Nick leads the way to the top
The success story of the pigeon family from West Flanders can be mainly attributed to stock breeder BE04-3238525 Nick. He originates from the lines of Gaby Vandenabeele and Rik Cools. His sire 319/02 is a grandson of Bliksem; his dam 316/03 Emma had two very successful seasons for Rik Cools, winning a 4th Provincial Ace Pigeon KBDB 2004 and a 5th Provincial Ace Pigeon 2005. Over the years Nick bred several generations of super class racing birds, including for instance Tilly (2nd Prov. Ace Pigeon), Staf (3rd Prov. Ace Pigeon), Valentina (5th Prov. Ace Pigeon), Prof (10th Prov. Ace Pigeon) and Vasco (1st, 3rd and 4th Provincial). Nick’s descendants did marevelous in 2015 as well:
635/14 Punkie
The blue coloured one year old cock BE14-3135635 Punkie is a descendant of Nick from his father’s side, since his grandmother 213/08 Reynilde is a granddaughter of Nick. She originates from seven time first prize winner Panamarenco (son Nick x Natacha) and a sister of Netje, 1st Provincial Ace Pigeon long distance young birds KBDB. His grandfather is Ulban, a full brother of 4th National Ace Pigeon middle distance KBDB Christa an a grandchild of that same provincial ace pigeon Netje. Punkie originates from Austrian Van Loon based pigeons from his mother’s side. Each of these bloodlines have enabled Punkie to win several top results in 2015, including:
25/04 Clermont 17th Prov. 7,419 p.
28/06 Argenton 4th Prov. 2,525 p.
3rd Zone 5,877 p.
4th Nat. 19,925 p.
25/07 Tours 15th Prov. 1,179 p.
Click here for the full pedigree of Punkie.
704/14 Zakki
BE14-3135704 Zaki, a chequered one year old cock, is a grandson of stock breeder Nick x 974/04 Natacha from his mother’s side. These two pigeons can also be found in Punkie’s pedigree. His grandparents from his father’s side are five time first prize winner Victor and Cindy (Cools), a grandchild of the iconic Vandenabeele pigeons Bliksem and Wittenbuik. Again, this pigeon originates from top quality bloodlines. Click here for the pedigree of Zakki.
Zakki had a great season as well, winning the following top prizes:
20/06 Chateaudun 7th Prov. 3,913 p. 18/07 Tours 10th Prov. 1,722 p. 25/07 Tours 22nd Prov. 1,179 p. 01/08 Bourges 4th Prov. 1,415 p.
He follows in the footsteps of his grandfather Victor, which won four provincial top 25 prizes as well. Click here for the full palmares of Zakki.
655/15 Adamo
Nick is still breeding top quality youngsters, even at the age of 11. His son BE15-3123655 Adamo is a perfect example: this blue coloured cock won several provincial top prizes this season, including a title of 3rd Ace Pigeon Championships Bruges:
18/07 Tours 10th Prov. 5,313 p. 25/07 Tours 4th Prov. 6,083 p. 29/08 Chateaudun 41st Prov. 1,089 p. 05/09 Brionne 16th Prov. 2,947 p.
Adamo is related to Bliksem and Emma (two time provincial ace pigeon) through Nick. The dam of Adamo is 326/13 Wendelina, a daughter of top class racing bird Tony paired to a granddaughter of Bliksem. Tony, a grandson of the 1st National Bourges Libelle, won a 3rd, 5th, 26th and 38th National in the course of his career, and these top prizes resulted in the title of 9th Provincial Ace Pigeon middle distance KBDB. This shows once again that top quality lines give great racing birds. Click here for the origins of Adamo.
674/15 Annatool
The last descendant of Nick in this quartet of great champions is the blue coloured cock BE15-3123674 Annatool. This is a brief overview of his best results of 2015:
21/06 Clermont 19th Prov. 14,902 p. 05/07 Clermont 16th Prov. 13,069 p. 12/07 Fontenay 22nd Prov. 11,549 p. 08/08 Chateaudun 14th Prov. 4,275 p.
His pedigree looks a lot like that of Punkie from their father’s side. The sire is Ulban, the full brother of Christa, 4th National Ace Pigeon middle distance KBDB, a grandson of Netje, 1st Provincial Ace Pigeon long distance young birds KBDB and grandfather of Punkie. The dam BE11-3073389 Una is a full sister of Reynilde, grandmother of Punkie. In other words, Una is a youngster from seven time first prize winner Panamarenco x sister Netje. The pedigrees of these two top class racing birds are very similar, which shows that Chris knows which bloodlines belong together. Click here for the full pedigree of Annatool.
Together these top class racing birds had a splendid racing season. A full list of achievements of Chris Debacker in 2015 can be found here, including his results in the old birds' races.
Amigo claims two first prizes from Tours
However, the best result of 2015 did not come from a descendant of Nick. Chris knows that he does not have to put his eggs in one basket, since he can rely on a broad team of top class pigeons. BE15-3109516 Amigo, which is related to Vandenabeele and Cools, just like the other pigeons in this article, wins a 1st Provincial Tours against 5,313 pigeons on 18th July. He still had something left in the tank, and he went on to win another first provincial from Tours against 6,083 pigeons one week later. This is quite an exceptional double win.
You can tell from Amigo's pedigree that he was destined to win first prizes. His sire BE12-1113677 De Kleinen was 3rd Prov. Ace Pigeon KBDB for Rik Cools, and De Kleinen in turn originates from two provincial ace pigeon grandmothers: 512/08 Marieke and 316/03 Emma. Amigo’s dam BE11-3123324 Florence was quite a racing bird as well: she became 1st Provincial Ace Pigeon KBDB for Rik Cools.
A wide pool
Just like many top football teams Chris can rely on a wide pool of talented players, and he is obviously determined to keep his team at full strength. That is why Punkie, Zakki, Adamo, annatool and even Amigo will be basketed for the races in France in 2016 as well. “Good racing birds have to race!”, says Chris. In other words, his opponents will have to be well prepared for 2016, since Chris has an impressive team for next season.