One Breeder’s Journey The Rakafix Years *Serafix, the sire of Rakafix, was an outstanding individual, and after his importation in 1954, he eventually held the record as a sire of champions in this country. *Serafix was balanced, with excellent conformation including a high-set neck, fine throatlatch, excellent topline, and wonderful shoulder angle. He was a very charismatic horse with tiny ears, large eyes, and a fine, iridescent chestnut coat. *Serafix’s sire was Raktha by Naseem (Skowronek x Nasra) out of Razina (Rasim x Riyala). His dam *Serafina was by Indian Gold (Ferhan x Nisreen) out of Sharfina (Rytham x Sharima). These were purported to be the epitome of Crabbet horses post-World War II, and were considered to be the finest yet from this world-renowned Arabian stud. Rakafix’s dam Surrab was also a very charismatic Arabian. Dark bay, refined with an abundance of type and obvious quality, Surrab was an excellent producing mare, being the dam of popular stallions Shahzada and Abu Baha by Abu Farwa, Haji Murad by Ferseyn, Rakafix by *Serafix, and the mare Bint Surrab by Royal Grey. Her sire Latif (Antez x Lassa) was a Polish-bred stallion, and her dam Hawija (Ronek x Ghazil) was of predominantly Crabbet breeding. When Rakafix came to our farm in 1963, Patricia was our only mare. We had bred Patricia to Nafix (*Serafix x Nabiya), and had acquired Rakkasa (Rakafix x Farwaseyna). Rakkasa’s first foal was also by Nafix, a double *Serafix 52 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b JULY 2011
Left: Jim Panek astride the stallion Rakafix (*Serafix x Surrab). Top right: The Rakafix daughter Rakkasa (x Farwaseyna by Abu Farwa). Below: The colts Fixation (Nafix x Rakkasa by Rakafix), left, and Rakabie (Rakafix x Na Bebie by Nafix).
colt we named Fixation. I had been successfully showing Rakkasa and Nafina, and when it was discovered that Rakafix was here, the interest in Rakafix as a breeding stallion was intense. One of the first mares booked to Rakafix was the Robsons’ lovely Nabiya (Abu Farwa x Ghazeyena by *Raseyn). When Nabiya foaled an exquisite bay filly, we acquired her within a few weeks. She was named Biya, and as the years progressed, Biya became a signature individual in our breeding program. I rarely took Biya into the showring when she didn’t win her class, and anyone who ever saw Biya never forgot her quality and overall exquisiteness. The quality of Biya and Rakkasa and their success both as show horses and breeding animals provided to us an indication of a potential path. Both of these individuals were by Rakafix and out of daughters of Abu Farwa who had *Raseyn dam lines. Consequently, they were linebred to two of the greats of Crabbet — Naseem and Mesaoud. We began a quest to acquire mares that would provide Rakafix with his best opportunity as a sire, and as a result, Farwaseyna (Abu Farwa x Tsavana by
Ferseyn), Rizarwa (Abu Farwa x Ahariz), Fascination (*Serafix x Nabiya), and Basedi (Abu Baha x Sedi Sedjur) and her daughter El Sedi (El Brillante x Basedi) became members of Rakafix’s harem. Basedi and El Sedi were interesting acquisitions in that Basedi’s sire Abu Baha and Rakafix were half brothers out of Surrab, and Basedi’s dam Sedi Sedjur was a full sister to the renowned Bint Sahara. Her daughter El Sedi’s sire was El Brillante (Alyf x Abu Gamwa by Abu Farwa). This group of mares was bred to Rakafix a number of times and in each case, the results met, or exceeded our expectations. Through his ancestors Rakafix also had direct lines to Naseem and Mesaoud, so the offspring we were producing from this formula were saturated with these noteworthy bloodlines. Many of the resulting foals went to other breeders as potential breeding stock, and I always kept my special favorites to show and a filly from each mare for the future.