Photo of the Day: Ezzina, asil Jilfa mare from Tunisia
Ezzina (Chaabane x Wilaya by Ragheb), proudly owned by Walid Maazaoui, is one of the last asil mares in Tunisia.
Ten years ago, Tunisia was still one of the last reservoirs of asil blood in the “East”, but that is quickly changing, and today there are only a few dozen asil mares and stallions left. The country has traditionally bred Arabians for the racetrack, and it continues to have a very dynamic racing scene. When I was there last, in 2006, I took some pictures of the unbelievable stallion Akermi (Dynamite III x Ichara by Koraish) at the government stud of Sidi Thabet. 46 starts, 40 wins, 5 seconds, 1 third, can you believe it?
Several of Akermi’s stablemates were “Arabian” stallions imported from France, all of dubious racing bloodlines. They’re just about as much “Arabian” as I am Chinese. The groom who was walking me through the stables told me that there was a lot of enthusiasm among Tunisian breeders about these French horses, and that most breeders were using them. There is a growing market for these French-Tunisian crosses in the Gulf countries too, and prices are on the rise. Today, nobody, save a few purists and oldtimes, cares about preserving the Tunisian asil Arabian anymore.
Walid Maazaoui is one of this handful of purist breeders. His mare Ezzina is special in that she one of the few remaining Tunisian horses without a cross to the stallion Esmet Ali (Hazil x Arabelle), the founder of Tunisia’s most successful racing dynasty, and a stallion with a controversial history, which I haven’t fully sorted out yet. If Tunisian asil breeding is an outcross to global asil blood, Ezzina’s rare Tunisian lines are an outcross within the outcross.
Ezzina also has a close cross to the 1972 Egyptian stallion Ragheb (Tuhtomos x Rakia by Anter), a gift of the EAO to Sidi Thabet, two more crosses to Ibn Fayda I (Ibn Radban x Fayda by Jamil-Blunt), a gift of Prince Kemal El Din Hussein to Sidi Thabet, and is otherwise from old Tunisian and Algerian lines.
The Algerian lines are precious in this regard because they are often a generation or two away of direct importations from the Arabian desert. A closer look at her pedigree will show you that the Algerian blood in Ezzina comes through the stallions Oramino (Masbout d.b. x Ramie by El Managhi d.b.), Caleh (Bango d.b. x Primerose by El Managhi d.b), Souci (El Managhi d.b. x Deqiqa by Malek d.b.), and further away through crosses to Baleck (Venture d.b. x Olympe by Goutta d.b.) and Negrash (Ghazi d.b. x Hedjla by Nahboub d.b.). The rest of the pedigree, including the Jilfan tail female to Dolma Batche, and the lines to Ibn and Loubieh, is old asil Tunisian blood.
A lovely mare indeed. I was looking at Esmet Ali’s pedigree in the all breed pedigree database and I see they list twice an ancestor named “Nasr” born in 1918. It is quite ironic that this Tunisian “Nasr” was born the same year as the Prince Mohammed Ali bred stallion Nasr (Rabdan x Bint Yamama) [also known as Manial, his racing name] in Egypt and imported to the US after being raced and used in Egypt. No pedigree is given for the Tunisian “Nasr” but I am wondering what more is known about him.
Of course judging by the foaling dates of his get in Tunisia he cannot be the same Nasr that came to the US because the US import came in 1932, and the Tunisian foals appear in Tunisia well after that date. So this makes me wonder if he would be the other mentioned “Nasr” in the RAS stud book about which nothing more is indicated than he is a race horse and produced 5 foals for the RAS. What is transcribed for these older records later put in to stud books is often incomplete so I am wondering if there is a connection to this Nasr, a race horse in Egypt and the one in Esmet Ali’s pedigree. Ibn Fayda (1925) went from Egypt in 1929, and there are also no foals by the racing Nasr after 1927 so one wonders if he was also exported to Tunisia but not cited in the records?
Yes, Joe the Tunisian Nasr is the same as the “Nasr, a Racehorse” in the RAS studbook.. Check out this entry from last year:
http://daughterofthewind.org/nasr-a-racehorse/
That sounds like a possible scenario. We have a Khamsat article coming (when the author gets time to dig out her notes!) about a trip to Egypt to explore the Egyptian race records. There is apparently a lot of information there, and I am really excited about what might turn up. Perhaps this Nasr will be included.
You three are very impressive!
Jackson
Our French antenna just received inquries for two frozen semen doses for two breeding seasons of our stallion Hussam al Shamal.
Mr.Faycal Kaboub is the owner of two asil mares in Tunisia and ” wants to reintroduce the pure Syrian Desert blood”as by his mail.
very refreshing.
This is really, excellent, excellent, news
merci beaucoup Edouard pour cette magnifique publication , Mr Achcar je connais Mr Kaboub il est installé en France à Paris , moi aussi je suis interessé par votre etalon Hussam al shamal et ca serait formidable si on peux avoir sa semence
Thanks Edouard for the link. I had forgotten that this Nasr had been discussed almost 2 years ago and that i participated in the discussion! I think I need a vacation, ha, ha. But it is good to see that we know more about him now than just being described as “a race horse” in a studbook. It reminds us of the importance of thorough and patient “archaeology” in searching for more information on ancestors of the “asil” horse. This knowledge is sometimes “hiding under the leaves on the forest floor.”
Where in Tunisia is Ezzina located?
Kind regards
Stephan
Joe (F) I think that Tunisian Nasr was a Saqlawi, but I cannot remember where I read this.
Pour Walid
Ca serait avec grand plaisr,pour ceci il suffit d’ecrire a arnault.decroix@wanadoo.fr
Arnault ,qui est entrain de faire les demarches necessaires pour l’exportation de la semence congelee en Tunisie serait heureux de vous etre utile