We have four prestigious pigeon races taking place this weekend, with Barcelona, St. Vincent, Souillac and Gueret. "Confidence is high", says Jos Thoné, "and our pigeons had already shown to be in great form in previous weeks. We have gone to great lengths to try and excel in these races."
Their recent national victories in the zone and their provincial victories, as well as a grand total of 58 first places so far prove what we already know: the Thoné pigeons are fantastic athletes, and their exceptional origins have led to numerous great achievements. And let's not forget that their bloodlines have continued to leave their mark on future generations, even when crossbred to renowned bloodlines from other lofts. More on that later.
Montelimar (735km)
With a 1st (Jos Thoné) and 2nd (X+M Thoné) National Zone and a 1st and 2nd Provincial, as well as a 2nd and 7th National (of 2,836 pigeons), the one year olds BE19-5095301 (Alexa) en BE19-5095374 did something unprecedented in Montelimar. Alexa is a daughter of Nicolas and Little Disney.
Pedigree Alexa.
The 2nd Prov. / 2nd Nat. Zone / 7th Nat. Montélimar was won by BE19-5095374 (a son of Dreamboy x Beauty Armana).
Pedigree BE19-5095374.
Agen (864km)
The race from Agen resulted in another provincial win in Limburg: a 1st Prov., a 1st Nat. Zone and an 8th Nat. (6,058 YLs) for BE19-5095318, which is another daughter of the aforementioned Dreamboy, and a sister of BE19-5095374 (2nd Prov. / 7th Nat. Montélimar).
Pedigree BE19-5095318
La Souterraine (611km)
In the meantime, Jos Thoné also added a national zonal victory from La Souterraine to his impressive palmares. The first place went to BE19-5095133, which finished in 29th National of 15,939 yearlings. This race winner is a youngster of Golden 13 and a daughter of top breeder Koen.
Pedigree BE19-5095133.
Issoudun (522km)
And Issoudun was another success for Jos Thoné: he wins a 1st Nat. Zone C and a 24th National (18,176 yearlings) with Sergio (BE19-5095360), a full brother of Jonker. Racing bird Rhea (BE18-5025611) finished in 68th place national of 10,603 pigeons that day. Rhea is an exceptional racing bird as well, and a full sister of Koen.
Pedigree Rhea.
Limoges II (689km)
And Jos Thoné closed the weekend of 18 July with another provincial victory from Limoges II, besides a 1st Nat. C and a 16th National of 10,139 old birds. His provincial winner is the talented Galaxus (BE17-5032128), a son of Fyto x Flower.
And lastly we saw a great performance in Pau (966km) from racing bird BE16-2226680: she claimed a 7th Prov. and 8th Nat. Zone. This BE18-5025611 is a granddaughter of a 1st Int. Marseille and a 1st Int. Perpignan.
Winner
Plenty of expertise and a ruthless winning mentality, that is what drives him forward. Only the best is good enough for Jos. He is always looking to further improve his breed, even though he already has one of the world's most talented pigeon families in his collection. In his search for top quality bloodlines we often come across the name of his close friend Guy Baerts. Jos is always looking for pigeons that can be crossbred to his proven extreme long distance bloodlines: Sedna, Crow and Little Joe. As you know, his lofts are home to youngsters of several International race winners (from Armani - Bascourt / 1st Int. Perpignan, Sedna - Thoné / 1st Int. Narbonne, Marseille - Joosen / 1st Int. Marseille, etc.).
He then came up with the idea of reinforcing his breeding loft with youngsters of international winners from Barcelona, which would be referred to as 'International loft - Baerts-Thoné'. And he inevitably got in touch with Hugo Batenburg/PEC, who provided him with youngsters of New Laureaat, Special One, Lloyd, Jef, and others. He had great confidence in these bloodlines but he had never expected them to deliver that quickly. These recent introductions, crossbred to descendants of Little Joe and Sedna, proved an instant success, leading for instance to a 43rd, 74th and 92th National Agen.