 17 research projects are being underwritten by the foundation in 2013 for a total of $874,024.

This slate of research projects brings the foundation total since 1983 to $19,953,183, which has funded 299 studies at 40 universities.

The work being launched in 2013 addresses problems involving the detection of lameness in the galloping horse, laminitis, herpesvirus and the development of a rapid test for Salmonella, among other projects. For the researchers’ summary description of each project, click here.

Designated as recipient of the seventh annual Elastikon^TM Equine Research Award is the project entitled Acoustoelastography to Monitor Injured Tendons, to be conducted by Dr. Sabrina Brounts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Elastikon^TM Award is funded in part by a grant to the foundation from the Consumer Products Division of Johnson & Johnson, manufacturer of Elastikon^TM tape and other equine products. The Storm Cat Career Development Award, inaugurated in 2006, is a $15,000 grant designed as an early boost to an individual considering a career in equine research. It has been underwritten annually by Mrs. Lucy Young Hamilton, a Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation board member whose family stood the retired champion stallion Storm Cat at Overbrook Farm.

The three Storm Cat winners for 2013 are Brandy Burgess of Colorado State University, Daniel Warren Youngstrom of the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center at Virginia Tech, and Erin McConachie of the University of Georgia.

“The committee who selects the Storm Cat recipients described how difficult it was this year to select one over two other exceptional candidates,” said Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation President Edward L. Bowen. “Since Storm Cat is now 30 years old, our chairman, Dell Hancock, suggested that we fund all three — one for each decade of the stallion’s life — on this one occasion. Therefore, Lucy Young Hamilton will fund one of them and our foundation will fund the other two and we will be helping three young researchers this year.”