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…
Walid’s mare, Mouna (Kesseb x Mamdouha by Ilamane), a 2000 grey, is one of the last, if not the last, asil Shuwaymah Sabbah in Tunisia (Tosca line back to Primevere, a foundation mare of the Tiaret Stud in Algeria). She is special in that she is a younger mare that is very close to the desert (Barr, Cheikh El Ourbane, Mansoura are very close, and Bango and El Managhi are not far behind). She is also special in that she does not trace to Esmet Ali, who is ubiquitous in Tunisian breeding. She is also rich in bloodlines from the stud of French Navy Admiral Anatole Cordonnier, as it is very rare to find the blood of Cordonnier’s 1959 Ilamane (David x Berriane by Titan) so close up in modern Tunisian pedigrees. Judging from the photos, Mouna looks like she is a strongly build, well-conformed, deserty mare of the style to be found in Syria before the civil war. Walid is selling his mare, and wants her to remain in purist hands. If you know anyone who fits the criteria, please let him know.
I am even more disconnected from the racing scene in the USA than I thought. I recently found out that the 1983 Tunisian Jilfan Dhawi racehorse Okba (Koufi x Ahram by Esmet Ali) had been imported to the USA where his offspring (out of mares from non-asil race Russian, Polish, US/Kontiki and other racing lines) have been topping the charts of race winners over the past decade. He was first raced in Tunisia (10-9-1), then in Oman (4-1-0) where he was spotted and imported to the USA by Stephen Hollis. Okba was bred by the Tunisian Government Stud of Sidi Thabet from Algerian and Tunisian bloodlines only (save for two crosses to Ibn Fayda I, a gift from Prince Kemal El Dine Hussein to Tunisia). His pedigree is that of an Asil and is significant in that he does not trace to old (asil) French mainland lines (e.g., Duc) which were common in Tunisia at the time. He also traces up close to two of the foundation mares (Ambria and Palmyre) of the famed stud of Admiral Cordonnier in Tunisia. I will be proposing him for inclusion in the Al Khamsa Roster next year, after I do my due diligence on his trajectory…
As mentioned in an earlier post last year, a small number of horses still trace to the very old Mukhallad strain including this 2001 chestnut stallion whose extraordinary pedigree is heavily line-bred to asil Algerian,Tunisian and old French lines of the highest caliber. Here is a nice shot of him which I had not seen before. His owner is standing at stud in the south west of France. The photo shows a very correct stallion of good “old” Arab type, reminiscent of several old Algerian stallions from Tiaret (e.g., the photo of Scorpion by Baleck in the small Mauvy book), of some Davenport stallions (e.g., Deluvian CF, Regatta CF) and Syrian desert bred stallions (the sons of Mahrous in particular), with a short back, a high and well defined dry wither, a large eye, deep jaws, short prickled ears, a small level and round croup and a thick tail set high. This is my kind of stallion. Below is a run-down of the male ancestors of Djelid in the maternal line (sire, sire of dam, sire of grand-dam, etc) so you could appreciate where he is coming from. Djelid is a son of the wonderful 1975 asil Jilfan Dhawi stallion Jahir…
A while ago, Adrien Deblaise sent me this photo a Jahir daughter, following an online discussion on Jahir himself. Rania El Arba (Jahir x Rial El Arba by Shawani out of Fatija by Fawzan out of M’Rabbia by Saadi out of Hammada) has an interesting pedigree: Hammada was a gift from Admiral Cordonnier’s Tunisian stud of Sidi Bou Hadid to Robert Mauvy in France, but is not from Tunisian lines herself. Rather she traces to the old French line of Merjane, a Mukhalladiyah imported from the Naqab/Negev desert to France in the XIXth century. Saadi was Mauvy’s stallion of Algerian lines, and Shawani is one of his Mauvy-bred sons. Fawzan (Tuhotmos x Fairouz) was bred by Egypt’s EAO and a gift from President Sadat to President Pompidou of France.
