549 pigeons came to the start and with 1361 mpm for the winning pigeon, the fighters returned home very regularly with – again – no significant losses. Significant for the good condition in which the pigeons are; the efforts that have now gone on for 7 weeks hardly seem to bother them. It again proved difficult for the 'foreign' pigeons to interfere with the main prizes, which led to the following top 10 of the day:
2nd Anton Schonken, South Africa
3rd Webster Loft, South Africa
4th Team Majestic 10, South Africa
5th Diamond Pigeon Stud, South Africa
6th TNT Loft, South Africa
7th Michel-Michel, South Africa
8th Xafari.com, South Africa
9th Loft Einkamerer, South Africa
10th Family Loft, USA
RMG Racing winner of the day
Winner of Race 7 and Best Fancier of the week were Quintin and Riyaad of RMG Racing … two extremely ambitious fanciers who joined forces since 2012 and quickly became part of the (Inter)national top by investing in class pigeons. Countless championships in strong Unions were their share, especially through targeted purchases. “First of all in top pigeons; we try to purchase winners on races in our area at speeds of 1,200 mpm or less. Pedigrees are not important there; for us it's about the pigeons being able to win.”
In addition, Quintin and Riyaad continued to look to strengthen these local heroes with bloodlines of extra value. Especially to look good at One Loft races… for this purpose pigeons were purchased from Alfons Klaas, the German giant… Klaas pigeons now form the basis of RMG Lofts. Furthermore, the best bloodlines of Leo Heremans, Dirk VD Bulck (Kittel line) and the Best Kittel lines were reinforced. It led to ace pigeons and winners in the Carnival Gold Cup, Dinokeng OLR, Million Dollar race, Victoria Falls OLR, Cape Town OLR, etc. etc. … Vandenabeele and Jan Aarden genes also contributed to these achievements.
The winner of Race 7 in the Africa Pro series comes from Blue Wonder, a Jim Ward cock out of the best Mike Ganus lines who has already bred 4 different 1st prize winners… Mother is Kimberley, 100% Heremans and already breeder of 3x 1st prize.
Status quo in Blue Jacket & Black Jacket
Due to the relatively smooth arrivals, little changed in the competition 'Best Fancier overall' (Black Jacket). The ranking is as follows:
1st Knoetze Loft (South Africa) 49 hours, 27 min, 35 sec.
2nd Triple J Lofts (South Africa) 49;30;05
3rd Diamond Pigeon Lofts (S Africa) 49;31;13
4th Ebraheem Mohammed (South Africa) 49;39;59
5th JJM Lofts (S Africa) 49;50;15
Karayel van Ebraheem Mohammed remains leader in the Blue Jacket, the best pigeon in the Series of 10 races; on 7 flights he scored no less than 6x top 100 prizes.
With 3 races to go, the South African pigeons dominate enormously, which is a reason for the organization of Africa Pro to want to explain this. Rumors that the 'foreign' pigeons would be much further in the moult do not appear to be based on truth. 'The backlog' they have seems more logical, among other things, due to the time of delivery and the associated quarantine. These pigeons were often 6 months and older, before they could fly out and thus they miss an important part of the imprint of 'home' and 'environment'… South African entrants often have even more pigeons in the battle. “We think we can say that this should be different next year,” said organizer Hendrik von Wielligh. “We are busy in consultation with the authorities to shorten the quarantine and at the location of Africa Pro. This will also mean that the time of delivery will be different. As soon as more is known about this, we will make it public immediately.
Africa Pro certainly looks in the mirror and without self-reflection no improvement! In the 2022 Series, the triptych 480 km – 240 km – 600 km awaits in the coming weeks … a big job that can completely turn the classifications upside down. We are eagerly looking forward to the final part of the series.