Here Come The Clones!

There was an interesting item in the paper yesterday ("Bettors Nightmare: 2 Identical Mules" - no link, however) regarding a mule race, soon to be held in Winnemucca, NV, between Idaho Gem and Idaho Star, mules who have not just similar names, are not simply related, but are actually clones of each other. It sounds like a fascinating experiment to decouple the nature-vs.-nurture debate, and just look at the nuture part.

Idaho Gem was the first animal from the horse family cloned and his brother, Idaho Star, was the third. Both were born three years ago and carry identical DNA taken from a fetus produced by the same parents that sired a champion mule racer named Taz.

For my part, I'm rooting for Idaho Gem, although I'm hard-pressed to say why, exactly. Maybe it's because:

Idaho Gem bolted and ran over his trainer's foot when a helicopter flew nearby. Star remained calm.