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The stunning and ill fated Gai Latour (Gai Parada+++/ x Ferzona by Ferzon). The year was 1975 and the Scottsdale Arabian Meca was the place to be. Daniel C. Gainey was holding the long anticipated "Gainey Fountanhead Sale" at his ranch on North Scottsdale Road and was offering 4 colts and stallion, 2 geldings and 21 of his best mares and fillies to the public. The sales catalog alone was a work of art, all horse photos shot in "natural" poses and each horse had it's true height and heart girth measurement listed as well as truthful descriptions of each horse and what they had to offer. All horses had at least one cross to the legendary Ferzon, if not 2, and were the showcase of the iconic Gainey breeding program. For history and reference, I'll post one or two of the lots each week, to show everyone what a breeding program from back in the day looked like. First on deck is the unique, and high selling lot of the males, Gai Latour (Gai Parada+++/ x Ferzona by Ferzon). A double Ferzon grandson, he was line-bred to be prepotent as a breeding horse and as correct and beautiful as one would want. His dam line went back to the Jimmie Dean mare Raffwe (Raffey x Weda, by Agwe x *Roda) and he was a full brother to Gai Danizon, the herd sire of Pete McNeill's famous breeding program in southern California. Ferzona, the dam of Gai Latour, also produced the great full siblings Gai Torero++ (who sold in the sale for $7,900.00) and the exquisite Gai Ferzona++ who was the late, great Lois Finche's show mare for many years. With the looks to back up his pedigree, its no surprise that Gai Latour sold for $65,000.00, a very impressive price for a 2 year old colt. Tragedy was just around the corner, however, and Gai Latour died after covering only one mare, Dare (*Serafix x Virgina Dare by *Serafix), bred and owned by Shannon Armstrong's mother and the great horsewoman, Pat Armstrong. The resulting foal was a chestnut filly, Latoura Dare, who made her mark as a breeding mare and there are literally hundreds of descendants of Gai Latour around the country and world from just one foal. Latoura Dare was owned for the first several years of her life by Jane Russell, a well known Pacific Northwest trainer, and produced foals by *An Malik, the *Bask++ son Country Heir, the straight Russian *SR Nadom (by *Muscat) and a colt by Medallion that left no progeny. Latoura Dare was then leased and later purchased by long time breeder Margaret Friesz for her Jem Mar Arabian Farm in Washington State. Latoura Dare foaled 5 gorgeous fillies in a row for Margaret, with 3 of them breeding on into modern pedigrees. Latoura Dream and JMF DareToDream were chestnut full sisters by the popular Ali Jamaal son, Magic Dream. Latoura Dream foaled a lovely chestnut daughter by Magnum Psyche, who was exported to the United Arab Emirates. Latoura Dream was then exported to the UAE as well and produced both a colt and a filly for Ajman Stud before her passing. JMF DareToDream produced both a filly and colt by *Marwan Al Shaqab, the filly being exported to South Africa and the colt, Mardigras JMF, being exported to Italy and then later to Qatar. DareToDream also produced a black colt by DA Valentino, who remained a stallion, and a lovely filly by National Champion *Magnum Chall HVP, who was later exported to Kuwait. Latoura Dare's most prolific daughter was her one by National Champion Echo Magnifficoo, named Latoura Echo, who started off life with a bang as Region 9 Reserve Champion Sweeps Filly (in a class of 20) and then went on to produce 7 foals by the great Versace. The first colt, Odyssey SC, was US and Canadian National Champion Futurity Colt and Canadian National Champion Stallion and has turned out to be a great brood mare sire, both in the Southeast and the Pacific Northwest. The second, Odysseus HS, had a lengthy show career as a Hunter and Western horse, topping off his career with a Canadian National Top Ten in Western Pleasure AATR.