Resurrecting past champions through cloning?

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“Sham on the outside. Sham getting a head in front…They’re on the backstretch. It’s almost a match race now. Secretariat’s on the inside by a head. Sham is on the outside…They’ve opened 10 lengths…Secretariat now taking the lead. He’s got it by about a length and a half…The lead is increasing. It’s 3. 3 ½… He is moving like a tremendous machine!... Secretariat by 12. Secretariat by 14 lengths on the turn…Here comes Secretariat to the wire! Unbelievable! An amazing performance!”
 
 
Can you imagine hearing those words in person? Or hearing those words or something similar again? It sounds farfetched, but if two Texas horsemen have their way, then the possibility is even more probable than what you might think. Jason Abraham and Gregg Veneklasen brought a lawsuit against the American Quarter Horse Association when that organization refused to register cloned horses and their offspring. The AQHA’s refusal to do so, the men claim, violates antitrust law. Should the judge rule in favor of the two Texas horsemen, the decision could pave the way for clones to compete in sanctioned quarter horse races at numerous tracks across the country.
 
 
In many cases, the clone would be an exact duplicate of a past champion. Multiple graded stakes winner and two-time world champion Tailor Fit, considered by many to be Quarter Horse royalty, already has a copy. The young duplicate has aptly been named Pure Tailor Fit. Proponents for cloning argue that the procedure would allow for the reintroduction of the genes of past champions who are deceased or were unable to breed and would enable breeders to reduce disease by eradicating detrimental genes. Conversely, opponents argue that cloning would concentrate the gene pool and undermine efforts to improve the breed.
 
 
Moral issues aside (my granny always said that it wasn’t polite to talk about religion or politics), allowing clones to enter the starting gate of sanctioned races, regardless of breed, is a step in the wrong direction. Breeding is a tricky business, and it’s impossible to get the same horse twice (just ask Roy and Gretchen Jackson of Lael Stable). I don’t think for one minute that cloning would change that fact. Take identical human twins for example. It has long been thought that identical twins have identical genetic profiles, but new research shows that while identical twins have very similar genes, they are not identical. Often differences are caused by environmental factors, but it has now been shown that changes can also occur due to epigenetic factors, or the chemical markers that attach to and affect how genes are expressed.
 
 
In order to clone horses, genetic information is transplanted from a cell in a donor animal to an unfertilized egg whose genetic information has either been destroyed or removed. The egg is then implanted into a surrogate mare, where it develops into a viable foal. It is not, however, a fool-proof method. Cloned animals have shown growth defects, and the reason for these defects is not yet known. Researchers believe it to be a result of in-vitro culture conditions or changes in chromatin in the nucleus, but they have admitted that further research would be needed in order to fully understand the reasons why cloning went wrong in cases such as that.
 
 
Even with cloning, you still cannot know for certain exactly what you’re going to get. You can use the DNA of past champions and artificially select for a “healthier” specimen, but in the end, you cannot make a horse anything other than what it will be. You cannot reproduce temperament, heart, or any other intangible through science. It just simply is not possible. Initially, cloning may strengthen the breed by re-introducing the genes of champions that could not reproduce, but ultimately cloning would undermine the breed when breeders continually in-breed to the same horses, as they do today.
 
 
Regardless of the judge’s decision in the Texas case, clones will not be seen in the thoroughbred racing industry anytime soon. Current Jockey Club rules mandate that foals have to be the result of a live cover and bar embryo transfer or artificial insemination. The rules governing the AQHA are different, however; they approved AI in the 1960s and embryo transfers in the 1980s.
 
 
I sincerely hope that the Jockey Club’s current rules are not amended and that the Texas judge rules in favor of the AQHA. There can only be one Secretariat, and that simple fact is one of the very reasons why he is so incredibly special. Cloning is not breeding. Even if it cannot exactly reproduce champions of years past, it does take out a lot of the guesswork. In doing so, it also takes out the variety, the mystery, and the excitement. When I review the past performances of a maiden race for 2-year olds, part of the excitement is in not knowing which will possibly become a champion and which will just be average. I don’t want a past performance filled with the clones of the greats because there is no mystery there. It might be exciting to see “Secretariat” race in person, but deep down, I know it would never be the same because even if that horse is an exact replica of Secretariat on the genetic level, he will never actually be Secretariat.  

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