Flying Under The Radar But Completely Worthy: CCNF Moonraker
Over the 24 years that we have been breeding and selling alpacas, we have had 2 or 3 genetic lines that have just shown again and again, generation after generation, their ability to consistently produce quality. It doesn’t mean they always hit (to wit: 3x Futurity Herdsire of the Year, CCNF Elixir, has 3 maternal siblings who are non-breeders) but you generally know where one can expect the floor to be and it’s just not going to ever be that low. On the white/light side of the equation here, this is best represented by the maternal line that began with PPPeruvian Prestige, when we acquired her in ’01/’02 and crossed her here with CCNF Archangel. That is a tale in fact legitimately worthy of it’s own post.
On the colored side of the equation though, it is the tale of another Peruvian import, PPeruvian Jesusa, and the family that began here with the two crias she produced when bred to Snowmass Legacy Gold (who was, scandalously in the eyes of many, half Chilean – thankfully quality talks and bullshit walks): Golden Sovereign, who arrived here on the trailer at his half-blind dam’s side in 2002, and his full sister born the following year (now retired but still living out the life of Riley here at the Arena as High Queen Emeritus), CCNF Magdalena. Though both family branches of the wonder-twins have seemingly alternated making headlines over the ensuing 18 years, the pandemic has meant that Magdalena’s great-grandson, CCNF Dominion (CCNF Delilah x Snowmass Matrix Majesty), whom we co own with the good folks at Kendall Creek Farms has been hogging the limelight of late. Dominion’s much older cousin, CCNF Moonlight (Snowmass P. Sunstarlight x Golden Sovereign), meanwhile went on a production streak starting way back in 2010, the likes of which we may frankly never see again. Starting with her Ring of Fire daughter, La Vie en Rose (whose own Elixir daughter would garner the first of four Futurity JC’s won by this family), to Mahina (La Vie’s full sibling, whom we sold to our dear friends at Alpacajoy of Norway), to then streaking off 4 full siblings sired by Snowmass Matrix Majesty – Moonbeam, Luna Majesty, Moonraker, and Clair de Lune. The first 3 Elixir crias produced by Moonbeam and Luna would among other things, go on to take the other three Futurity JCs referenced above, as well as a Supreme Championship from the 2019 AOA Nationals. It’s kind of a potent line, right?
Meanwhile, CCNF Moonraker — the very reason for and primary subject of this post — away from the spotlight-hogging of his sisters and cousins and their subsequent offspring, would quietly join our show team as a juvenile in the fall of ’16, just like the vast majority of his siblings before and since (their youngest maternal sister, Moonglow, who was sired by Dreadnought, was sold to Chagrin Valley Alpacas at the 2019 POC and would likewise go on to a brief but successful show career for her new owner, Mary Reed). While he did nothing to shame himself (no worse than a 2nd place finish in any of his halter shows), Moonraker was ultimately perhaps best “known” for his back to back wins, Champion Brown Male and Reserve Champion Brown male, at the 2017 and 2018 AOA National Fleece Shows. And then…well, he frankly sort of faded into the background of our program a bit, the victim of his full siblings’ productivity and the continued good health of their shared 13 year old sire, Matrix Majesty. We have had would-be buyers, mostly from overseas, pass on Moonraker in recent years – apparently concerned about a lack of awards or flash, or perhaps because we were even pricing him too modestly and he was therefore wrongly being dismissed out of hand as unworthy. Of course, it’s funny how things work out some times.
Bred on a bit of a lark in 2018 to one of our few remaining Snowmass Nova daughters, Jasmine, that match with Moonraker produced a typey little fawn girl who though she looked the part, took her time coming into full bloom. That cria, CCNF Maid Marian, would in fact go on to win the Fawn Female Championship at last year’s 2020 AOA National Fleece Show (even COVID-19 couldn’t keep my wife’s slightly manic fleece skirting down with an assist from FedEx). Though we dangled her on our private sales lists throughout most of the summer and fall of 2020, as her 2nd fleece grew in and fully developed to be on par with those of any of her more highly acclaimed cousins (Oriflamme, Valyria, Sovereign-Legacy, and Nymeria are the ones you may know, Triumvirate you haven’t met…yet) we decided to pull Marian back, dreaming of how and who we could breed her with here in-house. Just shy of a quarter-century in the alpaca business here in the US, we have a pretty firm handle on what we can and cannot easily find on the open market. As the manager of any sports team worldwide would attest: the economics of creating, nurturing, and developing talent from within a program, are always preferential to those of acquiring high-priced assets from outside and the unknown variables, good or bad, that they bring along for the ride.
The good news for us is that Moonraker — though the undeniable heir to his maternal-grandsire Golden Sovereign’s perennial desire to be an alpha and therefore a full-time battle-paca (read: scrappy pain in our ass) who runs around with a massive chip on his shoulder — is truly just entering his reproductive prime and is now oh-so-proven. Enough so in our calculus, in fact, that when the sun inevitably finally sets on dear Matrix Majesty, it is now Moonraker who stands at present to be his eventual and closest like-for-like replacement in our breeding program. That is not something which we say lightly. As a comparison: though his genetics undeniably form the backbone of our white/light breeding program, even the aforementioned mighty Archangel in his 17 years here, has never sired a like-for-like direct male replacement born in-house we deemed worthy…we had to go out and buy one.
We don’t often part with members of Moonraker’s famous and decorated maternal line. It is in fact something which has happened a grand total of only 3 times out of the 5 generations of animals emanating from CCNF Moonlight (I just counted). So the simple idea that those genetics are being offered via outside stud service with Moonraker, is the sort of thing that really should get other alpaca breeder’s attention. His and his family’s record speaks (maybe screams is more accurate) for itself. As ever, we shall see.
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