As has been explained, one of the goals of crossing English Thoroughbreds with Akhal Teke was to create a diversion for the masses in Turkmenia. That idea is not as far-fetched as one might think.

Akhal Teke or Turkoman horses are extremely fast over long distances, but even the so-called "toi-at" were not fast enough over the short racecourse distances to be exciting enough for the (betting) public by the turn of the century. The toi-at (= race horses) were a classic Turkoman work strain mainly used to perform at the quite popular races held whenever the nomads met and feasted, and to represent. Horse racing can be considered to have always been a favourite pastime of the nomads, as was betting.

Given that they inherited many of the traits relevant for short distance racing from their English Thoroughbred ancestors, the crossbred, impure horses of the early 20th century of course did very well on the racecourses of Turkmenia, and did even better when crossed back upon themselves. By the 50ies and 60ies such horses as the mares Makh and Katshakhchy and sires like first Tillyakush and Karlavatsh, then Polotli and Kambar, became racecourse stars, attracting large crowds and major betting. These events clearly helped keep the formerly so independent, bellicose Turkmenian tribes from political reflection and gave the uninitiated the impression of still being - somewhat and somehow - in the possession of their former mainstay: horse.

During the time that the horse institute at Ryasan still maintained the studbook for all Akhal Teke, the concerted effort of Turkmenia's studfarms to produce interesting racehorses for the courses, resulted mainly in the fast and complete spread of the English Thoroughbred infusion within the gene pool, and fixing it in the breed. While there were a few lines bred for their exotic type, the majority were rigorously bred for short distance courses. This can be quite easily traced even in the pedigrees, there are horses where every single ancestor of a 10-generation-pedigree traces back to an English Thoroughbred and the majority of Turkmenian-bred Akhal Teke today averagely have 10-15% English Thoroughbred infusion.

After Glasnost and Perestroyka things got worse yet. The new regime followed the steps of the old and started to meddle with horsebreeding on a big scale. Now often quite high price monies were offered and betting was let off the leash in the hippodromes. President Niyasov decreed the Akhal Teke to become the new national symbol of independent Turkmenia and local horses began to be inscribed into a newly founded Turkmenian studbook of the breed. It did not follow the stringent rules for blood-typing of the Ryasan variant, and soon it became evident, that 50:50 crossbreeds were running on the courses as purebred Akhal Teke. Of course they were quite a bit faster than the horses bred according to Ryasan rules.

The financial gain of that proved to be such an overpowering incentive, that once again hundreds of mares were covered by English Thoroughbred sires, this time however without this even being mentioned in the pedigree. A very few horses still inscribable in the closed Russian studbook made their way to Russia (Polot, Djeichun e.g.), Europe and the USA shortly before the new millennium, but during the past decade the majority of the Turkmenia-bred Teke got wildly mixed, no verifiable records kept. Only a small amount of horses already owned by privateers have been consistently bred within the closed studbook.

Even though the main population of the Akhal Teke in Turkmenia already were highly impure, it is a complete disaster, that now they are lost to the gene pool for good.