One of the best jumping stallions ever bred in Ireland has been cloned.

'Cruising' won Grand Prix all over Europe and jumped on winning Nations Cups teams for Ireland in the late 1990s.

He also sired some world famous horses – including world famous show jumper Flexible, event horse Mr Medicott and Irish Olympic horse Electric Cruise among numerous other top level horses.

In 2012 Cruising was cloned by Mary McCann, Cruising's owner and the owner of Hartwell Stud in Co Kildare.

DNA extracted from Cruising in 2011 was inserted into eggs and the embryos were then implanted in surrogate mares.

“The foals were actually born in 2012 so they’ve really been in hiding since then,” Caitriona Murphy of the Irish Field said.

“Mary McCann and her family in Hartwell Stud set about the cloning process in 2011 and these two foals were born in 2012 ... but they never revealed them in public even though they have, I suppose, been hidden in plain sight because they’ve been grazing in a field in Co Kildare for the last almost three years.”

Cruising died last year, aged 29.

Full details of the story, including what future prospects there may be for the cloned horses, will be in tomorrow's Irish Field.