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Why Horse Semen Is The World’s Most Expensive Liquid | So Expensive
Why Horse Semen Is The World’s Most Expensive Liquid | So Expensive
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0:01
Tullis Matson: OK.
0:03
Narrator: Depending on the stallion,
0:04
horse semen is one of the most expensive liquids
0:07
on the planet.
0:09
Matson: Thinking about it.
0:10
Thinking about it again.
0:11
Starting to draw.
0:12
Yeah, OK. You can wash that.
0:15
Good boy.
0:17
OK?
0:18
Grab that rein inside, Josh.
0:24
Got him?
0:28
[horse snorting]
0:30
Let's hold it there.
0:37
So, we collected about 80 mils,
0:40
and this is gonna be worth
0:40
in excess of $100,000.
0:43
Narrator: That means that a gallon
0:44
of this horse's semen
0:46
is worth $4.7 million.
0:49
And that's nowhere near the most expensive.
0:51
[horse whinnying]
0:56
Once it's collected, horse semen can be separated
0:59
and sold in small tubes called straws.
1:02
Matson: One of these straws is worth about $1,200.
1:05
We're putting about 150 million
1:08
to 200 million sperm cells
1:10
in each individual straw.
1:11
Big Star's produced about 60 or 70 of them here.
1:15
Narrator: Super-fertile stallions like Big Star
1:17
can ejaculate once a day.
1:19
Theoretically, this means he could produce
1:22
over $20 million worth of semen
1:24
during an eight-month stud season.
1:26
And if a stallion's semen is high quality,
1:29
it can be frozen in straws for future use.
1:32
Matson: So, in this room is the heart
1:34
of really Stallion AI Services.
1:36
This room's built like actually
1:38
a nuclear bunker in here.
1:39
This is where all the semen is now kept.
1:41
We've got hundreds and hundreds of thousands
1:44
of straws in here.
1:44
We've got over 1,200 different stallions.
1:47
So, in here, stored at minus 196 degrees,
1:50
is hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of semen
1:53
ready to be used to inseminate mares.
1:56
Narrator: In the horse-breeding world,
1:58
genetics is king.
2:00
Wealthy investors are willing to pay high prices
2:03
for proven winners' semen,
2:04
hoping that the resulting foal
2:06
provides a large return on investment.
2:08
Matson: Big Star is one of the most prolific
2:10
show jumpers of all time.
2:11
He's a double-gold-medal-winning stallion,
2:14
which, there's very few of them out there.
2:15
He's got the perfect genetics, really,
2:17
to go on to show jumping.
2:18
So you mix that with
2:20
another genetic line on the female side
2:22
and cross those two together.
2:23
You can pay $1,200 for a single straw,
2:26
you can have a foal,
2:27
and maybe three or four years later,
2:29
you can sell that foal for sometimes $100,000.
2:32
In Big Star's case, he's hit those bells.
2:34
He had the highest-price foal in the UK,
2:37
and that sold for in excess of $100,000.
2:40
Narrator: Even though most stud farms
2:41
offer guarantees on producing a live foal,
2:44
commercial and competitive success
2:46
is still a gamble, even with strong genetics.
2:50
In fact, the bloodline of all stallion horses
2:52
is closer than you might think.
2:55
According to an international team of scientists
2:58
who studied the Y chromosomes
2:59
of 52 horses from 21 breeds,
3:03
practically all modern horses
3:04
descended from just a few original stallions,
3:08
from carriage horses hauling tourists in the streets
3:11
right through to champion racehorses like Galileo,
3:14
the world's most expensive sire.
3:16
Even more surprisingly,
3:18
95% of all thoroughbred racehorses, like him,
3:22
can be traced back to just a handful of ancestors,
3:25
who are all linked to one single superstud:
3:28
the Darley Arabian, born in 1700.
3:33
But the value of thoroughbred semen
3:34
is a little harder to quantify,
3:36
since breeding must occur naturally for racehorses.
3:39
Matson: In the sport-horse world, we're very lucky.
3:41
We can use artificial insemination
3:43
to breed our mares with,
3:44
as opposed to the thoroughbred world,
3:46
everything's got to be done naturally.
3:47
They've got to literally cover the mare naturally.
3:49
Their concern with their gene pool,
3:51
if they would allow AI into the thoroughbred world,
3:54
it would mean the gene pool would shrink
3:55
because one horse could then
3:57
cover thousands of mares.
3:59
Narrator: And anyone wishing to naturally
4:01
cover their mare with Galileo
4:03
needs serious financial backing.
4:05
Even though his price is listed as private,
4:08
it's widely reported that his stud fee
4:10
sits at around $650,000,
4:13
comfortably the world's highest.
4:15
But because thoroughbred horses must be bred naturally,
4:18
and therefore a collection of sperm cannot be purchased,
4:21
equating the cost of Galileo's semen
4:23
requires some extrapolation.
4:26
Assuming that during the course of a natural covering,
4:29
Galileo ejaculates the average of 50 mil of semen,
4:32
and assuming that the semen is high-enough quality
4:35
to impregnate a mare successfully,
4:37
and assuming that a breeder paid
4:38
$650,000 for that service,
4:41
then we can deduce that a gallon of Galileo's semen
4:44
could be worth a whopping $49 million,
4:48
making it the most expensive liquid on earth.
4:52
But is it worth it?
4:54
Matson: Like anything, there's a lot of work,
4:55
there's a lot of luck in it.
4:57
But you've got to make your luck,
4:58
and you've gotta start off with the right genetics.
5:00
The chances, obviously, you need to breed a lot
5:02
to get that particular horse,
5:04
but with the right genetics,
5:06
you've got a much better chance.
5:08
Narrator: Galileo's position as the top sire
5:10
is cemented by the achievements of his offspring.
5:14
He has sired no less than 84 winners,
5:17
including Frankel,
5:18
who himself has now been put to stud,
5:20
commanding the second-highest stud fee in the UK
5:23
of around $220,000.
5:26
In turn, he has sired a further 10 winners.
5:29
Like father, like son.
5:32
Despite generally being safer
5:34
for both stallion and mare,
5:36
artificial insemination is criticized
5:38
for its ethics around science and nature.
5:41
But the analysis of thoroughbred-racehorse genetics
5:44
has added to the controversy surrounding horse breeding.
5:47
Roughly 10% experience orthopedic problems,
5:50
and the majority suffer exercise-induced
5:52
bleeding in the lungs.
5:55
PETA investigators captured video
5:57
from inside the breeding barns at Darley in Kentucky,
6:01
one of the world's most expensive
6:02
thoroughbred-breeding facilities,
6:04
where stallions were goaded to cover
6:06
more than 100 mares each in a breeding season.
6:09
Some thoroughbreds were even sold for slaughter
6:12
at a horse meat market.
6:15
With so much money to be made in racing,
6:17
show jumping, dressage, and more,
6:19
the price of horse semen will remain stable.
Why Horse Semen Is The World’s Most Expensive Liquid | So Expensive - Video học tiếng Anh
