In 1923, Lady Wentworth acquired a white desertbred stallion as an outcross sire for the Crabbet Stud. The horse’s name had originally been Ferhan, but by the time he arrived in Britain, his name had been changed to Mirage, which seems ironically appropriate. His career at Crabbet Park was indeed like a mirage: briefly glimpsed and gone again without a trace.
*Mirage came to Britain in a rather roundabout way. Bred by the Sebaa Anazeh Bedouins, he was originally purchased for King Faisal of Iraq. *Mirage’s sire is given as a Kehilan Ajuz, his dam a Saklawieh Jedranieh. From Iraq, he traveled to France, where he was presented as a gift to the Italian ambassador. When his owner was transferred to China in 1923, he put his horses up for auction at Tattersall’s in London. There *Mirage was discovered by Lady Wentworth, who bought him before the auction took place, much to the dismay of other potential buyers.
Lady Wentworth described him as “a handsome level-backed horse of much beauty and iron legs. Very fine trotting action and is a beauty under saddle. He reminds me of Azrek who came from the same district.” (Quoted by Peter Upton in The Arab Horse). His height is given as around 14.3 hh. He was certainly blessed with a type only rarely seen in desert horses at the time and he was named champion at the Richmond Royal Show in 1926. Unlike other horses of his day, he might well be able to compete in today’s shows as well.
So he was clearly a superior individual and a show winner, and Lady Wentworth thought very highly of him. Why, then, was a treasure like this sold off to the U.S. just a few years later, apparently leaving nothing at Crabbet Park? The records show that he was barely used as a sire; he was not even registered in any stud book. At the time of his show win, *Mirage was not registered anywhere, which would be unthinkable today.
And here we have the explanation for the abrupt end of his career at Crabbet Park: Lady Wentworth was unable to register him; or, at least, to register him in the stud book of her choice. To understand why, it is necessary to look
at the state of the British registry at the time. From the time of the early imports, all Arabians had been registered in Weatherby’s General Stud Book (GSB), the official Thoroughbred registry. An Arabian stud book did not exist in the time of the Blunts, for the simple reason that no one was breeding Arabians. The first imports were made with the idea of using these horses to infuse fresh oriental blood into the Thoroughbred. The idea of actually breeding purebred Arabians only came later, and as a result, the first British stud book for purebred Arabians was published in 1919. By then, the Crabbet Stud had been active for over four decades and was no longer the only Arabian stud in the country, so you might say it was high time the breed got its own registry. However, despite the newly established stud book, many breeders wanted to continue registering their horses with the GSB, because that was what they were used to. This had the confusing result that some Arabians were never registered in the Arab Horse Stud Book (AHSB) while others were registered in both stud books; sometimes with different names, to further confuse matters. All of the Crabbet foundation horses and their descendants were of course registered with the GSB. But soon after Lady Wentworth’s new Polish acquisition, Skowronek, had been entered (he just barely made it), the General Stud Book was closed to all Arabians whose parents were not previously registered there. This meant that a newly imported stallion from the desert was no longer eligible for GSB registration.
This of course did not please Lady Wentworth, who moved heaven and earth to get them to register *Mirage, but to no avail. The GSB would not accept him. The AHSB of course did, but this did not satisfy
