A dream come true
Even though Les Green, a Mancunian born and bred, and Andy Quirke, a famous Irish comedy actor, do not have that much in common at first sight, they do share one passion: pigeon racing and, more specifically, ace birds. Les races on the sprint in the United Kingdom while Andy participates in both the Irish Homing Union and international one loft racing. Both have the ambition to win and have therefore always dreamed of having their very own national ace bird to breed with. "A dream which finally came true on 11 December 2017 when we came to PIPA to pick up the 1st National Ace Bird Youngsters WHZB/TBOTH 2017, which we purchased from the Dutch fancier Jan van de Pasch", Andy explains. They immediately named the bird Emerald Green, the colour referring to Les's surname and Andy's Irish roots.
Les Green (m) and Andy Quirke (r) traveled to snowy Belgium to pick up their ace bird
Olympiad and ace bird descent
Emerald Green's ace title win is not really a surprise when we take a closer look at her pedigree. Her sire comes from Jupiter x Mother Olympic Ranomi. Jupiter was an ace racer and won the titles of 1st National Ace Bird Youngsters TBOTH 2009, 2nd Europa-Cup Sprint 2010, 2nd Pre-Olympiad Bird Sprint 2009 and 3rd National Ace Bird Natour 2009. Mother Olympic Ranomi is of course the dam of Olympic Ranomi (2nd Olympiad Bird Allround 2012 and 5th National Ace Bird Long Distance WHZB 2012) but as well of Robin (1st National Ace Bird Youngsters TBOTB 2013). Emerald Green's grandparents from her dam's side are Olympic Hurricane (3rd Olympiad Bird cat. F and 3rd National Ace Bird Youngsters TBOTB) x Olympic Argentonneke (2nd Olympiad Bird cat. H and 8th Olympiad Bird Allround 2013). Furthermore, Olympic Hurricane's sire is Storm (5th National Ace Bird Yearlings TBOTB) and Olympic Argentonneke's dam is Bertie (1st National Ace Bird Allround WHZB 2003). So as you can see, Emerald Green's parentage is crammed with national ace and Olympiad birds. Check out Emerald Green's pedigree here.
Ace hen Emerald Green
Recipe for success
The youngster hen Emerald Green will be crossed with Les's Dirk Van den Bulck birds, a breed which in the past few years has dominated sprint racing at both Belgian national and international level with numerous Belgian national ace birds as well as a 1st Olympiad bird title for Van den Bulck's Olympic Rosita in 2013. Given Emerald Green's descent, it seems Les and Andy will cross that Olympiad breed with a descendant of several other national ace and Olympiad birds. A breeding strategy both fanciers will surely reap the fruits of in the future.