Spanish Sensation

Spanish Sensation, Anbari

by Manuel de Luque ©

In the somewhat dull Spain of the sixties, Swedish girls caused a sensation in the summers with their bikinis, beautiful blonde hair and 'open' manners. In the last five months, Swedish owner and trainer Claes Bjorling has has a lot of success with his horses in the new Mijas racecourse, built in that well known touristic area, the Costa del Sol, in the South of Spain, So far, Bjorling's biggest triumph has been the victory of his four-year-old Anbari in the Gran Premio Día de Andalucía, run last March and, with the equivalent of 167.000 dollars in purses, the richest race ever run in Spain.

The race was Anbari's fourth consecutive victory in Mijas, where he is unbeaten. Before that, he had won once in England as a two-year-old, and twice in Sweden as a classic colt. Now, Spain and Sweden are not territories associated with good racehorses and great races, but have no doubt that Anbari is a quality colt, at least of stakes winning class in a top racing country.

Bred in England by the Shadwell Stud (property of Hamdan Al Maktoum), he is an athletic bay by Muhtarram - Mashair, by Diesis. Anbari is a member of Muhtarram's first crop. This sire, winner of the Irish Champion Stakes (G1) and two renewals on the Prince of Wales Stakes (G2), is by Alleged - Ballet de France, by Northern Dancer - Fabulous Native, by Le Fabuleux - Alyne Que, by Raise a Native.

Mashair, Anbari's dam, is a winner of one little race, but is by Diesis and out of Kentucky Oaks winner Lucky Lucky Lucky, by the Bold Ruler sire Chieftain out of Just One More Time, by Raise a Native. She descends in tail female line from the illustrious Selene, dam of the great Hyperion and of the good sires Sickle and Pharamond. (It can be said in passing that there are at least ten lines of Selene in the pedigree of Anbari).

At first glance, the main features of Anbari's pedigree are: one, a 5 x 4 linebreeding to the great broodmare Pocahontas through her stallion sons Tom Rolfe and Chieftain; two, a 5 x 6 linebreeding to Ribot through son and daughter situated respectively in tail male and tail females lines; and three, the very strong presence of Native Dancer lines, of which there are four, one through his daughter Natalma, other through Atan, and the remaining two through Raise A Native. It is worth mentioning that the last-named horse, who usually appears in pedigrees through his sons, shows up in Anbari's pedigree through two of his daughters (Alyne Que and Just One More Time), as we have seen earlier.

Anbari also has a daughter of Northern Dancer, another horse whose influence comes mainly through his sons. Another attractive point in Anbari's genealogy is the fact that two of his grandparents, Alleged and Lucky Lucky Lucky, are linebred to that good stayer and great broodmare sire, Princequillo. This horse was out of Cosquilla, a daughter of Papyrus, by Tracery.

Now things get interesting, because where else do we find Papyrus? In Ribot's pedigree, where Papyrus appears as sire of Ribot's second dam, Barbara Burrini. Furthermore, in Anbari we have at least four lines of Man O'War, whose dam was by Rock Sand, sire of Tracery.

Now, we have shown how Native Dancer can be termed the most powerful presence in this pedigree, at least by the sheer force of numbers. Noted pedigree expert Alan Porter showed in one of his books how Native Dancer's linked very well with this Papyrus-Tracery-Rock Sand theme because his sire Unbreakable was linebred to the three-parts brother and sister Bromus and Rock Sand (both by Sainfoin out of St. Simon mares) and his dam Black Polly was linebred to Sierra, Sainfoin's own sister. So we find a connection behind the main strengths of Anbari's pedigree that surely helps to explain the quality of the horse.

Finally, it could be worth mentioning two connections involving Alyne Que, Muhtarram's third dam. On one hand, she shared with Atan (great grandsire of Anbari's dam) the names of Native Dancer, Pharos, Lady Josephine, Tehran, Hyperion and Spearmint in the first removes of their pedigrees. Secondly, she was also bred similarly to Just One More Time (Anbari's third dam), as both were by Raise a Native out of mares descending form Royal Charger in tail male line and with a line of Selene. Certainly the Spanish and Swedish connections of Anbari's life maybe a little bit exotic but his pedigree, as we have seen, is truly mainstream.