2026 AANC | Mulawa Community Success

The Mulawa Community celebrated an especially rewarding and successful Australian National Championships held at SIEC from the 18^th to the 21^st of March. While the community owned & bred horses excelled under saddle, and in the Non-Pro & Youth classes earlier in the show, the Team had a superlative night on Saturday evening in the purebred championships, with the Mulawa Community sweeping eight of the nine Australian National Championship titles for 2026.

A huge congratulations to Nicole & Damien Henricus (QLD) for their success with TRUE KLARITY DA, the direct product of Mulawa-bred parents TRUTH MI & KAPTIVATE MI, both former Australian National Champion title holders. Mulawa’s own MARIE MI, the eldest of the FAROUK PALAZZOTTO fillies that now enhance the future of the Mulawa breeding programme, was awarded the Reserve National Championship, finishing a sensational debut season for the MAE MARIE branch of the incomparable KARMAA dam family.

The sensational SAFFIRE MI elevated herself into the show ring Hall of Fame as Australian National Champion Senior Mare, becoming just the third Arabian female to be honoured with all three titles at the Australian National Championships in every age division – Yearling Filly (2023), Junior Filly (2025) and Senior Mare (2026). The only other two mares to win all three titles were also bred by Mulawa – international superstars ROMANCE MI & VENECIA MI, with the latter also sweeping all three titles in shortest possible time frame of four years, just like SAFFIRE.

SAFFIRE’s triumph as Australian National Champion Senior Mare also exalted her unparallelled dam – MUSTANG’S MAGNUM – into another league exclusively all her own, by becoming the third daughter to win the title, joining full sisters KLASSICAL DREAM MI (2014) and MI KLASSIC FANTASY (2017). Only two other mares have produced more than one Australian National Champion Senior Mare,  with two each: Windella & Fairview’s matron supreme SILVER GLINT – the dam of WINDELLA SILVER FASCINATION (1996) and SHAKLA’S SILVER DREAM (2000); and Mulawa’s own VALENTINE MI – the dam of full sisters VENECIA MI (2019) & VIENNA MI (2025). MUSTANG’S MAGNUM, proudly bred by Shane Edward Arabians, still holds the undisputed record as the leading dam of champions in Australia with eleven to her credit, an inspiring total which includes seven Australian National Champions.

VITTORIA MI & BAROQUE MI both finished the 2025-26 show season with undefeated records, adding unanimous Australian National Championships to their glittering Gold Championships earned at the Australasian International Championships and Emirates Arabian Horse Global Cup at Willinga Park in late January. VITTORIA is a second-generation winner for the VALENTINE MI family as the daughter of two-time Australian National Champion VIENNA MI, while also having achieved her second successive win at Aussies, having been awarded the Yearling Filly National Championship the year prior.

Both VITTORIA & BAROQUE have become the banner carriers for their sire DOMINIC M in Australia, a stallion whose influence continues to multiply exponentially all across the globe. Having impressed international judging panels at multiple events all season, BAROQUE has been the decisive winner each time shown, honoured with unanimous titles on every occasion. In addition to the invaluable imported influences via both his significant sire and precious dam line – that of foundation mare LLC BRIANA, BAROQUE is blessed with the undeniable influence of Mualwa sires supreme ALLEGIANCE MI & KLASS, as well as with the excellence of both MI KLASSIQUE, yet another superlative son of MUSTANG’S MAGNUM, and his magnificent daughter BALLET MI, two-time Australasian International Gold Champion, BAROQUE’s precious dam.

DOMINIC M also earned sire honours of both the Australian National Champion Yearling Gelding – EMPHATIC MI for owner Sharon McDonald (VIC) – and Junior Gelding – SOVEREIGN MI for owner Natasha Cook (NSW). With ADVANCE MI’s win as National Champion Senior Gelding with Jess Dobrow at the lead for owner Katharine Farrell, Mulawa-bred geldings swept every single age division at the show, once again dominating a division in which Mulawa athletes have succeeded for decades. 

The final triumph of the night was the Australian National Senior Stallion Championship for resident chief sire FAWAZ DEL PALAZZOTTO. Generously on lease from owners & breeders Paolo Capecci & Susy Gurschler in Italy for two seasons, FAWAZ continues to exceed all expectations by not only settling mares across the country with ease, but by continuing his undefeated winning streak in the show ring. As the only son of Living Legend FA EL RASHEEM in Australia, FAWAZ was an extremely popular winner, eliciting elated cheers from the crowd when announced as champion to conclude the show. FAWAZ is now the fifth imported stallion to earn the Australian National Championship for Mulawa, a trend first initiated with WARRANTY back in 1988, although the very first import bred in Europe to be so honoured for the programme. FAWAZ’s win also earned Mulawa their twelfth Australian National Championship, an unprecedented record of success that is strengthened by seven Mulawa-bred stallions and a further four stallions either sired by a Mulawa-bred sire or out of a Mulawa-bred mare.    

As impressive as Mulawa’s success has been in Senior Stallion division, the programme’s achievement as breeders of National Champion Mares stands unchallenged worldwide. SAFFIRE’s success in 2026 marks the fifteenth time Mulawa-bred mares have been honoured as Australian National Champion, beginning all the way back in 1984 with MULAWA EUNIQUE. Since 2011, Mulawa has bred thirteen Australian National Champion Senior Mares, including ten in a row through 2020. Even more astoundingly, each of the other three mares to have won the title since 2011 were all bred in the USA, making Mulawa the only Australian breeder to have produced an Australian National Champion Mare in the last 16 years.  

Congratulations to all the member of the Mulawa Community who supported the AANC and achieved well deserved success. We are so proud of your ambassadorship for the breed and a grateful to you all as we continue to celebrate the best of the Arabian horse together!