Cloned mules headed for racetrack? You bet
After helping with a bit of cancer research, a pair of cloned mules from the University of Idaho are heading to the racetrack.
Idaho Gem, the world’s first successfully cloned member of the horse family, will be joined by his genetic photocopy of a brother, Idaho Star, in competition at the nation’s premier mule races. The two have been approved to race at a weekend-long event in early June in Winnemucca, Nev.
Their race debut will mark the first time a cloned animal will participate in an athletic competition, said Bill Loftus, science writer with the University of Idaho. The Winnemucca race, which begins June 2, is considered the first leg of mule racing’s triple crown. Additional races will follow in California.
Idaho Gem and Idaho Star are in training at separate facilities in California. Their separation is meant, in part, to test how different trainers can influence what is essentially the same animal.
“It’s going to be the nature versus nurture debate settled on a track,” Loftus said.
The two animals will race in the same bracket because of their age (3 years), but there’s no guarantee they’ll face each other in the first round, said Kate Snider, spokeswoman for the Mule Racing Association.
However, if both make it to the finals the brothers will add a new dimension to the race, she said of the event that usually draws no more than 2,000 people.
Post Falls resident Don Jacklin, president of the American Mule Racing Association, leased Gem. The association’s vice president, Roger Downey, from Albuquerque, leased Star. Jacklin has been a longtime backer of the University of Idaho’s program to clone mules.
Although the race is causing considerable buzz on the University of Idaho campus in Moscow – photos of the mules even grace baseball-like trading cards – the animals weren’t created for amusement. Gordon Woods, team leader for Project Idaho and director of the Northwest Equine Reproduction Laboratory in Moscow, cloned the animals as part of his research to identify how calcium levels are regulated in cells. Calcium levels play a role in certain cancers and adult-onset illnesses, including diabetes.
Gem, Star and another brother mule, Utah Pioneer, were created three years ago using the same genetic material from the skin cells of a mule fetus. The DNA from the skin cells was injected into the egg of a female horse, then fertilized with a spark of electricity. The resulting embryos were implanted in different horse mothers.
Although the three mules are exact copies, they each have distinct personalities.
“Gem is the showboat. He loves cameras; he loves people; he loves to show off,” Loftus said. “Star is probably the friendliest. He likes people, will come over and nuzzle you. He’s just a good soul. Utah is the most aloof and reserved.”
The clones have all developed into healthy, “completely normal” mules, Loftus said. “They just got their start a little different.”
Utah Pioneer is not racing this season. He remains in Idaho. Loftus said several scientists from the University of Idaho will be traveling to Nevada in June to watch the races.
“Every race is going to tell us something more about their character,” Loftus said, adding that he suspects the cloned mules have a shot at winning. “My gut feeling is they’re going to be serious competitors.”