It may not fit the conventional norms of international industry, but horse racing is nevertheless a multibillion-rand earner for South Africa.
Key to the industry are the horses — the thoroughbreds that make up the thriving bloodstock industry — and the stud farmers who breed them.
While aiming to produce horses of the quality of world-renowned Horse Chestnut, the Thoroughbred Breeders Association, in association with the Jockey Club of Southern Africa, is developing a global reputation for quality performance horses and breeding stock.
The jockey club is the keeper of the Stud Book and oversees and regulates the industry in South Africa. However, it is only recently that a foolproof process of identification and verification of horses and horse parentage has been developed.
Until 1999 methods of identification being used by breeders to record the births and parentage of their horses were very much a hit and miss affair.
For a start, each breeder would use his or her own method of identification. The only standard in use was a form depicting line drawings of a horse from each angle, on which breeders would record by hand the position and colour of distinguishing markings.
On the form breeders would also record the sire (father) and dam (mother) of the foal, and a schedule of the covering of the dam by the sire would be produced to verify this.
This system was far from ideal and did not take account of human error and natural occurrences such as changelings — foals born, usually in an outdoor environment such as a field, where the mothers literally swop the offspring shortly after birth.
The manual system also left loopholes that could be used by unscrupulous people in the industry to produce ‘ringers” — animals presented as a particular horse that are almost identical in appearance but are, in fact, imposters.
In 2000 the the University of Pretoria’s Equine Research Centre at Onderstepoort began work on a project to develop and implement a safe and easy method of identifying and verifying horse identity and parentage.
With the jockey club as its industry partner, the project, under the leadership of Professor Alan Guthrie, received funding from the Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme and, in three short years, has managed to fulfil its mandate. In the process it has standardised the method of horse identification in the country.
The centre’s horse identification and parentage system is a fool- proof method of proving a horse’s identity and lineage and, despite its technicalities, is remarkably simple and easy to use.
So easy that the team was able to achieve 100% verification of the 2002 foal crop, compared to the dark days of 1998’s foal crop, when only 30% of the foals produced were verified.
The project’s computerised data capture system and laboratory information and management system closes the loopholes that existed in the manual method of identification.
A team consisting of four people visits stud farms in South Africa and Zimbabwe. This team includes veterinarians, technical staff and students. Each stud farm is visited before April each year. This is because foals are not weaned early in the year and are still stabled with their mothers, making the task of recording them a lot easier.
There are about 450 farms to cover, says project manager Dr Cindy Harper, each producing anywhere between one and 130 foals a year.
The process used to record the foal crop is straightforward. First, foal identification forms are completed and are placed in the ‘passport” of each mare. The passport is literally that — a document that records the horse’s movements from birth to death.
On the farm, the team identifies the mare from her passport and blood samples are collected for DNA typing if this has not been done previously.
Blood samples are also collected from the foal, and an area midway along the crest of the neck is shaved on the left side and prepared for the insertion of a microchip. Once inserted the completed foal identification form is checked for mistakes and for compliance with the standardised system. Blood samples are given to another team member who labels the tubes with pre-printed barcoded labels.
The blood samples from the mare and foal, as well as the barcoded microchip labels and form label are attached to the foal identification form in appropriate places. A copy of the form is kept for reference. Blood sample labels are placed in the passport of the mare and it is signed.
A palmtop computer with built-in scanner is used to capture all the relevant data, including colour, sex, date of birth, sire and dam names and sample and chip numbers. This field data is transferred to a database each evening and all data is checked against the forms.
The blood samples collected include two samples for DNA typing and one for a serum bank held at the Equine Research Centre for epidemiological studies.
The two DNA typing samples are split on the farm and one set is analysed on return to the laboratory while the other is frozen as a back-up.
All stallions and imported animals are also DNA typed. The samples for DNA typing are returned to Onderstepoort where they are processed at the centre’s genetics laboratory.
Most of the technical expertise in the laboratory was developed in collaboration with the University of California, Davis. The DNA typing technology used in the laboratory was developed to its current level during the course of the project.
A set of 12 micro satellite markers is used to create a DNA profile of each horse. The data analysis is done on a capillary-based genetic analyser and computer affectionately nicknamed ‘Horse Chestnut” because, as Harper points out, it is just as precious as its namesake. The software is also used by the university.
The genetic profiles are unique to each horse and are inherited from its parents. They are, therefore, used to verify the parentage of the horse.
This verification is now a condition of registration for all thoroughbred horses registered with the jockey club according to International Stud Book rules.
More than 12 000 profiles are currently stored in the database at the Equine Research Centre and no duplicate profiles exist thus far.
Parentage verification is done with a locally developed programme and data is transferred electronically to the jockey club.
The database enables team members to identify horses and verify identification at the touch of a button.
In some cases, says Guthrie, the system has thrown up some marvellous cases of mistaken identity, even to the point of breeders erring on the sex of a foal.
‘The old manual method of identifying a foal’s sex was literally to lift up its tail and check,” Guthrie explains. ‘Under the old system a breeder was often in a hurry to get through the process of manually recording his foal crop, so tails would be lifted, but too swift a look taken, with the result that a foal would get a sex change on paper.
‘With our new system it is virtually impossible to get it wrong, as the DNA analysis highlights the sex of the animal immediately. We have had to make several phone calls to very embarrassed breeders to tell them they have made a bit of a boob!”
Which all goes to highlight the other important role of the project — to train the industry and all of its stakeholders in horse identification and thereby achieve standardisation across the board.
As Guthrie explains, the stud farmers have helped to make the project a success by accepting the training and standards imposed and supporting the project from the ground up.
‘We have trained everyone, from farmers in the field to the jockey club executive, no one has been left out. Even the deputy general manager in charge of racing administration, Colin Hall, has donned overalls and gumboots to learn how to identify foals,” says Guthrie.
And the quality of thoroughbred passports has improved remarkably as a result.
‘South African horse passports are almost all standard in appearance and internationally acceptable. They include the microchip numbers of the horses, making positive identification of the animals quick and simple at the racetrack as well as at sales,” says Harper.
And now all horses are scanned on race days so that punters can be sure they are betting on the right horses.
As Hall points out, the system has made South Africa a world leader in the identification of thoroughbred horses.
‘South Africa is also the only country to actually employ a team of impartial, qualified vets to undertake the identification and data management process,” says Hall, adding that Australia is moving towards a similar system, and that the United Kingdom began to implement a microchip-based system shortly after the South African project was launched.
‘Previously there was always a question mark over a horse’s identity, now there is no question whatsoever, as we are able to verify identity and parentage 100%,” says Hall.
‘This achievement is due in large part to the cooperation and support of the breeders, who are now enjoying the benefit of a system which has enhanced the integrity of our thoroughbred bloodstock industry worldwide.”