Horse Cloning Continues

This recent turn to cloning horses should make the future years of horse racing even more exciting.  I realize some horse owners may think that this is unfair (and certainly those that were looking forward to using their retired horses as a means to bring in money from "stud fees" may be disappointed) but for the rest of us - how exciting that we may be able to see the same horses run over and over again. . .  .  The AP reports,

Barrel racer Charmayne James knew scientists had figured out how to clone mice, sheep and cats. But if any creature deserved to be cloned, she thought it was her gelding Scamper, the retired 10-time world champion. The result, Clayton, has exceeded James' expectations. The foal even bristles, just like Scamper, when touched on a certain spot behind his ear.

"Scamper was one of the greatest horses ever, and I know that now more than ever," James said. "I wanted to get in and save his genetics, because if they were ever able to clone a horse, Scamper would be the horse to clone."

James paid an Austin-based ViaGen Inc. $150,000 to clone Scamper. After four failed attempts, Clayton was born Aug. 8. His birth had been kept secret until Wednesday.

Genetic material was extracted from a cell sample taken from Scamper, then transferred to an egg that had its own genetic material removed. An embryo was grown in an incubator before it was transferred to a mare. . .

Scamper won a record 10 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world championships from 1984 to '93 and helped make James the first million-dollar cowgirl and the all-time leading money winner in barrel racing. Scamper is the only barrel racing horse in the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame.

James, who lives in Athens, Texas, plans to breed Clayton to help "get better, sounder quality barrel horses out there." For now, she has no plans to race Clayton, saying he's to valuable to risk getting hurt.

The PRCA has no limits on using cloned horses in competition, but Clayton wouldn't be allowed in any events sponsored by the American Quarter Horse Association, which does not register horses that are cloned or their offspring.

The first cloned horse was born in 2003 in Italy. In 2005 Texas A&M University created the first cloned horse in the United States. Earlier this year, ViaGen announced it had cloned two top-earning cutting horses in Oklahoma.

$150,000 for a cloned horse!  I guess that could be seen as a bargain since cloning your cat could cost approximately $50,000.  It is rather surprising that this horse story does not discuss the potential medical harms to the clone as well as ethical concerns surrounding the entire issue of cloning. 

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/business/31clone.html?ex=1171947600&en=2e860d440992656e&ei=5070

March 31, 2006

Goodbye Dolly: Up From Sheep to Cloned Horses

By ANDREW POLLACK

Royal Blue Boon was a champion and big money-earner in the equine calf-herding sport known as cutting. Comes now her genetic knock-off: Royal Blue Boon Too, whose birth last month was, her creators say, the start of commercial horse cloning.

The births of Too and the clone of a second star cutting mare, Tap O Lena, were announced yesterday by two Texas companies — ViaGen, a cloning company, and Encore Genetics, a horse-breeding and marketing company. Seven more clones of champion horses are scheduled to be born this year, the companies said.

While there have been at least three horses cloned before this, the companies portrayed the new ones as the first commercially cloned horses, though a French company played at least some role in earlier clones.

The companies are charging $150,000 for the first clone and $90,000 for a second clone of the same animal. Clones are genetic copies of the original, though they might not be the same in all details because the environment influences how genes act.

ViaGen is hoping that horses can ride to the rescue of the cloning business. The cloning of cows and pigs, which could be a bigger business, has been set back by the Food and Drug Administration, which has yet to make a ruling that the milk and meat of cloned animals, and their more conventionally bred offspring, are safe to consume.

"We see horses as being an achievable business now that doesn't have a regulatory process associated with it," Mark Walton, the chief executive of ViaGen, said in an interview.

The F.D.A. decision on food safety, which is bound to be controversial, was rumored to be coming last fall but was put off, and it is not clear when it will come.

In the meantime, the F.D.A. has asked owners of cloned animals to keep the meat and milk out of the food supply. Some farmers and breeders who have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in cloning their prized livestock have thus had to pour milk down the drain or store semen in vats, unable to sell it.

Even though horses do not present a food safety issue, at least in this country, horse cloning is still somewhat controversial. The Humane Society of the United States issued a statement yesterday criticizing the two Texas companies for "subjecting horses to commercial exploitation through cloning," which it said had no "legitimate social value." It said there was a high failure rate in cloning and that clones could have birth defects and illnesses.

