How it all started
Racing hen NL04-4256369 did her first official race from Wijchen (168km), and she was the first pigeon to arrive back home. Arie remembers thinking: "How did such a small pigeon make it back home so quickly?" He named her Tinkelbel, the little elf from the Peter Pan fairly tale. Tinkelbel finished in 66th place of 9,250 pigeons that day. A few weeks later, she won a 2nd of 5,908 pigeons in Houdeng, followed by a 1st St. Ghislain of 4,317 pigeons in the Friese Fonclub just a week later, racing into a hard easterly wind. The dam of Tinkelbel is a daughter of De Dikke Blauwe, winner of five first prizes and a full brother of 3rd Nat. ace pigeon De Vredesduif in 1989. He has always been one of the favourites in this loft, and he died at the age of 17. Arie and his father buried him together. A half sister of Tinkelbel (from the same dam) happens to be a successful racing bird as well, having won four first prizes.
The sire of Tinkelbel is Lichte Morlincourt. He is a son of De Late v.d. Strik x Daughter Het Grijs Orléanske. This is a nephew x niece pairing, since Grijs Orléanske is a full sister of stock dam De Strik (the dam of De Big Boom & De Late v.d. Strik). Grijs Orléanske won a 1st provincial Orléans as a young bird, in a 663km race into a headwind and in 30 degrees Celsius. She was the only pigeon in the province with a speed of more than 1000 metre per minute. Stock dam De Strik won a prize per ten in this race, and another sister finished in 7th place provincial.
Tinkelbel was paired to Elrond in the racing loft, a brother of Leonardo. And together they bred Minerva, Ajax and Athena, which all became super class breeders. Ajax and Athena were Arie's best two youngsters in 2006, so he promptly decided to move their two parents to the breeding loft at the end of the season. Unfortunately one of the two parents, Elrond, got sick in the summer of 2006. Meanwhile, Tinkelbel went on to become 4th ace pigeon natour in the rayon in 2006, having won a 22nd NPO Blois (719 p.) of 5,805 pigeons and a 45th NPO Orléans (666 km) of 6,817 pigeons. The parents of Elrond (Big Boom x Evita) had already bred 7 first prize winners, so it made sense to pair a brother of Elrond to Tinkelbel instead, and that brother was none other than Leonardo. He was a summer youngster of 2015 and he bred a first prize winner in his first year: racing bird Fire (that was in the loft of Arie's father). The Tinkelbel - Leonardo combination proved an instant success; they bred as many as four world class racing birds in their very first year: Okidoki, Boogie, Spikkeltje and De 726.
This is an overview of some of the greatest racing birds from Leonardo/Elrond x Tinkelbel that were sold on PIPA in 2012, or that had already been moved to the breeding lofts of other fanciers:
At home
They still have some very important descendants of Leonardo & Tinkelbel in their own collection: they have 8 youngsters of Leonardo x Tinkelbel, 4 youngsters of Leonardo and 3 youngsters of Tinkelbel in their breeding loft today. And breeding bird Okidoki is still playing an important role in this pigeon family as well, he is perhaps the best son ever of this pair. And it goes without saying that they can rely on several grandchildren as well. We zoom in on some of their most notable breeders (youngsters of Leonardo and/or Tinkelbel), but first we take another close look at Okidoki.
Okidoki was a hidden gem both in the racing and breeding loft. We look at some of his best results and the achievements of his descendants:
The most important breeders (youngsters of Leonardo and Tinkelbel)
NL08-4200372, Nitzan (daughter Leonardo x Tinkelbel)
Nitzan is the dam of top breeder Renoir
NL10-1029951, Rocking Blue (son Leonardo x Tinkelbel)
NL12-1000981, Hugo (son Leonardo x Tinkelbel)
NL09-4216344, Chocco 44 (daughter Leonardo x Fire)
NL11-1107091, Baroness (daughter Leonardo x Tinkelbel)
NL11-1107117, Magnus (son Leonardo x Tinkelbel)
NL12-1000850, Miss Evita (daughter Leonardo x Elise)
NL13-1581560, Othello (son Leonardo x Tinkelbel)
Achievements in One Loft Races
Over the past ten years, the family of Leonardo and Tinkelbel have also gained an excellent reputation in One Loft Racing. Arie does not compete in OLR's that often, since he likes to have his pigeons at home, where he can closely monitor them. You cannot keep an eye on them if they are far away from home of course. But he decided to get a bit more involved in OLR's last year, and he promptly added some prominent results to his palmares, including a 1st and 4th in the Hot Spots and a 4th Ace Pigeon in the Sevilla Pigeon Race. That is why we end this article with an overview of the achievements of other fanciers in One Loft Races with the help of Arie's pigeons: