Breeding winners without the risk of chicanery
SIR – Marcia Macleod (Letters, October 11) does not mention that all newborn thoroughbred foals have to be Dna-typed and microchipped within the first month of life to be registered as thoroughbreds, no matter how, when or where they were begotten.
This would forestall the chicanery she fears could occur in the event of the introduction of any modern technology to the breeding of thoroughbred racehorses. Professor Twink Allen
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
SIR – I doubt Prince Khalid would want to see clones of his famous filly Enable racing each other. Being raised in the generation when 40 mares plus two for the owner was the normal quota for a stallion’s breeding season in Europe, I believe the bloodstock world has already let the genie out of the bottle by permitting up to 140 mares to be covered by one sire in each world hemisphere in a year.
Never mind the poor old stallion – the close cross-mating already evident in the most popular bloodlines must be harming the General Stud Book’s gene pool, leading to potential restriction of the thoroughbred breed.
From a previous era, consider the enterprise of Brigadier Gerard’s breeding: by an unfashionable stallion out of an unraced mare, with no close relation within three generations. In 1972 he was unanimously voted Horse of the Year for his wonderful exploits on the racecourse, an accolade that I sincerely hope will be given to Enable.
Simon Hull
Newmarket, Suffolk