As the son of Cuban immigrants, I am drawn to the story of Charaff, a 1948 grey stallion bred by Roger Selby. A *Raffles son, out of a *Raffles granddaughter, Charaff was purchased as a young horse by Federico Castellanos y Batista, to head the breeding program he founded at his ranch, San Cayetano, in the province of Camaguey, Cuba. Charaff was immensely popular among Cuban breeders and received considerable attention, eventually becoming the Cuban National Champion Stallion in 1956. When the Cuban revolution happened several years later, Fidel Castro's regime took possession of San Cayetano, including all the Arabian horses. Soon, Federico Castellanos' prized ranch became Fidel Castro's favorite place to stay, whenever he visited Camaguey. By this time Federico Castellanos and his wife, Angela Rodriguez de las Casas, had fled to Miami, with the expectation that the Castro government would soon fall. Tragically, it didn't. In the meantime, he decided that he had to get Charaff out of the country. Together with his friend and fellow breeder, José De La Torriente, Federico Castellanos moved Charaff and his other Arabian horses to a farm outside of Havana, while he made arrangements to fly the horses to Miami. However, the biggest challenge that he faced, was getting the horses out without interference from the Communist government, who believed that the horses, like any other piece of property, were owned by them. How would he get the permission to leave with these valuable horses without raising suspicions? Appealing to their prideful spirit, Federico Castellanos convinced the government that having the horses attend the exposition in America would be good PR for Cuba, to publicize the success of the new regime's agricultural programs. The clock seemed to stop ticking as everyone, beads of water forming on their brows, waited for a return answer. Someone watched the driveway, waiting for the trucks to roll in and take them all to prison, never to be seen again. Finally, the good news came. The marketing strategy worked exactly as Federico Castellanos had imagined it would and soon, on a still dark morning, Charaff and 4 other Arabian horses very quietly boarded the DC-3 cargo plane which took off from the middle of a cow pasture, headed to Miami and to freedom, away from the Communists. They never came back. Several years later, Federico Castellanos died, leaving Charaff to the Arabian Horse Owner's Foundation, who in turn, leased the horse to Daalada Arabian Acres Farm owned by Dr. David A. Hoffman. Cuba had first recorded an Arabian, of Russian ancestry, somewhere in 1915. In 1950, the Cuban Stud Book took control of the breed and through 2017, had recorded 3,300 horses, of which one-third were still living at the time. I wonder if the mighty Charaff, once thought of as the best Arabian in Cuba, and his Cuban descendants are still listed in this stud book.
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