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Asil Ecliptic was a 1959 son of Rafferty (*Raffles x Masrufa) out of Raffleeta (*Raffles x Rafarah). He is the sire of Asil Legacy, the bay stallion from 2 blogs ago. At first glance, without digging deeper, you may dismiss the pedigree as just two paternal siblings bred together but look again, Masrufa was a *Raffles granddaughter, while Rafarah was a *Raffles daughter. *Raffles represents 68.75% of Asil Ecliptic's genetic makeup! And, he was not the most intensely-bred *Raffles horse either. Alice Payne, Asil Ecliptic's breeder, once bred a mare, whom she named Celeste. Her sire, *Raffles, was 87.5% of her pedigree! *Raffles was not only Celeste's sire, he was also her maternal grandsire and her maternal great-grandsire! 

Asil Ecliptic's head was typical of the *Raffles horses: shorter, wider, bigger black eyes set lower in the head, well shaped, sharp little ears and a pronounced jibbah accentuating the dish...a very pretty, very breedy type head, right? The *Raffles horses were recognized for producing this type of head, as well as higher tail carriage and good movement. Some of the breeders went as far as saying that *Raffles was prepotent for his beautiful head. While this blog is specifically focused on the concentration of *Raffles in his get, like Asil Ecliptic, remember that *Raffles was linebred to Skowronek, that is, Skowronek, bred back to his daughter, *Rifala. For example, in Asil Ecliptic's pedigree, I counted 10 lines to Skowronek, almost 55% of his genetic influence! 

Alice Payne was an interesting lady, bright, honest, even fearless, possessing a unique understanding of the horses, while determined to do it her way, with no apologies.  She lived her life, as big as she could dream it. I wish I lived life more like she did.

The late Charles Craver was quoted as saying that Alice Payne had a remarkable gift for evaluating Arabian horses. What was it about *Raffles that impacted Alice Payne so deeply, that she would concentrate his genetic influence, to the extent that she did? In an article written by Mary Jane Parkinson, Jimmie Dean said that if Alice Payne could have cloned *Raffles, she would have done that.  

In the sixties, Alice Payne started using the prefix "Asil" which is the Arabic term for "authentic", as we see in "Asil" Ecliptic 's name. No doubt that Carl Raswan exerted an impact upon her. Alice Payne also used astronomical names for her horses. The "Ecliptic" part refers to the imaginary line that marks in the sky, the path we imagine the sun to travel.  For a horse bred by a woman who made her own path, breeding horses as uniquely as she bred Asil Ecliptic, it's a fitting name, as all of this is equally out-of-this-world. In the 56 years since Alice Payne died, one can say that the stars shine a little less brightly in the skies over Chino as almost all traces of Alice, the horses and the ranch are long gone, replaced by upscale homes in a development named Payne Ranch, a small honor to the bigger-than-life lady who once walked this land.