Received: 2018-05-29 | Accepted: 2018-05-29 | Available online: 2018-11-26 https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2018.21.04.169-172 Lipizzan horse breed was founded in 1580 in Lipica and introduced to Croatia in 1800 by earl Andrija Jankovich- Besan. Earl Jankovich founded stallion bloodline Tulip and mare families Czirka, Ercel, Traviata, Margit, Manczi and 502 Moszgo Perla. Herd books showed that South African Lipizzan population is based on Czirka and Ercel mare families that are originally Croatian thus provided potential genetic enrichment of Croatian Lipizzan gene pool. In this study a 648 bp mitochondrial DNA fragment from 50 South African Republic Lipizzan horses was analysed and 249 sequences from Cacic doctoral thesis was retrieved. Mitochondrial DNA analysis of South African Lipizzan horses and their comparison with Croatian Lipizzan horses present that South African Lipizzan horses have five unique haplotypes but still maintain connection with Croatian Lipizzan by sharing a haplotype. Future analysis with high throughput genetic marker such as SNP or WGS will surely provide interesting results. References Aberle, K. S., Hamann, H., Drogemuller , C., Distl, O. (2007) Phylogenetic relationships of German heavy draught horse breeds inferred from mitochondrial DNA D‐loop variation. Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics, 124 (2), 94-100. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0388.2007.00636.x Bandelt, H., Forster, P., Rohl, A. (1999) Median-joining networks for inferring intraspecific phylogenies. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 16 (1), 37-48. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a026036 Cacic, M. (2011) Geneticka analiza lipicanaca u Hrvatskoj. Doktorska disertacija. Zagreb: Sveuciliste u Zagrebu, Agronomski fakultet. Cacic, M., Tadic, D., Korabi, N., Mlađenovic, M., Cabrajec, M., Matasovic, M., Ljubesic, J., Baban, M., Rastija, T., Prvanovic N. (2008) Brojno stanje, uzgojna analiza i organiziranost uzgoja lipicanaca u Republici Hrvatskoj. 2. Hrvatski simpozij o lipicanskoj pasmini – s međunarodnim sudjelovanjem, Đakovo. Dalglish, M. (2011) Lipizzaner stallions, a cavalry officer & his girls. A history of the South African Lipizzaner Team. Kyalami. Jankovich-Besan, S. (2010) The flight of the Lipizzaners. Wandsbeck. South Africa. Librado, P., Rozas, J. (2009) DnaSP v5: a soft ware for comprehensive analysis of DNA polymorphism data. Bioinformatics, 25, 1451-1452. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btp187 Lipizzan International Federation (2009) Conditions of origin of the pure bred Lipizzaner. Lipizzan South African Center, Breeding books. McWilliam, H., Li, W., Uludag, M., Squizzato, S., Park, Y. M., Buso, N., Cowley, A. P., Lopez, R. (2013) Analysis Tool Web Services from the EMBL-EBI. Nucleic acids research, 41, 597-600. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkt376 Spanish Riding School – Federal Stud Piber (2010) Studbook on the Origins of the Lipizzaner Breed. [Online] Piber, Austria. Available at: http://docplayer.net/amp/48020873-Studbook-on-the-origins-of-the-lipizzaner-breed.html . [Accessed 21 July 2018]. Steinhausz, M. (1924) Lipicanac. Postanak i gojidbena izgradnja pasmine. Zagreb: Gospodarska knjižnica. Xu, X. and Arnason, U. (1994) The complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of the horse, Equus caballus: extensive heteroplasmy of the control region. Gene, 148, 357-362. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0378-1119(94)90713-7