Some advocates of the Jockey Club’s rule to limit mares mated per stallion annually to avoid potentially harmful effects from a shrinking genetic pool said they understood the decision to cancel. deregulation February 17 but also said they are concerned because of the threat facing the breed’s health remains.
“I’m not sure about the next step but we still have the problem that the Jockey Club has been trying to solve, which is that there is a serious concern for the breed’s shrinking genetic diversity,” he said. Walker Hancock, president of Claiborne said Farm. “I think it’s worthwhile to continue to have an open conversation with all stakeholders about how we’re going to go about fixing this, which may not be as serious right now, but will be a problem. more serious than the next 20 years if nothing changes.”
Based on much of the support expressed during comment time, the Jockey Club implemented the regulation in May 2020. The limit is in effect for ponies born in 2020 or later and does not apply. for stallions born in 2019 or earlier.
The Jockey Club said in a statement announcing the new regulation: “Regulators carefully considered those comments to develop a rule that promotes genetic diversity and protects the health of the public. longevity of this breed.
Anti-mares argued in a lawsuit filed in February 2021 that the rule change was “arbitrary” and “anti-competitive” and would reduce access or raise prices for with many mares owners wanting access to top stallions. The lawsuit also argues that the rule risks promoting the best stallions abroad because no other country has a purebred book that imposes a limit. The lawsuit was filed in Kentucky by Spendthrift Farm, Ashford Stud (under the name Bemak NV), and Three Chimneys Farm.
The Kentucky General Assembly weighed in on the rule by submitting a House bill on February 14 that prohibits any registrar from limiting the number of mares to be bred each year or from refusing to register any mares. Which pony is based on the number of mares mated. It would also assign the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to “select and use an entity to serve as a registry of Thoroughbreds” and subject to Kentucky’s jurisdiction and its laws. The bill is co-sponsored by Speaker of the House David Osborne, an owner/raider from Prospect, Ky., and Representative Matthew Koch, owner of Shawhan Place near Paris, Ky.
Three days after the bill was submitted, the Jockey Club chose to deregulate.
“It’s going to be a very difficult path down,” said Bill Farish with Lane’s End Farm and a staunch supporter of the rule of law. “There are bigger issues at the moment, such as the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Authority, which could hopefully bring big wins for the industry in the long run for integrity and safety. The Jockey club decided to pursue those issues more instead of going down this road with legislators.
He continued: “There’s a lot of positive going on with racing right now, with its budget structure and desirable pricing and overall sales. “If we can get this going and see HISA run through to the end, a lot of our woes as an industry will be solved. For now, the number of horses. Kentucky studs are down 57% from 30 years ago, and that’s not good economically for the state. I don’t think issues of this kind have ever been discussed by lawmakers.”
Bill Farish
Because the three farms’ lawsuits are still pending, the Jockey Club declined to comment on its decision-making process regarding the regulation of mares limits.
“We note that there is a great deal of information identifying the continued shrinking of the North American Purebred gene pool, much of which has been identified by Jockey Club executive vice president and chief executive officer Matt. Iuliano in his comments in the September 2019 issue of BloodHorse,” said Jim Gagliano, president and chief executive officer of The Jockey Club. “Furthermore, the fact that the gene pool continues to shrink has been further confirmed by more recent research, presented in the study titled ‘Genomic Inbreeding Trends, Breeding Lines’ influence and selectivity in the global Thoroughbred population.'”
Several analyzes of inbreeding have raised concerns about reduced genetic diversity in purebreds.
Bob Losey in an analysis of inbreeding, an increase in inbreeding leads to an increase in genetic quality and exposes the breed to undesirable traits in performance and / or production. co-authored with Dr. Thomas Lambert for the University of Louisville. Using their own scoring system, Losey and Lambert recorded a moderate increase in inbreeding between stallions listed on the BloodHorse Stallion Register between 2000 and 2020.
A 2011 study conducted by Dr. Matthew Binns and Dr. Ernie Bailey showed a marked increase in inbreeding that corresponded with an increase in books with 100 or more mares.
“What’s worrisome is that the increase in inbreeding that we observed there, was not widespread over a 40-year period, but was concentrated in the period following dramatic changes to breeding practices. in the mid-1990s,” the study states.
The study’s conclusions also note that the observed loss of genetic diversity is not excessive but still seeing a sharp increase over a 10-year period is a cause for concern.
The study “Global Inbreeding Trends” cited by Gagliano was published in 2020 by Dr Beatrice McGivney and six other researchers, including Dr Emmeline Hill, whose study identified ” speed gene” myostatin indicates a tendency to sprint or stay. The study looked at the diversity of genetic samples from 10,118 crossbreeds in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan, North America and South Africa between 1970 and 2017.
“In the most comprehensive genetic analysis performed in this population, we show an increase over time in inbreeding and regional variation in the Purebred population,” the study said. globally over the past five decades”. “Expanding the timeline to include the most recent decade using a sample size 20 times larger shows that despite industry awareness of inbreeding and previous warnings, there has been no arrest about the rate of increase in inbreeding and that’s global, a population-wide phenomenon.”
Owner/breeder Carrie Brogden with Machmer Hall said she could see the warning flags when she reviewed the Mares Breeding 2021 Report for North America showing the top 16 stallions by horse count mated female consisting of three times North America’s leading male Into Mischief (214 mares bred), his five sons—Gold Coins (230), Real (229), Realistic jokes (223), Instagram (190), and Can be heard (189), and Into Mischief’s half-brother Mendelssohn (197).
“Into Mischief is 17 years old. What the hell will happen in 10 years?” she asked.
The Standardbred livestock industry was grappling with inbreeding concerns 14 years ago and asked Dr. Gus Cothran of the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Horse Research Center to perform a heterozygous trend analysis. death to the Standardbreds. Heterozygous is the degree of genetic variation associated with a certain trait or trait.
In Standardbreds, the potential for breeders to focus on a narrower group of stallions was increased by the permission of artificial insemination.
“He saw that we were really losing genetic diversity,” said Russell Williams, president of the American Shoe Association and president/CEO of Hanover Shoe Farms. “We have been working with Dr Cothran on the book limit and he warns us to continue monitoring to make sure the limit is appropriate.”
The USTA adopted a limit of 140 mares in 2009. Powered by Cothran research and a potentially troubling trend seen in some horses of certain stallions shows a growing trend. osteomyelitis lesions (commonly referred to as OCD), USTA received acquisitions from according to Williams.
The mares limit was challenged in court and the USTA prevailed because it found the restriction to be a “rule of reason” and not adopted for commercial reasons.
A follow-up genetic study to evaluate the effects of caps is ongoing with results not anticipated for another year.
“I think there will be some revelations from this study but I don’t think we’ll see anything to indicate that we were wrong doing what we did,” Williams said. “We’ll see when we get the final report, but if I have any concerns right now it could be that our numbers (the limit) are too high.”
Bob Brady, owner of Kentuckiana Farms near Lexington, co-owner of the Horse of the Year Test Of Faith in 2021, said stall and mare owners have long adapted the mare’s hat and he believes the breed is better for it.
“We’re backing ourselves into a corner,” he said. “I think this hat has opened up some avenues for other stallions to have a chance to join the stallion. We also have a semen line from Europe, which will greatly expand the genetic base. our tradition, so I think the goal has been reached. We know the limited mares is a move in the right direction and it has essentially had very little impact on our operations.”
