What Is the Fastest Horse in the World?

A Quarter Horse comes close to 88 km/h over 400 metres. A Thoroughbred holds more than 60 km/h for an entire race. And the official world record belongs to a two-year-old filly, clocked at 70.35 km/h. An ordinary riding horse, meanwhile, gallops at 40 to 48 km/h. Here are the real speeds, gait by gait and breed by breed, and the name of the fastest horse ever timed.

The fastest horse in the world: Winning Brew at 70.35 km/h

The fastest horse in the world is Winning Brew. She is a two-year-old Thoroughbred filly trained by Francis Vitale, and she set her record on 14 May 2008 at Penn National Race Course in Grantville, Pennsylvania.

She covered two furlongs, or 402 metres, in 20.57 seconds. That works out at an average of 70.35 km/h, or 43.71 miles per hour. Guinness World Records certified it as the highest race speed ever recorded, and it has not been beaten since.

One detail matters here: those 70.35 km/h are an average over 402 metres, standing start included. Her peak speed mid-run was therefore higher. That is also why slightly different figures circulate, depending on which segment was measured.

For context, the average Kentucky Derby winner covers its 2,012 metres at around 60 km/h. The race record, set by Secretariat in 1973 in 1:59.40, works out at 60.6 km/h. Holding 60 km/h over two kilometres and peaking at 70 km/h over 400 metres are two very different jobs.

How fast can a horse run? The gait speed table

Before talking records, it helps to know how fast a normal horse actually moves. The most common confusion involves the gallop: many sources quote 15 to 20 km/h for the gallop, when that figure really describes the trot or the canter.

An ordinary riding horse only holds its top speed for a few hundred metres. Beyond that it naturally drops back to a cruising pace. This is why peak speeds and race speeds can never be compared directly. For more on each gait, see our articles on the horse's gallop and the horse's trot.

How fast does a racehorse gallop?

In a race, a Thoroughbred sustains 60 to 65 km/h over distances of 1,600 to 2,400 metres. Over the first few hundred metres after the gate, its peak exceeds 70 km/h before the jockey rations the effort.

That speed runs into a well-known physiological limit: at the gallop, a horse breathes once per stride. Its lungs are mechanically tied to the movement of its forelegs. It cannot raise its breathing rate independently of its stride rate, which caps its endurance at high speed. A racehorse is spent after a few minutes of maximum effort.

Official times in the major races have been remarkably stable since the 1970s, a sign that the breed has hit a plateau. Our horse racing statistics set out that trend in detail.

The Quarter Horse: fastest over 400 metres

Over a sprint, no breed beats the Quarter Horse. It has been clocked at speeds approaching 88.5 km/h, or 55 miles per hour. That is the highest speed ever attributed to an equine breed.

Its name comes straight from its speciality: sprint races over the quarter mile, or 402 metres. At that distance, and especially over the first 300 metres, it consistently outruns the Thoroughbred. Past roughly 600 metres, the order reverses.

That explosiveness comes from its build: a massive hindquarter, heavily muscled thighs and a high proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibres, which deliver immediate power but tire quickly. It is the exact opposite of an endurance profile.

Native to North America and known since the 16th century, the Quarter Horse is also the most versatile breed there is: western riding, ranch work, working cattle. In temperament it is calm, cooperative and very alert.

The Thoroughbred: fastest over the distance

If the Quarter Horse wins the sprint, the Thoroughbred wins the race. It holds the official world record, and it fills the stands at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the Epsom Derby and the Kentucky Derby.

Created in England in the 17th and 18th centuries from oriental stallions, the breed was selected on a single criterion for three centuries: speed sustained over distance. The result is a light animal with long limbs and a deep chest.

Its most striking asset is cardiac. A horse's heart weighs 4 to 5 kilos on average. In a top-level Thoroughbred it can be twice that. Secretariat's heart, examined at autopsy in 1989, was estimated at close to 10 kilos. The bigger the heart, the more oxygenated blood reaches the muscles with every beat.

The Thoroughbred also serves as an improving breed: crossed with the Arabian it produces the Anglo-Arabian. Our guide to horse breeds gives the full picture.

The Standardbred: records at the trot and the pace

The Standardbred is the American harness horse. Contrary to what is often written, its name does not mean "bred for speed". It comes from the standard of performance required for entry into the stud book, opened in 1879: covering a mile at the trot or the pace in under 2 minutes 30. Any horse that made that time entered the breed.

Today's records are far quicker than that original standard:

Both records were set at The Red Mile in Kentucky. Holding more than 53 km/h at the trot, without ever breaking into a gallop, over 1,609 metres while pulling a sulky, is a feat of an entirely different kind from a Thoroughbred's gallop.

The Arabian: endurance rather than top speed

The Arabian is one of the oldest equine breeds in existence. A light riding horse, it stands 1.40 to 1.55 metres at the withers for 400 to 450 kilos.

On raw speed it does not compete: it rarely exceeds 65 km/h at its peak, well behind the Quarter Horse and the Thoroughbred. Its ground is endurance. Over rides of 120 to 160 kilometres, it has no rival.

That superiority rests on its cardiac recovery and its thermoregulation, both inherited from selection in an arid climate. The right basis for comparison here is not top speed but the average speed held over hours.

What makes a horse fast: stride, cadence and heart

A horse's speed comes down to one simple multiplication: stride length times stride frequency. Everything else follows from it.

Stride length is the distance covered between two contacts of the same limb. In a Thoroughbred at full gallop it reaches 6 to 7 metres. It depends on height, shoulder angle and the flexibility of the back, not on leg length alone.

Cadence is the number of strides per minute. A racehorse runs at 130 to 140 strides per minute, and the best sprinters reach 160. This is precisely where the Quarter Horse takes its advantage: its cadence is higher than the Thoroughbred's, which compensates with a longer stride held for longer.

Add to that cardiac capacity, the proportion of fast-twitch fibres and the overall balance of the anatomy. Height at the withers, on the other hand, is not a reliable predictor: a tall, badly proportioned horse runs slower than a compact, well-built one.

The fastest horse breeds ranked

The answer therefore depends on the question. Over 400 metres, the fastest horse in the world is the Quarter Horse. In a real race it is the Thoroughbred, and the certified record still belongs to Winning Brew at 70.35 km/h. Over 160 kilometres, the Arabian crosses the line first.