Clones Fail to "Kick Ass"

It was nature vs nuture in Winnemuca, Nevada yesterday...and nature prevailed. It wasn't even close. The two cloned mules, first ever to race, and genetically identical to each other, finished third and seventh in an eight-mule race yesterday.

(See yesterday's post for more on this story.)

Wait a minute. Maybe the story here is that there were eight mules entered in one race at all. Around here, eight horses entered in a race would be big crowd.

Mule clones: But do their feet match?

No two alike: Australian riders raced mules at Gaza (then part of Egypt) in a military post entertainment during World War II. Taken in 1942 by Dvr Tom Beazley. Photo courtesy of AussieJeff. 

The news this morning is about the two three-year-old racing mule clones who ran for the first time yesterday in Winnemuca, Nevada.

It seems each won his qualifying heat, and now the two will race each other in the final heat today. Or race himself--that might be more accurate.

I'm not sure I really care who wins (does it really matter? is this an exercise in equine existentialism?) but I would like to see the right front foot on each of them, to see if they developed the same. Could you pull a racing plate off one (if indeed racing mules are even shod) and nail it right onto the other?