Saturday 7th July was the second race of this seasons young bird program from Nivelles a distance of 138 km to Nieuwendijk.

The club sent 483 birds and we sent a team of 35 to win 2nd,3rd,4th,6th & 7th. Altenna & Raamsdonksveer Fed 1497 birds 7th,8th,9th,14th,21st and 3 birds in the top 100 in the total Combine lib against 12,534 birds.

First bird was GB12R22402 the youngster from Bandit x Moonglow that won 1st club last week. He also took 74th against 12,534 birds this week in the Combine total liberation. This young cock was lost from the bad training toss in mid June and returned ‘under his own steam’ 9 days later. After a few days recovering he staked a claim of a dark corner of the young bird loft and was sent to the first race to win. This week ‘only second’! We hope his form continues.

Talking to Art Ouwerkerk the O of the famous partnership H & O he reminded us of the nest brothers ‘Rocky’ and ‘Mickey’ that were both lost as youngsters and returned in the Autumn. One cock went on the become a National Ace and the other became an Olympiade Ace pigeon. Both of them became legendary breeders and influenced the results of many top names in the pigeon world.

The second bird 12-1737107 was bred from ‘752’ the top racing son of ‘Young King’ ( son of the Young Couple) paired to his own grand daughter crossed with Super Champion Orlando blood. The ‘Young King’ was raced in Nieuwendijk to win 3rd National NPO Orleans against 14,014 birds and then two weeks later 21st National NPO Orleans against 9003 birds. Both races into a headwind from 300 miles. He has become a sensational breeder including into the second and third generations. We have returned him to the North Wales breeding loft ready for the 2013 breeding season.

Third bird was ‘NL12-082’ from ‘Crack 7’  a son of ‘Super 8’ and winner of many prizes paired to a sister of ‘Creilman’ (Stormbird x Seven 11) ~ fourth bird was ‘NL12-092′ from the great racing cock ’08-225’ (Caliph x Chanel) paired to a half sister ‘Super 8’ (Line Joep) ~ Fifth bird was ‘NL12-183’ from ‘Lisburn’ (Double grandson ‘Vechter’ Zoontjens) x ‘Bella’ (Dtr ‘Vivian’ Zoontjens)