I understand the laws governing breeding but how could anyone really know if a horse was cloned or AI..?

Question

does the jockey club send officals to the farms and watch the breeding process

Answer 1

Matings are not videotaped.  Over here in GB whenever a mare is covered a book has to be filled in stating the time, date, name of mare and name of stallion.  The stallion farm keeps one copy, another copy is given to the owner of the mare (once they have paid for the nomination) and the third copy is sent to Weatherbys.  If this paperwork is not received, then the resulting foal will not be allowed to register.

In practical terms you cannot prove a horse was born without the use of AI, most of it is taken on trust.  It si not in the interests of the major studs and farms to break these rules as they will be severely punished.

However, looking at the book sizes of some Irish stallions - metioning no names - it is hard to see how the stallion can physically cover so many mares in one season.  The record for 2006 was 348 mares.  Bear in mind they are only supposed to cover between 15th Feb and 15th July, that works out at an average of 4 mares every day, with no rest!  The conspiracy theorist in me wants to say someone may be breaking the rules!

Answer 2

all matings are videotaped. If there was any dispute over the breeding of a horse, the stud farm would have to produce the video.