A critical set of genes linked to successful racehorses has been identified by an international research team. Scientists from Asia, Europe, North America compared the genomes of Thoroughbred, Arabian and Mongolian racehorses to horses bred for other sports and leisure, and were able to pinpoint a set of genes that play a significant role in muscle, metabolism, and neurobiology. These genes were found to be clearly different in racing horses, and were common to all racing breeds compared to those animals from non-racing breeds.