Jelle Roziers-Xiang has the best yearling across 8 national races on board with Lucky Seven

The story of pigeon fancier Jelle Roziers from Itegem, in the province of Antwerp, starts in 1995 with a small and simple pigeon loft of 2 by 2 metres. He learned the ropes from the Houben family, which put Itegem on the map in the pigeon racing community. Jelle: "I visited them every week and I would listen to Jef and to the many other renowned pigeon fanciers that came over. I not only learned a lot from them, I also became eager to try and compete with these renowned pigeon fanciers, and perhaps beat them one day." And he sure was able to beat them, judging from his palmares in recent years:

1st National Ace Pigeon longer middle distance YBs KBDB 2017
1st National Bourges 38,455 young birds 2017 (fastest of 59,243 pigeons) 
1st Best young bird of Belgium with 2 prizes in the national races 2019
2nd National Ace Pigeon longer middle distance young birds KBDB 2016
2nd National Bourges 27,980 young birds 2016
2nd National Champion longer middle distance young birds KBDB 2019
3rd National Champion longer middle distance young birds KBDB 2018

As for the 2020 season, the great champions stood out by successfully anticipating this highly unusual corona season, adapting their tried and tested approach. Jelle had already explained the ins and outs of his racing approach in an earlier report, which you can reread here.

Lucky Seven, 1* Best YL of Belgium on all 8 National KBDB Championship races

And his approach appears to be quite successful indeed. It was also the main reason for this report. If we take a look at this year's ranking for the yearlings, we quickly learn that Itegem is again the place to be: racing bird Lucky Seven takes is the 1th best yearling of Belgium on all 8 National KBDB Championship races.

Jelle: "We started the national competition with 13 racing cocks, and we completed all eight national longer middle distance races. The results have been terrific. Tulle (665km) had been the ninth consecutive race for my racing cocks in eight weeks' time, and they did really well."

Tulle National: 4,451 yearlings: 12-15-22-40-59-...   9/10. Lucky Seven finished in 40th place national!

Lucky Seven is a son of ‘Seven Junior’ (BE16-6060650), a 2nd Nat. Ace Pigeon KBDB young birds and 1st Prov. Ace Pigeon KBDB Antwerp, Long Distance Club Antwerp and the Antwerp Flying Club. A pigeon with a proven record.

National Daughter and Willy Daniëls

From his mother's side, Lucky Seven is related to National Daughter, a super class daughter of stock breeder Queen L. National Daughter also features in the pedigree of Finne, 1st Nat. Ace Pigeon longer middle distance KBDB 2020 and 1st Nat. La Souterraine of 15,939 yearlings of Willy Daniëls. This is no coincidence.

On track with the young birds

And the young birds have had a successful racing season as well. After two national races, Roziers-Xiang claim places 7 and 9 in our PIPA ranking for 'best young bird in the Belgian national races - 2 prizes'. This is an excellent result, and we were eager to take a closer look at the achievements of these two young birds. Let's begin with BE20-6053180, which finished in 7th place with a 0.472% coefficient, having won a 27/28,551 Bourges III and 65/20,789 Chateauroux II at national level. And racing bird BE20-6053033 takes 9th place in our national ranking with a 0.5191% prize percentage, winning a 30/20,789 Chateauroux II and a 107/28,551 Bourges III. Both young birds are related to the noble bloodlines of Whity Bart and Queen L.

Young wolves...

It is great to see how some of Belgium's talented young fanciers join hands and help each other out. For instance, this team exchanged pigeons with Tom Van Gaver, and this led to some excellent results.

A direct Gom Van Gaver cock called Thomas (BE19-4207212) won a 15th Nat. Tulle last weekend. This blue-white pigeon had already won a 1st Nat. Zone B2 Chateauroux of 2,053 p., a 7th Nat. 6,306 pigeons and a 52nd Nat. Gueret of 12,888 pigeons for Jelle earlier on. And with that comes a 52nd Nat. Gueret of 12,888 pigeons.

And let's not forget Pallas Athena, which bred a round of youngsters for Tom Van Gaver, after which she escaped and flew back to Jelle's loft in Itegem.
She is the dam of BE19-4207236, which won a 5th Prov. Orleans of 3,341 p. and a 15th Nat. Brive of 4,238 p. for Tom. Pallas Athena is also the dam of  BE19-4207237, winner of a 127th Nat. Brive 4,238 pigeons.

We reckon the unsuspected cancellation of Argenton will not slow this loft down; the team from Itegem is ready to strike in two more races, and to continue to excel with their young birds. We wish them the best of luck!