*Bask++

*Bask++ is the son of Witraz (by Ofir and out of Makata by Fetysz) and out of the mare Balalajka (Amurath Sahib x Iwonka III by Ibn Mahomet).

*Bask++ was a bay colt, foaled in 1956 and bred at the Albigowa State Stud in Poland. He was produced by breeding a typical Kuhailan stallion to a Saglawi mare and in this particular breeding the Kuhailan strain dominated (legally he is a Kuhailan Dajania). He continued to breed true to his Kuhailan heritage (while his full sister Bandola was more typical of her Saglawi dam).

He died at Lasma in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1979, at the age of 23. He was an outstandingly prepotent sire, who sired for 17 years for a total of 1,046 registered offspring, but in quality he was the breed's all-time leading sire of champions with 494 champions and 194 National winners through 1993. His legacy is that his lead moves from sire to son to grandson. In other words, his sons and his grandsons have the potentional to become the leading sire.

Eugene LaCroix and his son Gene LaCroix bought him at the Janow-Podlaski State Stud, where the idea was to link the offspring of Amurath Sahib with the progeny of Ofir through his sons Witraz and Wielki Szlem.

The 194 National winners comprise 19% of his 1,046 offspring, the 669 *Bask++ grandsons and granddaughters with National wins comprise 2.3% of his 29,517 grandget.

*Bask++ was the first Arabian stallion standing at public stud who could command one million dollars in stud fees annually. His prepotency was beauty as well as athletic prowess and good disposition.

*Bask++, "a dynasty on four solid legs", had something in common with *Serafix, *Naborr, *Silver Drift, Ferzon, Raffon and other Skowronek-bred stallions, namely that his get won National honors in all divisions and that he sired sons and daughters that became halter as well as performance champions. We should add to this list Huckleberry Bey++ (Bay El Bey++ x Taffona), who died in 1992, and Khemosabi ++++ (Amerigo x Jurneeka++), who is still alive

Gene LaCroix Jr. discusses in Arabian Horse World (June "93) that English horses won't sire or produce winning halter horses, while most halter horses won't contribute to the athletic qualities and proper conformation of the breeds. He states that although it is good to have a variety of performance categories to suit the horses' varied capabilities and to allow people with different interests to enjoy them, the result is that some of the horses whose careers are absolutely limited to halter are represented as the "breed standard" all over the world, while the open halter classes are dwindling in number. There were 100 stallions competing in the open halter class at the original U. S. Nationals. Recently there was only 20 stallions in the U.S. National Open Halter class. However, the performance classes, especially the amateur classes, are soaring.

The tradition *Bask++ set of being able to win National honors in both halter and performance, is carried on by horses such as Huckleberry Bey++ and Khemosabi++++.