A rare 3-year-old thoroughbred colt named Koda Chrome drew plenty of attention when he made his debut at Belterra Park on Thursday. There are only two known lines of the “Frame Overo” gene in the thoroughbred breed and he has inherited it.
Frame overo markings include eye-catching white patches, and often a white face accompanied by one or two blue eyes. The amount of white on a frame overo horse or pony can be highly variable, from a very discrete patch of white on the belly all the way up to majority white coat colors. The ‘frame’ part of the frame overo name refers to fact that markings on the main body rarely if ever cross the spine, so if you squint a bit you can almost imagine the body colour making a darker “frame” around the white markings when viewed from side on.
The colt which is officially registered with the Jockey Club as a Dark Bay or Brown colored horse, is owned and bred by Karen Babcock of Echo Hill Farm in Louisville, Kentucky.
Trained by Tom Drury, Koda Chrome was making his career debut and finished third after contesting the pace under jockey Corey Orm. His sire Blue Eyed Streaker stands at Echo Hill Farm and also possesses the frame overo gene.
According to Babcock, “The last frame overo to make it to the races was Tri Chrome who was trained by Jack Van Berg and ridden by Gary Stevens. Both he and Blue Eyed Streaker were sons of a stallion named Blue Gazi.” Babcock says her eye-catching colt may return to race at Belterra in three weeks.