We bred 27 of our SPARK-bred mares to AJMAN MONISCIONE this year!

CLICK HERE to see more pictures of the mares bred to AJMAN.

Finding another successful outcross for our program...
In addition to concentrating and perpetuating our Classic Polish program over the past 35+ years, we have made some strategic outcrosses that have been extremely successful. For example, in 1989 we bred our senior stallion, SPARK, to 22 select Fadjur daughters, and from that cross received such memorable horses as SS CLEOPATRA (two top 10s in Scottsdale 1990-1991, and sold to Europe in 1992 where she placed third in the Salon du Cheval World Cup), SS ALEXANDER (at least two top 10s in Scottsdale), SS ROZANNA, SS THUNDERBOLT, and others. This cross was so successful, SS CLEOPATRA and SS ALEXANDER helped SPARK win the Get of Sire class in Scottsdale 1990, which is significant when one considers Monogramm was also competing in that class. We made two other explosive outcrosses in the past few years, one to QR Excel in 2001 and one to Laheeb in 2007, both resulting in high quality breeding stock and finished show potentials. It was through these outcrosses that we came to appreciate just how strong our breeding program has become. In all cases, SPARK's phenotype of short back, deep girth, high withers, elastic joints, large nostrils, wide-set eyes, his trademark long hair and "hooky ears" all came through.

For those of you who haven't heard, yet, we are happy to announce we have decided to outcross our program to AJMAN MONISCIONE, a horse we believe is currently one of the hottest stallions in the world of Arabian show horses! 

Ajman Moniscione

(WF Justice x Anthea Moniscione)

We thought we needed to try another outcross in order to produce horses that would be in demand in today’s global market (and to quench my insatiable desire to investigate the genetic potential of he Arabian horse). Our decision to outcross to AJMAN MONISCIONE was the result of market analysis, pedigree research, and attending numerous shows throughout the world, including the US, Europe, and Middle East over the past several years. 

Surely, at first glance, many see AJMAN simply as a progenitor of the *Padron sire line, which he is, but when you research his dam line, you will see that he actually traces back rather quickly to a mare named MARGERITA 1976 (COGNAC x SRING BASKET by *BASK, out of a WITEZ II daughter on the bottom). AJMAN is line-bred to WITRAZ through GOGNAC, NEGATRAZ, MERIDIAN, and MS SANTANA down on the bottom. In fact, he is inbred to *BASK at one point, when the *BASK daughter was bred to her brother, COGNAC. Altogether, AJMAN is 6x *BASK and 15 times OFIR. Who would have guessed that after MANSOUR, NAZEER’s sire, which shows up 16 times in AJMAN’s pedigree, OFIR shows up in the pedigree with the second highest frequency at 15 times! In other words, he is a classic combination of the OFIR-NAZEER cross. Further pedigree analysis reveals the surprising discovery that AJMAN traces back to AMURATH SAHIB 11 times (top and bottom), which is a known source of white markings in Polish breeding, therefore providing a possible explanation for AJMAN producing many foals with generous white markings. 

Regarding his sireline, everyone knows that WF JUSTICE, AJMAN’s sire, has been dominating the European and Middle Eastern show rings for the past several years, and now, this year, AJMAN is competing with his sire for that title. We felt that because AJMAN’s tail female line was loaded with WITRAZ blood, where extreme type, motion, structure, and attitude are abundant, he would be most appropriate for crossing with our program. This year we were fortunate to breed 27 of our mares to AJMAN, 10 of them SPARK daughters (7 of which were classic Polish) and 17 SPARK grand daughters (two by Laheeb, five by QR Excel, four by SS THUNDERBOLT, four by SS ALEXANDER, and two by SS ATILGAN). These mares were specially chosen to complement AJMAN’s extreme attributes. To say the least, we cannot wait to see the outcome of this endeavor!

Of the 27 mares we bred to AJMAN, here is just one example. Below is one of our black SPARK daughters, SS RAVEN. She is classic Polish and is the dam of our current junior stallion, SS VELOCITY, and grand-dam of our spectacular 2011 filly, SS A LOT OF SPARK.

SS Raven

(Spark x Lalechka by *Aladdinn)

Photo taken at 19 yrs in foal to AJMAN MONISCIONE for 2012.

CLICK HERE to see more pictures of the mares bred to AJMAN.

In addition to the AJMAN breedings, we also purchased an AJMAN colt, CALYPSO OS (out of AB NASTRAPSY by PSYTADEL out of a KUBINEC daughter), to serve as a future herd sire. Mustafa lost his breath when he saw CALYPSO for the first time. While in Europe to attend the 2010 Salon du Cheval Arabian Horse World Championships with his friend of many years, Kit Hall, Mustafa drove through a treacherous snow storm to see AJMAN at the Osterhof Stud in Germany. He had already purchased a block of breedings to the horse and wanted to see him up close to finalize his decision of which mares he would breed. It was a dark December afternoon when Mustafa and Kit arrived. Accomplishing their mission, they saw AJMAN, whose Arabian type was absolutely breathtaking, but were then offered a tour to view some of his foals. 

