根据2012年1月24日发表在《自然-通讯》期刊上的一篇研究论文，与今天的纯种赛马速度相关联的一个基因能够被追溯到大约300百年前生活的一种英国母马(British mare)。
这种基因，是很多物种中涉及肌肉质量发育的肌肉生长抑制素(myostatin)的变异体，而且还显示它能被用来预测马的速度和耐力。比如，两份C型变异体(C-type variant)拷贝可能导致马在短程比赛中奔跑得比较快，因而对于现在常见的短程冲刺赛(sprint race)而言是比较理想的。其他的T型变异体更加适合于耐力，允许马在长程比赛中奔跑得更快。
研究人员研究了593匹死着和活着的马的遗传和谱系，最终追踪C型变异体到单匹母马上。尽管在十八世纪和十九世纪，携带C型变异体的马仍然比较罕见，但是通过培育两种知名的父子马Nearctic和Northern Dancer，在二十世纪五十、六十和七十年代它们被广泛繁殖。(生物谷：towersimper编译)
doi:10.1038/ncomms1644
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PMID:
The genetic origin and history of speed in the Thoroughbred racehorse
Mim A. Bower, Beatrice A. McGivney, Michael G. Campana, Jingjing Gu, Lisa S. Andersson, Elizabeth Barrett, Catherine R. Davis, Sofia Mikko, Frauke Stock, Valery Voronkova, Daniel G. Bradley, Alan G. Fahey, Gabriella Lindgren, David E. MacHugh, Galina Sulimova & Emmeline W. Hill
Selective breeding for speed in the racehorse has resulted in an unusually high frequency of the C-variant (g.66493737C/T) at the myostatin gene (MSTN) in cohorts of the Thoroughbred horse population that are best suited to sprint racing. Here we show using a combination of molecular- and pedigree-based approaches in 593 horses from 22 Eurasian and North-American horse populations, museum specimens from 12 historically important Thoroughbred stallions (b.1764–1930), 330 elite-performing modern Thoroughbreds and 42 samples from three other equid species that the T-allele was ancestral and there was a single introduction of the C-allele at the foundation stages of the Thoroughbred from a British-native mare. Furthermore, we show that although the C-allele was rare among the celebrated racehorses of the 18th and 19th centuries, it has proliferated recently in the population via the stallion Nearctic (b.1954), the sire of the most influential stallion of modern time, Northern Dancer (b.1961).
