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When the Kentucky Derby winner crosses the finish line in front of160,000 roaring spectators on May 5, there's a good chance it willhave two copies of a gene that makes a horse a sprinter. The so-called speed gene, which several laboratories say determineswhether a horse prefers a short sprint, a marathon or something inbetween, is just one of the genetic markers identified in thesearch for the roots of elite performance in thoroughbreds. Now therace is on among five or six commercial laboratories to convincethoroughbred breeders and buyers that testing for this gene andother markers is the road to the Triple Crown. In the meantime, thegeneticists behind these companies scramble to lay claim to thebest markers for athletic traits. Major thoroughbred farms aresigning up horses for testing, even though some say they're notsure what the results mean. "We don't know what to make of it," says Elliott Walden,president, CEO and racing manager of Winstar Farms in Versailles,Ky. Winstar, the 685-hectare birthplace of 2010 Kentucky Derbywinner Super Saver, is dabbling in genetic testing. "We don'tknow how to evaluate the information. We're still figuring itout." He's not the only one puzzling over these tests, which start ataround $500 per horse. A presumed genetic advantage Equix Biomechanics is a company driven by data. The Lexington, Ky.,concern advises on thoroughbred buying and breeding after gatheringa mountain of data including 36 separate measurements of bone andmuscle groups and a computer analysis of the horse's gait. Operatedby Equix president, J. Todd Stewart, who in his past life performedstatistical arbitrage for hedge funds, and owned by another numbersguy, Gary Knapp, who also came from a career in finance, the firmfeeds its many measurements into a mathematical model that spitsout, theoretically, the perfect horse—one that moves quickly,efficiently and—for those with Triple Crownaspirations—with enough endurance to win the longest of thethree races, the 2.4-kilometer Belmont Stakes. Big Brown, winner ofthe 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, was bred by thenumbers in this formula on Knapp's Monticule Farm in Lexington.Now, the company is adding gene profiles to its analysis. Knapp recently had some of his own horses profiled. "I wasn'tsure of the actual relevance," he says. "There are justso many variables impinging on the relative success of a particularrunner that it's difficult to take one particular variable and say,'That's the key.'" Alongside this growing interest in the emerging genetic field arebeloved traditions of an earlier century—the heavy relianceon pedigree to determine racing quality. Pedigree remains the majorpredictor of a horse's sale price, says geneticist Matthew Binns,of Midway, Ky.–based The Genetic Edge and former professor of genetics at the University of London's Royal Veterinary College.Unfortunately, it is a less capable predictor of performance.People view pedigree as a surrogate for genetics, Binns says,"but there's a very poor correlation between pedigree and DNAdata." Convincing the thoroughbred industry of pedigree's limits will takea revolution. Buyers routinely look back to a horse's 32 great,great, great grandparents when deciding which animal to buy. Binnspoints out that, on average, a great, great, great grandparent cancontribute only about 3 percent of its genes to any individual. Buteven data-loving Knapp is in the sway of pedigree, extending hisown analyses back not just five generations, but to the 128ancestors in generation seven. Pedigree versus genetic testing Trading the pedigree tradition for genetic testing could savethoroughbred buyers money, the gene profiling companies contend.Emmeline Hill, the discoverer of the "speed gene," leadsthe Equine Exercise Genomics Group at University College Dublin inIreland. She is also chairman of the commercial horse geneticslaboratory, Equinome, Ltd., which she co-founded. She says herresearch shows buyers consistently overpay for horses that performpoorly. She evaluated the sale prices of 200 yearlings and comparedthe outlays with the animals ' on-track performance. I am an expert from lipolaser-machines.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Cavitation Slimming Machine , China Laser Tattoo Removal Machine, Lipo Laser Machines,and more.
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