I confer that the first year I saw the Blaze was at Daytona in 01. They were the first produced and were not for sale. To me the initial animals looked like classic gioni other than the color but also noticed that the head color was somewhat lighter than the body much like the Doug Beard strain of hypo Brooks.



As for them being a cross I have never asked directly but was told that the mutation was spontaneous. I choose to believe this and here is why. First, Sheila and Chris knew that I wouldn't have a problem if they were crosses and so there was no reason to lie and second, yes hypo Brooks have been around for some time but still were not common in the hobby until 99 2000 breeding seasons. To a point, I've seen several clutches of goini/brooks crosses and they look nothing like goini. IMHO it would take several generations breeding back to "pure" goini to get a classic looking hypo phenotype like those Sheila and Chris were selling.



To this conversation I'd like to add a bit of personal bias. It's well known that I don't get the locality thing especially when people use it to justify line breeding animals to the nth degree. What I do appreciate are well-bred classic specimens that have some lineage data, locality if you like, so that inbreeding can be further avoided. In this regard I share locality breeders enthusiasm for collecting and sharing data. That being said its MHO that morph production is a CLEAR DEPARTURE from producing "pure" classic specimens. To me ALL morphs are designer snakes and the name of the game is to produce the most attractive animals possible. To that end even if the blaze phase goini is a cross, it is still one fine looking animal and one in which I'm sure we'll se some continued improvement. Just my two cents.

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