Tomatillo (photo courtesy of Biddesden Stud)
Tamarillo, one of William Fox Pitt’s most successful mounts and certainly one of his most engaging, now has a tiny clone to call his own. “Tomatillo” was born on June 20th of this year at Replica Farms in the U.S., where other successful sport horses such as Gem Twist have beenn cloned. Tamarillo was winner of both Badminton and Burgley under WFP and also a long standing member of the British Team, so the hopes for Tomatillo are incredibly high.
The old man himself is still going strong at Biddesden Stud in Hampshire, England. Samantha Clark reported earlier this year on his life as a semi-retired 22 year old champion, and visited the breeding facility. While Tamarillo is not part of the breeding activity, as he is a gelding, part of the job of Tomatillo will be to use his genes as an improvement upon the already fascinating bloodlines at Biddesden. Owners MW & Finn Guinness have bred and owned four generations of mares on Tamarillo’s damline, and the stud has been in operation since 1939.
So, why clone this specific horse? Many exceptitonal competition horses are geldings, due to the fact that they are either more manageable from the start that way, or because they were unintentional superstars. According to the owners, there were several “special merits” that Tamarillo posessed that made him worthy of the expensive and complex process of cloning. From their website, they expressed these qualities:
1. He is a big mover.
2. He is an agile jumper–some people may remember him recovering from tripping in Huntsman’s Close and, on another occasion, finding an extra leg coming out of the Quarry at Badminton.
3. He has superb stamina as his wins in heavy rain and sodden ground at Badminton and Burghley demonstrated.
4. He seemed to find demanding Cross Country courses easy, cantering round the Four Star tracks with ears pricked.
When William Fox Pitt was asked what he thought about the creation of Tomatillo, he responded, “There will be plenty of opinions, I am sure, on whether this is a good or a bad thing. However, this is something that the Guiness’ decided to do for personal reasons, and they will be hopefully able to enjoy keeping the Tamarillo gene alive at their fantastic Biddesden stud.”
