Dynamite III and Jahir, both to Nasr OA

For a long time there was a shadow hanging over the lineage of the senior Tunisian stallion Dynamite III (Esmet Ali x Nachoua by Madani), photo below. He and his many sons (Akermi, Safouen, Bardo, Halim, Touwayssane, etc), were accomplished racehorses of the first order and sires of racehorses in Tunisia and beyond. They were so fast, won so many races, were so powerfully built that some doubted their origins and felt that there must be some English Thoroughbred blood in their male line.

As part of a broader project on sire lines, some of us — names are withheld for now — decided to compare the racing sire line of Dynamite III with the non-racing, preservation-focused, sire line of Jahir (Iricho x Ciada by Ghalbane OA and Malika by Masbout OA and Themis by Bango OA), photo below.

On paper, the two lines are closely related. Dynamite III was the son of Esmet Ali (bred by Admiral Cordonnier), son of Hazil, son of Fadjer, son of the famous RAS stallion Nasr of the Tahawis). Jahir was the son of Iricho (bred by the same Admiral Cordonnier), son of David, son of Hazil, son of Fadjer, son of Nasr.

So we had DNA pulled from a paternal grandson of Dynamite III (specifically, a son of his son Bardo) in France, then from a paternal grandson of Jahir (a son of his son Djoar Beni Sakr) also in France. We sent both samples to a renowned equine genetics lab in Austria. Both samples came back with the same haplotype: Ta* daC_T3a* (per the classification in Remer 2022). This is a male lineage associated with Arabian horses. Meaning, both horses trace to the same close ancestor. The genetic analysis confirmed the relationship between the two sire lines, which on paper meet at the level of Hazil (photo below), five and six generations, respectively. It also cleared Dynamite III, at least in the sire line, although more comparisons need to be done to confirm this first result.

We now want to expand the scope of our inquiry to other sons of Dynamite III, as well as descendants of Esmet Ali through other sons than Dynamite III. A sample from Namran Beni Sakr (son of Partner Du Blaziet, son of Bar du Moulon, some of Emiralay, son of Omran, son of Esmet Ali) is on its way to the Austrian lab. Results will be out shortly. If you know of male horses in Tunisia, Europe, or elsewhere that trace to Dynamite III in the male line, please get in touch with me. Below, Halim, a son of Dynamite III (from the website of the National Federation of Tunisian Breeders).