As always, Kentucky Derby weekend showcases both the majestic splendor and hidden ethical concerns associated with the sport of kings.
Meanwhile, the word “cloning” immediately conjures images of dinosaur theme parks gone wrong.
According to the U.K.’s Daily Star, the Argentina-based bioengineering company Kheiron Biotech announced that the first five genetically modified “super horses” have arrived and now reside in company stables.
That announcement came in December, but other evidence hints at perhaps additional progress in the intervening months.
Indeed, the Kheiron Biotech website identified 17 separate equine clones.
Gabriel Vichera, company co-founder and scientific director, called those clones “the first in the world to be genetically edited,” per the Star.
Unfortunately, the motives behind the cloning seem every bit as ignoble as one would expect.
“At Kheiron, we understand horsemen and the value of sports,” the company website said. “For this reason, we create solutions for breeding programs that give the power to improve performance by preserving and replicating the most valuable equine athletes. We provide our customers with the most precise reproductive technologies to drive performance limits further that ever imagined.”
Should world governments ban the cloning of animals?
Of course, before we wring our hands with too much self-righteousness, we should acknowledge one irrefutable truth. Namely, “breeding programs” have always driven horse racing.
For instance, on Friday — the eve of the 2025 Kentucky Derby — the Lexington Herald-Leader of Lexington, Kentucky, published a detailed profile of every entrant into this year’s race. Tellingly, the profile included each horse’s name, betting odds, jockey, trainer, owners, breeder, pedigree, birth date, and racing record.
Journalism, the betting favorite at 3-1, descends from the legendary Curlin. In 2019, Peter Lee of the horse racing magazine Past the Wire ranked Curlin the 12th-best racehorse of the 21st century.
In short, breeding matters.
Nonetheless, one suspects that most readers would acknowledge a substantial difference between breeding and cloning.
Moreover, horse racing already struggles with a dreadful reputation for animal safety. Injuries abound, often resulting in the horse’s euthanization.
Indeed, as of Friday, two of the 20 Derby horses — #4 Rodriguez and #10 Grande — had already scratched due to injury, per the Herald-Leader.
The broader problem, of course, involves cloning in general.
After all, who can read such stories as this without thinking of the “Jurassic Park/World” movie series, which feature (admittedly over-the-top) special effects, as well as cautionary tales about what could happen if scientists and their financial backers ever decided to clone extinct dinosaurs for profit.
In the sarcastic-yet-wise words of Dr. Ian Malcolm (played by actor Jeff Goldblum), who opposed cloning in the inaugural 1993 “Jurassic Park” film, “God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs.”
Now it appears that man has decided to play God with race horses.
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