The Rise of Polo’s Clone Wars: How Science is Rewriting the Sport

From controversial beginnings to championship victories, cloning is reshaping high-goal polo’s bloodlines and balance of power.

By Business of Polo Editorial Team

In polo, the horses are everything. Players may draw the headlines, but matches are decided by the ponies beneath them. The very best are prized as much as any racehorse, art collection or vintage wine. Which raises the question: what happens when science finds a way to copy them?

The Opening Scene

The grandstands at Palermo, polo’s most prestigious stage, are full. Adolfo Cambiaso, the sport’s defining figure, drives the ball downfield. His mare pivots with uncanny balance, reading the play as if she knows it in advance. The surprise? She is a clone, a genetic double of Cuartetera, perhaps the greatest polo pony of all time.

What once seemed like science fiction has become a fixture of the modern game. Cloning has moved from the laboratory to the final chukkas of polo’s highest tournaments.

The Early Days

Cloning entered polo in the late 2000s, when advances in reproductive science made it possible, though at extraordinary cost, to replicate elite ponies. The breakthrough came with Cuartetera. Her clones did not simply resemble her; they carried her instinct and composure onto the field and delivered under pressure.

It marked a turning point. Retirement, injury or age no longer meant the end of a bloodline. For the first time, greatness could be preserved and multiplied.

Why Polo Embraced Cloning

The logic is simple. Horses decide championships. The rarest ponies combine a trio of qualities:

• Game intelligence, the ability to read play and anticipate the rider

• Physical power, with speed and stamina that last across punishing chukkas

• Proven success, a history of delivering at the very highest level

  
  

Cloning offered a way to replicate that blend with remarkable accuracy.

The Controversy

From the beginning, cloning divided opinion. Critics argue it narrows the gene pool, distorts competition and risks treating living animals as commodities. Traditionalists worry it removes the unpredictability that makes the sport compelling.

Supporters see it as progress. It safeguards extraordinary talent, strengthens bloodlines and gives patrons a reliable foundation for building top strings.

Champions of the Future

Today, clones of Cuartetera, Lapa and other legendary mares are not only playing but winning at the highest level. Some are bred to compete, others to be sold at auction, where their prices sit alongside prime property, rare watches and first-growth Bordeaux.

The contest is no longer limited to the field. It extends to breeding programmes, laboratories and sales rings.

The Legacy in Motion

Within the next decade, it is possible that half the ponies in a Palermo or U.S. Open final will be clones or direct descendants of a small circle of champions. To some, this signals progress. To others, it feels like a warning.

Either way, polo’s future has already been written into its DNA, and more of that DNA than ever before is now coming from a laboratory.

Would you ride a clone in a final? Tell us on Instagram @businessofpolo.