Ali Zafir

ALI ZAFIR

Greetings from Tampa Bay, Florida, USA!

While searching the web we found your wonderful website. We know your stallion,
Ali Zafir, very, very well. You see, we owned the *Morafic son, *Anwarr (imported from
Egypt). We were good friends with Dr. Gene Elledge at the time. When looking for
quality mares to breed to *Anwarr, Gene told us to come to his farm and select which
mares we thought would breed well with *Anwarr. After looking at all the mares,
our first pick was Glorieta Zaafira. Though not the biggest mare in the pasture, she
was certainly the most beautiful. Rich day bay color, good hip, short back, and lovely
shaped neck. But her HEAD was her glory (her barn name was always "Glory").
The most feminine, exquisite type to be found. Very dishy, short, deep jowled with
huge, black, "poppy" eyes. Her eyes were what people always commented on.
Truly a lovely mare. I don't have to tell you about Ruminaja Ali, there are a thousand
pages written about that fine stallion. But you must know that your Ali Zafir had a
mother of exteme quality and type. Elledge had many mares of this highest
pedigrees, but "Glory" was our favorite.

When she came to our *Anwarr for breeding, along beside her was the most beautiful,
typey, pretty colt we had ever seen. Coal black, the color of midnight, with just the
tiniest star in the center of his jibbah, he took our breath away. I turned to my partner
and said "If *Anwarr can breed a foal out of Glory just half as good as this little guy,
we be very very fortunate. The colt was a Bogucki sculpture come to life.

When *Anwarr died the next year due to complications from old age (he died peacefully
in his sleep after looking across the runway at his favorite old mare) we were
heartbroken. He was a magnificent, once in a lifetime stallion and his shoes would
be very hard to fill. Gene Elledge said we could come to his farm and select any
colt on his place to replace our beloved *Anwarr. Gene had many many colts to
choose from (several sons of Ruminaja Ali included), but we only had one colt in
mind: Ali Zafir. We took "A.Z" (as we always called him) home with us and later
taught him to breed his first mare.

During his 3 yr old year our farm was hit with a freak Florida thunderstorm. It came
very quickly and was full of a hundred lightning strikes. We had about 15 mares
and fillies at the time, but our top 2 was an Egyptian Prince daughter that we had
in foal to AZ, and Bint Anwarr, the best *Anwarr daughter and the one we kept to
be bred to AZ. Both of these mares were instantly killed by lightning. We could
not find the heart to go on. It was the final blow. We knew AZ deserved better than
we could now offer him. We sent him to our good friend Al Shew in North Carolina
who had sent a mare to AZ the year before. Al later sold AZ to Belgium.

I'm sure I dont' have to tell you what a truly sweet natured boy your AZ is. He was
always a joy to be with; never fussed or argued, always wanting to please. In a
lifetime of handling stallions, some gentlemen, some less so, AZ was the sweetest,
kindest horse we ever handled. We raised him with gentleness and reason, as
he responded quickly to our words. His mother was also a gentle and kind soul.

We have several old videos of AZ taken as a youngster. We thought he would never
gray out!. He went from solid black to a beautiful black and dappled gray (just like
his sire, Ruminaja Ali). We didn't get to see min completely gray until we saw his
photos on your website.

He is magnificent!!! He fulfilled the promise of his pedigree and surpassed it, bringing
his own unique stamp. We can see by the photos of his Get at Bebo that he brings
his beauty to the breeding shed and leaves it with the mare.

You cannot imagine how absolutely delighted we are in knowing that the baby we
first saw at 1 month old has returned to the land of his fathers to continue the
lineage.

Tears came to our eyes in seeing him again. He touched us and we were better for
it. How fortunate that he has found you, and that you have found him. He had
travelled many, many miles from our humble 8 stall wooden bar in Florida to the
glorious Bebo Stud in Cairo.

If you would be interested, we would be happy to make copies of the videos we have
of your "Top Man" taken when he was just our growing "Boy".

Give "A.Z." a pat and carrot for us. Whisper in his ear that "David and Gary
still love him".

With great respect,
David Ott and Gary Norris