Half-bred racing divides Akyel breeders

TALAS — Horses from the Ak-Tilek Ranch took two of the half-bred races at the Irad State Hippodrome on Sunday, and their success has revived an argument among breeders of the Akyel, Irad's golden riding horse, about whether its blood should be mixed at all.

The ranch, in the lower Talas valley in Kara-Buura District, was founded in 2009 and crosses Akyel mares with imported Thoroughbred stallions to breed horses for flat racing and sport riding. Its crossbreds cannot be entered in the National Akyel Studbook, which registers only purebred Akyels, and they race in the Hippodrome's half-bred classes.

Some Akyel breeders call the crossing a threat to the breed's purity. "The Akyel is not a racehorse to be improved. It is two thousand years of the Fergana horse," said Joomart Tilekmatov, who breeds Akyels near Talas. "Every good mare sent to a Thoroughbred is a mare lost to the breed."

The ranch says the opposite. "Buyers who would never look at a pure Akyel come to us for speed, then ask about the mares," said Bakyt Turdaliev, its manager. "Our horses keep Akyel bloodlines in demand." The ranch's purebred mares remain registered in the studbook, he said.