This is Belg92-3233095 ‘Achilles’ bred by Gaby Vandenabeele from his first really top racing star ‘Picanol’ himself a son of the base breeder of Gaby’s loft ‘Kleinen’.

‘Achilles’ was one of eight direct children that we owned in the late eighties and early nineties. Together with three from ‘Kleinen’ and countless many from ‘Wittenbuik’. A little later we also had many direct from Bliksem and James Bond and all of these were judged by the racing results of the offspring when they were crossed with other winning lines with the aim of improving the overall level. Some of the Gaby children of the ‘Stars’ were very bad and were culled,others were very good and a very few were World Class.

Up to date we still have much confidence in Gaby Vandenaeeles birds and have reinforced with directs from New Bliksem who Gaby advised us is the future principle breeder of his loft. This is a cock with the results and gene pool in his pedigree that also excites us.

‘Achilles’ himself was only a little cock, just like his father ‘Picanol’ (and grandfather Kleinen)  however he was most intelligent and always full of vitality.

This trait he passed on down at least five generations through our super pair ‘The Young Couple’…The cock of the Young Couple was ‘Galileo’ a direct son of ‘Achilles’.

The term ‘Super Pair’ is often used and mostly without any real evidence to back it up, however the ‘Young Couple’  were in the truest sense a ‘SUPER PAIR’ …

We have an article on our site http://syndicatelofts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/The-Young-Couple-article.pdf that clearly documents the generations of winners at all levels in many countries where the pigeon sport is practiced.

Today in our breeding lofts we still have plenty of this bloodline represented in some of our our very best breeders like ‘Top Star’…’Golan’… ‘Warlord’, and many more.

It is our intention to spend some time later in the season to update and document the recent performances of this bloodline like for example ‘Foxy Lady’ one of the greatest racing hens if not the greatest ‘Classic’ racing hen of recent years in Europe…’Top Star’ a son of ‘Young King’ and himself a breeder of Ace Pigeons for ourselves and others plus many other top race winners like the winner of the Thailand Kings Cup Race and Ace Pigeon and over 30,000 Dollars….

So fashions come and go in pigeons…’Strain’ names change to the next greatest thing,fanciers have a habit of believing hyperbole and sadly disposing of some great winning lines but developing a winning line by retaining the original wining blood and revitalizing regularly by crossing with new winning blood and selecting with race results is the only way in the long term…just ask Gaby Vandenabeele if you ever have the chance.