Sharkasi: a hypothesis and a photo
Teymur from Germany sent me this photo of Sharkasi with his owner TGB Trouncer, before the Royal Agricultural Society of Egypt (RAS) acquired him in 1955. I had never seen a picture of Sharkasi before and confess being pleasantly surprised at his good looks. The way his neck is set and his straight shoulder also make me wonder how he ever became the good racehorse he was supposed to be.
The Alzabra stud, where his sire and paternal grandsire were supposed to come from, according to a WAHO investigation report, was probably one of these rural stallion depots maintained by the RAS across Egypt, where surplus RAS stallions were stationed for use by the local population. You can infer that from this sentence of the WAHO report: “His sire was one of the Alzabra Stud distributed to villages to cover the mares of farmers. His dam was also by an Alzabra stallion and out of a Bedouin mare.” If Alzabra was a private stud, why would it ‘distribute’ its stallions ‘cover the mares of farmers’? Its description actually fits the role fulfilled by government-owned stallion depots. Stallions would typically spend part of the year in the depot/stud, and the rest of the time, they were sent to the more remote villages outside the depot’s catchment area, for use by the more remote communities.
If my speculative hypothesis that Alzabra Stud was indeed an RAS stallion depot (and it is easy to check), then Sharkasi’s sire and paternal grandsire must have been of RAS bloodlines, and such RAS influence definitely shows in the picture below. His picture is actually reminiscent of a type of early RAS stallions, of which Shahloul 1931 (Ibn Rabdan x Bint Radia), and Sheykh El Arab 1933 (Mansour x Bint Sabah) were the best-known representatives.
You will recall that Nazeer was confined to one of these obscure stallion depots before he was ‘discovered’ by General Von Pettko Szandtner, then manager of the RAS studs. You may also recall that the majority of the two dozen or so Crabbet stallions acquired by the RAS from Lady Wentworth in 1920 were either sold sometime after their importation from the UK, or sent to these rural stallion depots, except for Kazmeen, Hamran and Mabrouk (Blunt) who remained at the RAS ‘headquarters’, and were thus able to leave a legacy.
a small list of his descendants
AFRAH3 b M 1965 SHARKASI GHAZZA
BINT BADR b M 1957 SHARKASI BADR3
DANANEER3 ch C 1967 SHARKASI BINT EL DAHMA II
EL AMIRA b M 1962 SHARKASI MAHMOUDA3
FADIA M 1962 SHARKASI SHAHEERA4
HORIEA M 1963 SHARKASI MAHMOUDA3
IBN GHAZZA blk C 1959 SHARKASI GHAZZA
IBN GHORRA b H 1959 SHARKASI GHORRA
IBN SHARKASI gr C 1959 SHARKASI GHORRA
RAZINA3 b M 1966 SHARKASI RAYANA2
WATANI4 gr C 1968 SHARKASI BEDOUR2
straight shoulder? When considering a line from the mid point of the wither (highest point) to the point of shoulder, I wouldn’t suggest the shoulder on this individual is straight. Though, neither is it well laid back!
I think he looks more like a typical horse from Blunt.
Could it be a son of Ibn Nura?
I have seen a Dananeer running at the races in Egypt in the early 70’s, owned by Palestinian owner Rajah Cotran. I am borne in Egypt in 1959 and from my early years until now I follow horse races and apassionated with breeding. Of course Shrakassi was a famous stallion of the Societe d’Agriculture, ex RAS. The legendary Sheikh el Arab was well known and my father used to talk to me about this horse.
The last Tahwai i knew was Tahawi Said Megalli and the last filly I can remeber was Yalla Yalla.
According to WAHO Sharkasi dam was also by an Alzabra stallion and out of a Bedouin mare.
let suppose that WAHO is right.Here we can ask :who was this bedouin mare?
If WAHO think that there is a lot of Bedouin mares spread all over Fellah villages across Egypt there are mistaken.
A mare like this should have been celebrated and the whole village would have known her pedigree.
As for Sharkasi ,Edouard and myself have seen in Lebanon a lot of part-bred Arabs looking like him,morover the Famous “Amer” the Saudi racing stallion,who’s gets are winning over the French horses those days looks exactly like Sharkasi.
Judith Forbis relates that the late M.Trouncer promissed a 200 Egyptian Pounds reward (a huge sum for its time) for any information concerning Sharkasi’s origin.
Anyway he is definitely not a Blunt horse.
The early Egyptian Horse breeders did not know much about breeding horses; DeMadron wrote so, another proof is that they sent the stallions they bought from Crabbet to a stallion depot in small villages to cover unknown mares who’s products ended “in slavery” pulling carts in Cairo streets before they go to “The Brooke Hospital” if they were lucky!.
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According to Mrs Hansi Melnyk from the Pyramid Society and the Asil Club in a private communication to myself ,she wrote about Sharkasi:” What I remember is that Mrs Gedawi imported him and I think from the Ajman Tribes. Please contact Mrs E El Barbary of Shams el Asil Stud, Cairo, Egypt, who will be able to answer more questions about Sharkasi”
If someone is interested in Mrs Melnyk version this is the address
Mrs Wegdan El Barbary
Shams El Asil Stud
P,.O.Box 160 +12556
Giza-Pyramids, Cairo
Tel-20-2-381-1214
Fax: 20.2.298.3733