Dr. David Lambert was honored Dec. 5 as the recipient of the University of Louisville Equine Industry Program's John W. Galbreath Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurship in the Equine Industry. The celebratory dinner was hosted at The Olmsted in Louisville, Ky.
Awarded annually since 1990, the Galbreath Award honors an individual whose entrepreneurial leadership has had a significant and positive impact on the equine industry. Lambert was nominated for the award by Gwen Davis of Davis Innovation, who has worked in a marketing role with Lambert's companies for more than seven years.
To be selected, a candidate must have original and creative techniques or approaches to business, demonstrated a willingness to take personal or career risks, has utilized forward-thinking and visionary management planning, has shown an ability to render a business firm or organization more effective and profitable, and has gained the respect of peers as evidence of character and integrity.
"After reading over that criteria for this honor, nominating him was a total no-brainer," Davis said as she introduced Lambert at the dinner. "Employing revolutionary scientific concepts and technologies is nothing new for Dr. Lambert. In fact, it is his life work. ... Well enough is never good enough. He continues to look forward—further ahead than most people in this industry. What makes him so deserving tonight, I think, is what happens next."
A native of England, Lambert received his bachelor's degree in veterinary science from Liverpool University. He made it his life's work to apply his knowledge of equine physiology to predict performance in horses.
In 1987, he founded Equine Analysis Systems, a company that consults with Thoroughbred owners and breeders to predict performance of individual horses. The company has advised clients in the purchase of horses like Gun Runner , Untapable, Thunder Gulch, Tapit , Roses in May and many more graded stakes winners.
Following a cluster of breakdowns at Santa Anita Park in 2019, Lambert launched StrideSAFE, a wearable sensor technology that documents a horse's movements at high speed and analyzes that data to identify physical problems that could lead to catastrophic injury.
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The advanced sensor technology has been tested and utilized at 11 different tracks in the United States and has been worn by every Thoroughbred starter in Kentucky this year.
Lambert credits his team's success in innovation to the discovery of a new paradigm—defined by Oxford Languages as a typical example or pattern of something: a model. Referencing Thomas Kuhn's 1962 book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," Lambert stated how scientific revolutions occur when there is a paradigm change.
Lambert's paradigm breaks away from the standard view of comparing horse physiology to that of humans. Over his 50 years of research, Lambert discovered many of those comparisons showed anomalies and differences. The way the horse moves, breathes, and utilizes energy within their bodies is more similar to that of kangaroos rather than humans, leading Lambert to develop a new paradigm for how horses are analyzed for performance.
"It's a totally different paradigm to the one that's generally discussed," Lambert said. "If the old paradigm is faulty, then it means for the young people there is a massive opportunity. If you can get a paradigm that is not quite so suspect—if it relates more to the reality of the horse—there lies an opportunity for you to do things way better than the establishment is presently doing."
Lambert focused his speech on challenging the students from the university's equine program in attendance to keep searching for new ways of thinking within the horse business.
"For all you young people, when you go out into the world it's a bit of a hurdle for you," Lambert said. "If there is a different paradigm, this is a golden opportunity. The older people are going to trash it, they're going to turn it down. They like the old paradigm, they don't want things to change. If you assess what's being presented as possibly new, if you get it right and if you begin to confirm and work within the new paradigm, eventually you're going to win.
"There's an opportunity for young people coming into the horse business that if they get associated with a new paradigm, the future is theirs to inherit."
