Say you’ve purchased a TB foaled in 2016. The horse is chipped but not tattooed. How is the horse’s identity confirmed? While this may not seem like the biggest issue for a TB being retrained for a sport career, this horse was purchased in large part for its purported breeding. Thoughts?
His identity is confirmed by reading the microchip.
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The vet swipes a machine over the neck, and the machine reads the chip and shows the chip number on the screen. Then I believe you can search in the JC database by number.
@Laurie B@joiedevie99 Sorry, I left out the necessary detail that searching the number yields no results. First search was in the JC database. The null result led me down a long trail of other chip registry searches, all with no results. It appears the chip was never registered.
The U.S. Jockey Club began mandatory microchipping in 2017. In 2016, free microchips were available for TBs and there was about 70% compliance. At that point, physical JC papers were still being used. Starting with foals born in 2018, papers stopped being issued and the registration certificates became digital.
A Tb foaled in 2016 would have an actual set of JC papers. In addition, since the microchips implanted in TBs are obtained from the JC, the vet who implanted it should have (would have?) followed the correct process to sync the chip with the registration number.
I’m assuming the horse also has no Jockey Club papers? If so, what make you think that the horse is a Thoroughbred?
@Laurie B The horse was sold as a TB from a reputable reseller who only deals in TBs. The horse was not conveyed with its JC papers, but it’s been my experience that track rejects aren’t often conveyed with their papers.
If I wanted to confirm the identity of this horse, would I submit DNA to the JC? Or is it doomed to be a mystery?
