The Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah mare Basilisk is perhaps one of the best known mares imported by Lady Anne and Wilfrid Blunt from the desert. The line produced important horses early on such as the stallions Berk (Seyal x Bukra, out of Bozra, out of Basilisk) and Ibn Mahruss (Mahruss x Bushra, out of Bozra, out of Basilik). Thanks for the efforts and foresight of Carl Raswan and Richard Priztlaff, the Saqlawi Jadran tail female line to Basilisk survives in US asil breeding through the mare Rabanna (Rasik x Banna by Nasr) and her progeny. This line thrived during the second half of the twentieth century, and acquired a certain degree of notoriety, but has been dwindling steadily during the past ten years, as many breeders stopping breeding their mares. What most people are not aware of, is that there is another asil line to Basilisk in American breeding. It’s fleeting but it’s still there, miraculously. That’s the line of Basilisk through the mare Slipper (Yima x Sabot by *Euphrates), and her daughter Peraga (by *Mirage), both foundation mares in early American breeding (both asil and non asil). If you like to learn more about this line, you may want to read Michael Bowling’s article…
Oregon breeder Joan DeVour recently circulated this picture of the beautiful black stallion El Reata Juan (Julyan x Mist Aana by Hallany Mistanny), a 1968 black Dahman Shahwan of old US Egyptian lines, with the particularity of being one of the handful of stallions to still carry the prized Mesaoud sire-line through his grandsire Julep (Gulastra x Aziza). El Reata Juan was a popular sire of blacks and dark bays. Indeed, many asil mares that would otherwise have been bred to non-asil stallions have been bred to Juan for black foals.