Montreal set for retirement at Zangersheide

Zangersheide has an eye on the future. The Belgian studbook has bought the ownership rights to the 21 year-old gelding Montreal at the recent online BVA Auctions and will be heading to Belgium for a well-earned retirement after achieving excellent career results. However, naturally you will be asking yourselves what interest does a studbook have in a gelding who isn’t eligible for reproduction purposes?
The answer to that was thought up by Judy Ann Melchior who wiped out any doubts: the performer will be cloned. Montreal is one of the best performers of its generation and obviously as a gelding cannot be used for reproduction in the natural sense of the word.
This is where a group of genetics specialists come in who will be assisting in the cloning project. It’s worth pointing out that Zangersheide are no strangers to this kind of project. In its history, the Belgian studbook has already cloned a series of performers such as Air Jordan Z, Levisto Z and superstars Chellano and Ratina Z. The clones are then assigned the suffix of “Alpha“ to distinguish them from the original. One of the most recent success stories is Levisto Alpha Z who has burst onto the scene in the Belgian championship in the 4 year-old category by winning it.
However, Zangersheide are not alone. Top Gun Cryozootech was also cloned from the champion performer of Jan Tops, Top Gun. Top Gun Cryozootech has now reached maturity age and is ready to flourish in the role as a reproducer with many breeders interested in his genes, something which Zangersheide intend on doing with Montreal.
source: zangersheide.com