One talking point from the recent World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) young horse eventing championships at Le Lion d’Angers were the top-10 results by a pair of Chilli Morning clones in the seven-year-old final.
The winner was Chilli Morning VI ridden by Gemma Stevens, while in sixth place was the second clone at this year’s championships: Chilli Morning 4, competed by Julia Krajewski (GER).
Both clones were bred by Christopher and Lisa Stone, the owners of Chilli Morning, the Berlin-Branderburg stallion that competed at the Rio Olympics and 2014 World Equestrian Games with William Fox-Pitt. See Chilli Morning’s results here. Chilli Morning was the first stallion to win Badminton CCI5*-L (2015).
This is the second time that one of Fox-Pitt’s five-star winning horses has been cloned. The other is Tamarillo, bred on Anglo-Arabian lines and a winner at Badminton (2004) and Burghley (2007).
Clones are not a new phenomenom in the sport horse world. Several of the top Olympic, championship and World Cup performers have been cloned, including Arko III, Calvaro V, E.T FRH, Gem Twist, Quidam de Revel and Ratina Z in show jumping and in dressage [Broere Jazz](https://www.hippomundo.com/en/pedigree/performance/8835-broere-jazz and Rusty.
Two Irish team horses - Cruising and Pacino were also cloned.
Under FEI rules, clones are permitted to compete and several leading sport horse studbooks, such as the BWP, Holsteiner Verband, Irish Sport Horse, KWPN and of course Zangersheide, one of the techniques pioneers, accept clones.
Have any clones matched the competition or breeding shed success of the original? It would be fair to say not yet, however the Chilli Morning clones will be closely watched by eventing breeding fans to see if they emulate the results of Chilli Morning, whose rider Fox-Pitt announced his own retirement from the sport this year.
