Via International Polo Club Palm Beach
The appearance of Show Me, a cloned polo pony on the Number 1 field at Palermo marks the first for the ancient sport and may be a sign of things to come. Adolfo Show Me carried Cambiaso through half of a chukker, allowing the 10-goaler the opportunity to score a goal while competing against some of the best mounts in the game.
Polo turned to embryo transplants some years ago, shedding generations of selective breeding in an effort to produce the top equestrian athletes in the game, and was an instant success. The investors behind the cloning efforts hope that their business model will be just as successful.
Not everyone, however, sees this as a noble accomplishment as indicated in a comment on Show Me’s arrival in Hurlingham Open and Argentine Open play: “What I find horrendous is that for the first time, a player, Adolfo Cambiaso rode a cloned mare, for many of us, is just outrageous, cloned animals, are just a genetic game, man trying to make the role of God. Genetics can do lots of good to mankind, but clones are just unacceptable, what’s the next step, a human cloned, perhaps Mr. Cambiaso (just a joke). I wish and hope that nobody else will follow his steps. For many polo is just another business, for me is the most beautiful sport that I know and played many years ago. It is too risky and dangerous to apply this genetic technique in animals, years ago when some scientist started, was widely condemned by the Catholic Church and lots of scientists as well.”
Cambiaso has half a dozen clones that were created from some of his top horses that will be coming of age next year, and we can only imagine how it might change the game.
The Thoroughbred industry has made no bones about their reluctance to allow clones to race, but with the growing economic pinch in the horse industry, it might just be a matter of time.
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