Replica Farm, LLC to Display Cloned Sapphire During the WEG

Bedminster, NJ, Replica Farm announced today plans to allow the public to visit the cloned colt of Holsteiner gelding “Sapphire”.

Both the colt “Saphir,” co-owned by Replica Farm, Mark Watring and the Sapphire Partners, and Sapphire will participate in a historical display of cloned horses hosted by ViaGen, Inc. of Austin, Texas. The display will be held in Lexington at the Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center from September 25th through October 10th.

“This is a great opportunity for the public to see what this amazing technology produces,” said Replica Farm owner Kathleen McNulty. “We are very excited to have a colt with Sapphire’s exceptional genetics which proved him as a world class Grand Prix Show Jumper, winning the Gold Medal in the Pan American Games and twice in the Central American Games for rider Mark Watring.” Sapphire also competed in the 2004 Olympic Games and had career earnings of almost $1 million in Grand Prix competitions. When asked what he thinks of the 7 month old colt compared to Sapphire, who is now retired, Mark said “the look in his eye is exactly the same as Sapphire. It’s just like the first time I saw Sapphire, and I knew he was the horse for me.” The rest was history, and they went on to become an incredibly successful team. Mark will be present to sign autographs and answer questions about his cloned colt on October 7th from 10am to 12pm and 4pm to 6pm.

ViaGen, Inc. is the leading producer of cloned horses in the world. Many world class horses have now been cloned as owners realize the value of producing a horse whose genetics have already been proven through competition results. Since Sapphire was gelded at a young age, he was unable to reproduce but now through cloning, his genetic twin Saphir will pass along the same DNA to a new generation of show jumpers. Plans are to stand Saphir at stud as well as compete him in the jumper arena.