What Breed of rabbit do I have

Question
Dr. Stephen Roush,
  I bought a rabbit last fall and at the time, the man I bought him from said he was a polish.  He evidentally had no idea though, because this rabbit is no dwarf!!  He weighs about 7-8 pounds and his ears are 3 1/2 inches long.  We are taking him to our county fair as a market rabbit since he did put quite a bit of weight on.  He has a broken blanket pattern and is chestnut/brown and agouti in color.  He is no type of lop, but other than that, we have no clue as to what he is.  We are guessing he is a cross-bred of some sort.  If you can give us any idea of the possible breeds he could be from the information I gave, that would be great.  

Thank You,
Desire'e


Answer
Desire'e, Yes, clearly NOT Polish... but I assume it is, as you said, a crossbreed, and certainly with a lot of options. The top weight of 7-8 pounds would places him in a small category of rabbits if he were pure, but he is not... I am guesisng that he has some small breed blood crossed with a commercial (10-11 lbs.) breed and that would account for the middle weight. The blanket pattern could make him part minirex, or part broken Havana, or even part dutch...but I'm opting for maybe broken Satin (the satin gene would be recessive and not show).  There are very few large breeds that have a broken blanket pattern, so this is confirmation that he is a cross bred. perhaps Broken MiniLop with some otjher breed? The ears would be recessive and may not be at all lopped, as this is. Tough call, but not Purebred, as you state! Sorry... Steve