I take it you are not familiar with thoroughbreds.
My wife’s family was in the horse business.
Never owned one. But I do know that there is a movement to allow artificially bred horses to race, breed, and receive registration AI. And it has been going on for many years.
Example, Bruce McHugh, a former chairman of the Sydney Turf Club, says allowing artificially bred horses to race and breed would increase competition because the costs for smaller operators would lower and more horses would be produced, inevitably leading the entry level price for racehorses to drop. Mr. McHughs has taken legal action in the Federal Court against several racing industry bodies, claiming that the refusal to register horses bred via artificial insemination is a restraint of trade and a breach of the Trade Practices Act.
And things are changing from a few directions. AI rules in Quarter Horses, which permit shipment of frozen semen, also allow embryo transfers. Ten years ago, a group of Quarter horse breeders challenged an AQHA rule limiting a mare to conceive just one foal per year, saying the restriction decreased the value of their bloodstock. A judge ruled in their favor, and the AQHA quickly changed the rules to allow mares to produce more than one foal per year via embryo transfer. This is part of the court directed cases heading in now concerning thoroughbreds.
It is obvious to me that the ban and its rulings are based upon money and not the expansion of the sport. And it is designed with these rules to create a bloodline that will make most of the funds and try to create a line of “winners” for many years. Destroys the competitive efforts and can hamper the improvement of the competition.
rwood