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Open final and the Breeders Association trophy. The latter was
made all the more significant because the group comprises all
the traditional breeders.
Speaking of breeders, the former England player and breeder
Alan Kent is forthright about being anti-cloning. ‘I’m not even
100 per cent in favour of embryos,’ he says over the phone from his
base in West Sussex. He’s referring to the widespread practice of
artificially inseminating mares and transferring their fertilised
embryos into a surrogate. ‘I’m just concerned that you’re taking the
very best and then it becomes a very small gene pool. It really won’t
help the smaller people in the sport as it becomes very elitist.’
Although Kent admits that, from a selfish point of view, he’d
be very happy to clone his best horse, he doesn’t feel comfortable
with the perceived welfare risks or long-term effects. He cites the
fact that clones and embryos are banned in thoroughbred racing
before adding, ‘It’s totally not natural.’
Interestingly in 2012, the International Federation for
Equestrian Sports (FEI) changed its rules to allow clones and
offspring of clones to compete. It had previously stated that
cloning went ‘against its objective, to enable FEI athletes to
compete in international events under fair and even conditions’.
However, even the FEI changing its mind isn’t enough to
convince some sceptics. One polo insider weighed in with the
moral argument that, considering so many medical procedures
in the human world started off in the veterinary world, equine
cloning could pave the way for a new form of eugenics.
‘Let’s not dispense with how much science fiction has
become science fact over the years,’ says the source, who wished
to remain anonymous. ‘In addition to the moral issue there is
the medical argument. There are doctors, people who understand
genealogy saying, “Yes, we can do all these amazing things,
but we have just got no idea what the effect is going to be
later on down the line”.’
A quick explainer, for those imagining sci-fi scenes of
horses rolling off conveyor belts fully formed. Crestview’s
cloning process involves taking a skin sample from a horse
This page:
Juan Martin Nero on
Cuartetera B07 between Hilario
Ulloa (left) and Adolfo Cambiaso
(right).
Opposite:
Alan Kent
with his son John
