The 1990 Hamdani Simri stallion Regatta CF (MV Reflection x Frill by Adrian) is one of my favorite Davenport stallions alive today. Regatta is, together with Marge Smith’s Pal-Ara Sensation (MV Reflection x Nectar CF by Salutation) and Fred Mimmack’s Militaire CF (Salutation x Vivacity by Tripoli) one of the very asil tail male stallions to the great Antez, through Kamil Ibn Salan (Salan x Schada by Sanad) and his son Salutation (x Maefah). This photo of Regatta in his prime bears a strong resemblance to photos of both Tripoli and Tripoli’s son Monsoon (x Ceres). The photo appeared in a recent Khamsat magazine article which Philip Bienvenu wrote about Kamil Ibn Salan’s descendants. Thanks to Jeanne Craver for sending it to me. I would love to breed a mare to him.
This old mare was at Mustapha al-Jabri’s farm near Aleppo, Syria in the mid-1990s, when I took this picture, and was brought there to be covered by one of his stallions. She was one of these unregistered tribal horses, and came from the Aqaydat tribe, from the area of al-Mayadin on the Euphrates. Her strain was Samhan Qumay’. This is the only mare I have ever seen from this strain in my entire life, and I don’t think I will see another one. The strain was owned by the Sba’ah Bedouins among others. The Aqaydat of the Middle Euphrates area, who in the late 1800s and the early and mid 1900s were semi-nomadic sheep herders, and as such were much less mobile than the camel-breeding ‘Anazah Bedouins, would lease the elderly and the sick mares of the ‘Anazah, especially the Sba’ah, before these moved south towards Najd on their annual preregrinations. As a result of the most esteemed ‘Anazah strains found their way to ‘Aqaydat, including Ma’naqi Sbayli, ‘Ubayyan Sharrak, Hamdani Simri, and others. This mare was never registered eventually. There was conflicting information about a male ancestor (“Nawwaq ‘Abu ‘Erneh) four generations back in her pedigree, so she was left…