May 24, 2006 08:00 AM UTC

Race of the Cloned Mules

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• by: Colorado Pols

Sure, Rep. Diana DeGette’s work on getting funds for stem cell research is worthy of discussion, but that’s not the only interesting thing about genetic research. You know what else is cool? Cloned Mule Races, that’s what!

Check out this story from the Associated Press. Sure, it has nothing to do with Colorado politics, but it’s a race between cloned mules, for crying out loud.

In a low-stakes mule race in a remote corner of the West, nature versus nurture will be put to the test as two of the horse family?s earliest clones challenge naturally bred runners next month in Nevada. It?s not exactly the Kentucky Derby, but two cloned mules named Idaho Star and Idaho Gem will compete in a professional mule race in Winnemucca, Nev., where the professional mule racing season begins.

Idaho Star was the first animal from the horse family cloned, and his brother, Idaho Gem, was the third. Both were born three years ago and carry identical DNA taken from a fetus produced by the same parents that sired a champion mule racer named Taz. Because Gem and Star have been separated for two years and trained separately, watching how they perform against each other will offer insight into the role played by environmental variables, such diet and training regimens, in developing racing mules.

Though the jokes about the two clones finishing in a dead heat are legion, no one is expecting a tie. And just because they carry the DNA of a past champion, there?s no guarantee the clones will be successful.