Equinome, a company founded on research conducted at University College Dublin, just announced their new test to predict how horses will perform for racing. Testing will cost 1000 Euros per horse tested. Equinome’s test looks at the gene responsible for muscle mass development.
Muscle growth is governed by myostatin, a protein that determines whether an animal has compact muscles tuned for rapid sprints or a leaner body suited for endurance. There are three possible combination at this specific genetic marker. This test is not designed to identify how good a horse is likely to be, but rather what it will be good at.
According to Equinome, the three genetic combination that are possible are C:C, C:T and T:T. A C:C horse is likely to be a fast, early maturing horse that performs well as a two-year-old, while a C:T horse has a mixture of speed and stamina and is the most versatile in terms of distance, and a T:T horse is best suited to races greater than 1 mile that require stamina.
Horse Genome Project coordinator Ernest Bailey of the University of Kentucky, Lexington stated that breeders have adopted genetic tests for paternity, coat color, and diseases but that performance prediction is new ground.