I am writing in response to Edouard’s article on Esmet Ali. I have photos of him as a foal at his mother’s side, as well as documents about his debut at the Tunisian racetrack of Kasr Said. I can garantee you this is the same horse as the later Esmet Ali. All you have to do is take a look at his rather uncommon blaze, the shape of his leg stockings, and his relatively plainer head, which he already had from early on, etc. All the archives I am attaching below were graciously given to me by his breeder and one-time owner Mrs. Chantal De Moussac, who was at the time (mid to late 1950s) the “right arm” of Admiral Cordonnier. Esmet Ali was Cordonnier’s pride. This lady, Mrs. De Moussac was the owner of Esmet Ali’s dam Ambria (by Nasr, Original Arab), which she had bought from Tunisia’s government stud of Sidi Thabet as a foal; of Ambria’s daughter Arabelle, and of Salome (by Bango, Original Arab), bought from Algeria’s government stud of Tiaret as a foal. She had to leave Tunisia well before Admiral Cordonnier, so she gave him her mares. Mrs. De Moussac has witnessed the birth…
The outstanding stallion Esmet Ali (photo below) is at the center of a controversy that has been quietly brewing for several decades now in Tunisia and beyond. Since Esmet Ali is in the pedigree of almost every single Arabian horse in Tunisia today, the matter is of some importance. I do not know what position to adopt with respect to this controversy, and I will actually refrain from adopting one until more information emerges from within the country, which I am sure will be the case at some point. The original Esmet Ali was born in 1955 at the famed and well-respected Sidi Bou Hadid stud of french Navy Admiral Anatole Cordonnier, one of the savviest and most knowledgeable breeders of Arabian horses of his time (little known in the USA, unfortunately). That Esmet Ali was by Cordonnier’s stallion Hazil and out of one of Cordonnier’s best mares, Arabelle (Beyrouth x Ambria by Nasr d.b). In 1956, Tunisia became independent from France, and some troubled times followed for a brief period, during which the stud of Sidi Bou Said was looted, and many animals ran away, and others were lost or stolen. The yearling Esmet Ali was one of these. He was taken…
Sandra Uhlig’s mare Djoumanah El Nil, from Germany, has an interesting pedigree: Egyptian bloodlines on top, and a Jiflan Dhawi tail female from Tunisia through the mare Malaga and her dam Berriane. Berriane was bred in Algeria and imported to Tunisia by Admiral Cordonnier for his Sidi Bou Hadid stud). Note the line to the stallion Barr in her pedigree, through his grandson Koraich. More about Barr later. Jenny Lee’s weanling Amr, from the UK, has a different yet equally interesting pedigree. His sire is the Egyptian stallion Goudah (Gad Allah x Ramiah), and his dam Jenny’s Bahraini mare Shuwaimeh Bint Warda.
Another photo courtesy of Jean-Claude Rajot is of the stallion El Obayan, a ‘Ubayyan Sharrak, which the Veterinary Dr. Bardot bought in 1923 from the city of Hama in Syria, for the stud of Tiaret in Algeria. El Obayan was in the stall next to El Managhi, who was featured earlier. In Algeria, El Obayan sired the Jilfat Dhawi mare Baraka, who in turn sired the mare Gafsa by Bango. Gafsa was owned by master breeder A. Cordonnier of the Sidi Bou Hadid stud in Tunisia, and was the dam of the Cordonnier stallion Inchallah, exported to France, where he stood at the government stud of Pau. I need to scan a picture of Inchallah and share it with you.
(See the comments section below for a translation of this blog entry to English) A l’origine, en tant qu’améliorateurs des races locales, essentiellement en vue de fournir des produits pour le service de la guerre. La base de nombreux élevages a été les animaux pris dans les combats contre l’Empire Ottoman. Il en est résulté dans de nombreux pays une jumenterie plus ou moins pure que l’on a tenté de conserver par l’achat d’étalons importés d’Orient. La Hongrie avec la race Shagya a été éminemment honnête. La France, avec deux variétés régionales, le Tarbais et le cheval du Limousin a eu la même démarche. A partir de Napoléon III, le pays a cherché à se constituer une jumenterie pure (Asil) afin de pouvoir disposer de reproducteurs pour améliorer la race Barbe en Afrique du nord et perfectionner l’Anglo-arabe naissant. Les établissements les plus remarquables ont été Tiaret en Algérie, Sidi Thabet en Tunisie et Pompadour en France. C’est à partir de cette époque que l’on s’est rendu compte de la différence de qualité entre les produits de la métropole et ceux des deux autres établissements (dégénérescence rapide sous l’influence des sols et du climat). Entre les deux guerres et surtout…
Another picture of the magnificent Tunisian Asil stallion Irmak (Aissaoui x Leila by Duc), bred by Anatole Cordonnier in Tunisia in 1959 and exported to France. I posted another picture of Irmak here. Irmak was a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz by strain. Photo courtesy of P. H. Beillard, of the stud of Le Sureau in France.
Rubi de la Mouline (Ilamane x Hamma by Raoui) is a 1983 Asil Arabian stallion of old Tunisian bloodlines. His sire Ilamane (David x Berriane) was from the stud of Admiral Anatole Cordonnier in Tunisia. Ilamane was one of several hugely influential stallions bred by Mr. Cordonnier. Others include: Esmet Ali (Hazil x Arabelle), the cornerstone of modern Tunisian breeding; David (Hazil x Salome); Aissaoui (Beyrouth x Cherbia); Iricho (David x Chanaan); Irmak (Aissaoui x Leila); Inchallah (Madani x Gafsa); the last three were imported to France, where they contributed to (short-lived) revival of Asil Arabian breeding. Rubi was imported from Tunisia in utero. Picture taken in 2006.