Mr. Walton said the two clones ViaGen made, both born on a farm in Purcell, Okla., appeared to be healthy.

Some people in the horse world are also wary of cloning, in part because they think conventional breeding is better for the future of the horses and sports. The Jockey Club, which is in charge of registration of thoroughbred racehorses, does not allow cloning. The same is true for the American Quarter Horse Association.

But the National Cutting Horse Association has no such prohibition, according to a statement from an official. Cutting is an event in which a horse and rider separate a single calf from its herd and then block the calf from returning.

Royal Blue Boon won more than $380,000 in her career and her offspring, including Red White and Boon, Autumn Boon and Peptoboonsmal, have won more than $2.5 million more. She is now 26, past her cutting and reproductive years, so her owner, Elaine Hall of Weatherford, Tex., decided to have her cloned.

"The motivation for me to do it in the first place was to be able to preserve the superior genes that my mare has," Ms. Hall said in a telephone press conference organized by ViaGen.

ViaGen, based in Austin, is controlled by John Sperling, an octogenarian billionaire who started the profit-making University of Phoenix. He has put his money into other causes as well, like the attempted cloning of his own dog and other pets, anti-aging research, and the decriminalization of marijuana, particularly for medical uses.

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http://www.ereleases.com/pr/20050801011.html

http://www.equestrianmag.com/news/horse-cloning-peter-kagel.html

Press Release

Horsecloning.com Announces Royality Fees Will Replace Stud Fees for Cloned Horses

Jockey Clubs' Rules Predicted to Fall; The One-Slot Cloning Deadline Is August 15

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 1, 2005 -- "Breeders should be delighted to embrace the horse cloning revolution," stated Peter Kagel, President of http://www.horsecloning.com, "because instead of receiving just a one-time stud fee or a breeding fee for a mare, they can negotiate for future royalties, just like a patent owner, should the clones they sell be either cloned themselves and/or procreate through breeding and/or generate revenue through competitions."

"The insightful horse owner who purchases the only horse cloning slot available for the entire world this season will have a chance to make a great deal more money than could be made by regularly breeding because they will multiply the negotiated royalties by the number of clones produced. It is projected that the number of clones produced could be as high as 16 based on the scientific advancements achieved since the cloning in 2003 of 3 mules by the same distinguished University of Idaho team that will do this cloning," said Kagel. Please see http://www.uidaho.edu/cloning/ for more information.

Kagel added, "The Jockey Club Rules prohibiting artificially inseminated and cloned race horses from competing are a house of cards and will fall, more likely sooner than later. A Texas judge could rule soon that the rules violate Texas antitrust laws." (http://www.imakenews.com/broodmares/index000015980.cfm)

So in a nutshell the advantages of cloning your champion horse this season are:

1. You get the exact replica(s) of your horse, a walking patent unto itself;

2. You could negotiate royalties multiplied by the number of clones produced from your horse, whether cloned or bred, and/or from their competitive successes;

3. There is a one-time chance this season to clone your horse for $367,350 plus a patent royalty fee of 15% based on the number of clones produced and their estimated value. Even though no one can guarantee a specific result, you could hit the jackpot;

4. The Jockey Club Rules prohibiting racing clones and artificially inseminated horses is a house of cards that will fall to antitrust litigation and economic common sense, maybe sooner than later; and

5. It makes economic sense to clone any top-of-the-line horse, whether a race horse or not.

Kagel explained it's obvious why the Jockey Club Rules are bound to fall: "Cloned horses, being from the best blood lines, are much faster than run-of-the-mill race horses. An entrepreneur will step up to the plate and produce made-for-television-races pitting clones, even identical clones, against each other that will draw huge television audiences because people want to see the fastest and legendary horses race. Betting will occur on the internet through the numerous off shore gambling websites. Fans will stay away from the tracks in large numbers. The track owners will realize that they have been relegated to minor league status and then, facing a substantial lack of revenue, will embrace cloning and the Jockey Club Rules will be changed. It's always all about money in the long run."

Kagel concluded, "The deadline to sign for the only slot available for the entire world at http://www.horsecloning.com is August 15. We will broker your clones for you as well as putting your horse on our list for next season."

Contact:

Peter Kagel
305-304-0368
email: reminds@mindspring.com - please reference "horsecloning"

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