CALYPSO happened to be the first foal they saw. He was just three months old and was almost hidden under a fuzzy coat of thick winter fur. “CALYPSO stepped forward and greeted us,” said Mustafa, “with a look that I will never forget.” From that second forward, Mustafa knew CALYPSO was a horse he had to have. CALYPSO’s appearance would have been enough, but when Mustafa glanced at his pedigree and saw that not only did CALYPSO trace back to the legendary matriarch MAMMONA on the tail female line, she appeared in the pedigree numerous times. Attempting to hide his enthusiasm and knowing the breeder, Heinz Stöckle, did not want to breed more white into his program, Mustafa asked jokingly, “Is that colt with a lot of white for sale?” Heinz said, “Yes, he is for sale… and if he did not have all of that white, he wouldn’t be for sale for any amount of money in the world!” Realizing that CALYPSO’s white would not be a problem for our Kuhailan bred mares, which are mostly solid bay and black, Mustafa brought up the possibility of purchasing CALYPSO again during dinner that night. Kit just happened to have a video of our herd of 300+ horses galloping through the mountains, he had taken with his iPhone just weeks earlier (this video is available on our YouTube account), which he played for Heinz, and it was this video that helped to make the sale of CALYPSO happen. 

Heinz said he wanted to merge the blood of his program with our mares, and so the deal was made! To this day, people who know him well are asking Heinz why on Earth he sold such a great colt, which has become sort of an ongoing inside joke between us. We feel honored to have been given the opportunity to purchase such a magnificent horse and thank Heinz and his family for breeding him. CALYPSO has caused a great friendship to be created between Heinz and Mustafa, which we know will continue for years to come. We have decided to show CALYPSO in Europe and the Middle East before bringing him home to the United States. To date, he has won all of the shows he has entered!

• at 9 months old, he was Jr. Champion Colt at Blommeröd Stud’s Int’l Scandinavian Open Arabian Horse Show

• at 10 months old, he was the Overall Champion Yearling in the Elran Arabian Cup Futurities

• at 11 months old, he was the Jr. Nat’l Champion Colt at the German Nationals in Aachen, Germany

He is quickly becoming the crowd favorite, so we have created CALYPSO his own Face Book page so that his fans can follow and support him on his show campaign. 

Not only is CALYPSO one of the best horses you’ll see anywhere, he is also one of the best bred. In terms of his pedigree, we mentioned above that his sire, AJMAN, has six lines to *BASK, CALYPSO has eight. Where AJMAN has 11 lines to AMURATH SAHIB, the sire of *Bask’s dam, CALYPSO has 13 lines to AMURATH SAHIB, further supporting the idea that the white factor is coming through AMURATH SAHIB. ASWAN, unarguably one of the main sources of type in contemporary Arabian horses, appears five times in AJMAN’s pedigree and 10 times in CALYPSO’s. And while NAZEER appears 12 times in AJMAN’s pedigree, he appears 17 times in CALYPSO’s. 

Perhaps most intriguing for us is the fact that CALYPSO’s tail female line traces back to MAMMONA and she shows up nine more times, for a total of ten, where AJMAN traces back to her only four times. As we know, MAMMONA is known for her fertility (she had 18 foals), her physical and mental strength (she walked 1,100 miles alongside her mother, with little or no food, in the harsh winter as a suckling foal when stolen by Russia’s Red Army during WWII), and her ability to produce high quality foundation dams and sires (MALPIA, MAGNOLIA, METROPOLIA, MONOPOLIA, NOMENKLATURA, and POMERANETS). MAMMONA’s get have themselves produced National Champions worldwide. Mammona represents the common tail female lineage in the first group of Russian stallions imported to the US: *MENES, *MUSCAT, *NARIADNI, *NAPITOK, *PTERSK, and *MARSIANIN. CALYPSO’s entire bottom line is loaded with high show and brood mares. 

For example, his dam, AB NASTRAPSY, shown below, is a phenomenal individual and accomplished European show horse. 

AB Nastrapsy

(*Psytadel x Nastrada by *Kubinec)

CALYPSO OS 10/05/2009 Chestnut Colt shown below in his first show at 9 mos. old, the Blommeröd Stud in Höör, Sweden, where he was the Jr. Colt Champion July 3, 2011. 

Left to right: Heinz Stöckle (breeder), CALYPSO OS, Katrien Vandycke (trainer), and Mustafa & Chera Sabankaya (Calypso's proud new humans!)

Needless to say, we are looking forward to next spring with great anticipation as we wait for our AJMAN foals to be born! We also look forward to joining CALYPSO on his journey throughout Europe and the Middle East. We encourage you to write us with your comments about our decision to outcross our program to AJMAN MONISCIONE. Please send us an email to: info@sabankayaselect.com