MADAM,

The spookiest event this Halloween happened a week early. At Le Mondial du Lion, the world championship for young event horses, two clones - Chilli Morning II (ridden by Germany’s Julia Krajewski) and Chilli Morning IV (ridden by Britain’s Gemma Stevens) - finished in joint-second after dressage on exactly the same mark: 26.2.

It seems entirely possible that, if the third Chilli Morning clone (named Chilli Morning III) had been competing with China’s Alex Hua Tian, that partnership might have made it a three-way split for second place on the leaderboard. Eventually, it was Gemma Stevens who prevailed in the seven-year-old class, finishing on that amazing dressage score, with Julia Krajewski finishing a little further down with a few time faults on both cross-country and show jumping, as well as an unlucky pole down.

What in the world do breeders think about this? And equestrian sport and regulatory bodies? And John Magnier?

The scientific dimension is fascinating, but so is the ethical one. Tomorrow’s world may contain half a dozen Vladimir Putin clones. Or, for that matter, Elon Musk clones. Quite conceivable.

Yours etc,

Dr JP Simpson

Somerville Stud,

Co Meath