The French company Cryozootech announced this week that they have successfully produced a clone of Jan Tops’ famous show jumper Top Gun La Silla.
From 1991 to 1998, Top Gun La Silla won multiple international grand prix classes with Tops in the irons, including an Olympic medal for the Dutch team. Previously, the 1982 Hanoverian gelding spent time in the stables of Paul Shockemohle, Nick Skelton and Alfonso Romo. The gelding was retired to Tops’ farm in 1999 and passed away in 2005.
Eric Palmer, CEO of Cryozootech, banked the gelding’s genes in 2002 and began attempting to clone the horse in 2006. After three years of cloning attempts and a year of pregnancy, a clone was successfully produced on March 16.
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The clone, Top Gun Cryozootech, is a black colt with four socks and a blaze, whereas the original Top Gun had three socks and a star connected to a narrow blaze.
The colt is currently living in the United States with his dam.
