THOROUGHBRED racing is already driven by eugenics. Every year, breeders spend millions trying to discover a genetic formula for the perfect racehorse. But there is never a guarantee that the mating of two champions will produce another one.
During the bloodstock boom of the Eighties, a yearling with a pedigree and physique so flawless that he cost $10 million (£6.25 million) not only proved inept on the racecourse, but impotent at stud. So the idea of replicating precisely a horse such as Shergar has the potential to unravel the whole industry.
Last night the British Horseracing Board (BHB) responded to the cloning news with a mixture of dismay and defiance. Alan Delmonte, its spokesman, said that artificial insemination of any kind is outlawed in thoroughbred racing to keep the gene pool varied.
He added: “The authorities of over 50 racing jurisdictions have signed up to that prohibition. No horse can race that has resulted from anything other than a natural covering. Obviously it is fundamental to international competition that this should be so.”
Though alarmed, the BHB was not taken aback. “We are not surprised to learn that this has happened,” Mr Delmonte said. “We view the development with concern, but not panic. As this field of science develops, this is something racing will have to deal with. Our view is that we want to maintain the basis of the sport, in genuine competition and a legitimate, sustainable breeding industry, rather than suddenly change everything we have been doing for hundreds of years.”
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Racing had a responsibility to other sport in its response. “Cloning potentially represents a challenge to every other type of sport, too,” Mr Delmonte said. “Ultimately this is something that we must all address if we want to preserve everything that we love about racing and sporting competition in general.”
Even as things stand, the values of the bloodstock market are disproportionate relative to those of the racetrack itself. Many yearlings are sold at auction for sums they can never hope to win on the track, even if winning the Derby itself. Their values are self-fulfilling: a yearling who becomes a champion will earn the serious money at stud, because of the value of his own foals. Remove the skill, or the guesswork if one prefers, and the gene pool would be sadly diminished.
Presumably, it would also be concentrated in the hands of a few enormously rich people.