Verhellen Hilaire wins International Dax (2005)
Thomas Gyselbrecht, Hilaire Verhellen & Herman Van Agtmael, son-in-law of Hilaire
In the middle of a beautiful forest in Schilde the pigeon with ringnumber 6277199/02 arrived Monday morning at 7h15 in the loft of Hilaire Verhellen, this on a distance of 938.9 KM and a speed of 1140 m/m. An excellent performance if you know that only 9 pigeons have a speed higher than 1000 m/m. In the province of Antwerp this pigeon was 3 hours in front of the second pigeon of the province.
Hilaire basketted 6 pigeons for the Dax race, his first nominated pigeon won the 1st international. The other 5 pigeons all arrived home before 16h00 clock in the afternoon, he won 5 prizes on 6 birds…not bad at all.
After the recent passing away of his loft manager, Hilaire luckily got help now from his son-in-law Herman. Hilaire is a retired pharmacist.
Herman couples the pigeons. He also baskets the pigeons, in this way Hilaire can focus for the full 100 % on the racing of the pigeons. Youngsters are never trained. Only when they are one year old they go away from home the first time. As yearling they may prove themselve after a few middle distance races on the long distance.
Hilaire already races pigeons for many years and already more than once he won the first provincial in Antwerp, but he never was able to win a first national or international. So he has to get used to those busy times this victory brings. They also come to check for dope. This happens with every national winner. During our visit the main responsable for dope control from the belgian national pigeon federation was present, so this gives us the opportunity to describe this procedure.
Hilaire has to select 12 pigeons, 5 of them that won a price + an extra old pigeon. Also 6 young birds are selected at random, in this way 6 young birds and 6 old birds are tested. These 12 birds are put in a basket for about 30 minutes. Below the pigeons is a piece of cloth to catch the droppings. They also collect droppings from all lofts that have sputniks. The lofts where pigeons can not fly out are not checked. All those droppings are mixed in one small container. After this, the droppings are divided in 2, 1 for the first control, and the other one as possible double check.
The main base of this loft is Robert Venus from the lines of the world famous Supercrack Crusson and Magestic, that won 3th, 7th and 166th National Dax. The mother of the 199/02 is a direct Robert Venus pigeon from the Magestic that was coupled to a daughter of the same Magestic coupled to an inbred hen of Supercrack. The father of the winner is Narbonneke 2, that won 5 times in the first 10 provincial on national races like Montauban and Narbonne. This Narbonneke 2 also comes from a direct Venus pigeon, viz. Late Venus X Super BS, fanciers like Kamille de Sutter and Gilbert Van der Weghen are in this pedigree.
Dr Carlo Gyselbrecht and Hilaire Verhellen judge 1st International Dax
When we said goodbye to Hilaire, he was joking and said : See you also after the Marseille race, for another loft report on the national victory… Why not ? As we know the condition of his colony is very good…and his favourite races Narbonne, Marseille and Perpignan still have to come. But on the other hand Hilaire realises that this victory will probably stay a once in a lifetime event.
