In 2014, after these two superb performances, he finally chose to put them on his breeding loft instead of selling them abroad... Several years later, it's finally paying of 2018…
Francis and the dynasty of the 'Super Orange'…
When you talk about pigeons and especially the marathon races, Francis has a lot to say. He likes to share his opinions on his topic during several minutes, coming back on his best performances and explaining his vision of the future… We must say that he comes from a family of pigeon fancier: he is the son of a regional star on the sprint and middle distance races, Joseph Franssen from Charneux. He was then very young when he started to be interested in the pigeon sport, before he definately took his own step in the '90's. He quickly became national champion of the beginners in 1995 but his mind was already far away: he already dreamt about Barcelona and the rest of the marathon races. Being very busy with his job in the construction, he finally took a radical step in 2003 when he decided to focus entirely his practice of the pigeon sport around the marathon races. He bought several pigeons able to fly these distances. In 2006, he was lucky enough to breed an exceptionnal pigeon: the 'Super Orange' who booked several fantastic performances at the age of , especially the 5th national Orange and the 370th national Souillac in 2008. The next years, he is back on the right track again: 52th national Orange and 114th national Souillac in 2009. Francis decided to try him on the international races in 2010 and in 2011. And he was directly succesfull winning ao. the 24th national Perpignan. In 2011, he is basketted for the first time on Barcelona and he won the 120th national. Unfortunately, he never came home from the same race in 2012… However, his superior breeding qualities quickly came to the fore and impacted positively the level of the colony. In 2014, two of his grandsons booked two astonishing performances: the first one won the 1st national St-Vincent and the second the 2nd national Agen… two performances booked in a week. What a class…
St-Vincent 2014
The 27th june of that year, Francis just missed the national victory on Agen against 3.180 yearlings with a yearling cock bred out of a Seegmuller cock from Thoné origins paired on a direct daughter of his 'Super Orange'. This cock was later christened as 'Origui'. At the time, he is still ignoring that a full brother of this 'Origui' will do better the next week on St-Vincent. The 2014 edition of that race was tough. Only 61 pigeons from the 3.132 belgian basketted will come home on the first day of the race. Francis clocked 3 of them including the national winner, rightly christened as the 'St-Vincent'. He achieved an average speed of 1.486 m/min for a distance of 941 km. He booked his victory with a comfortable advance of no less than 40 m/min on the second prize, a pigeon of Didden from Neeroeteren, the third national being a pigeon of Francis Hemelaers from Flémalle.
The 'St-Vincent' on the steps of his illustrious grandfather
The 'St-Vincent', former national winner and now basic pigeon of the Franssen loft.
After this double success achieved by two full brothers, Francis quickly understands that he has to prepare the future with these two superior birds. That's why he gets rid of his previous strains to invest in new blood to be crossed on this line. Actually, you can find in Bolland several birds from De Smeyter-Restiaen including a daughter of 'Cas', some pigeons from Luc Herbots with a half-brother of his 2nd national Barcelona 2011, the Meirlaen-strain with a daughter of the 1st national Cahors, the Depasse-Lardenoye with a daughter of 'Big-Bird' (9th Ranking Pipa of the best international Barcelona birds 4 years), some pigeons from Lefevre Frederic (France) including the line of the 'New Laureaat' Batenburg, pigeons from Caro Jean-Marc & Alain with a son and a daughter of the 1st national Montauban, Thoné Jos with a half-sister of the 1st International Barcelona from Vangenende and also a daughter of 'Galax', 1st International Marseille. More recently, he added some pigeons from the Desbuquois brothers with a son and a half-brother of 'Maximus', 1st ranking Barcelona national 2012-2013 and finally some pigeons bred out of the line of the 'Ace' from Wilson Dekens via the Pipa Elite Center.
Since he was put to the breeding loft, the 'St-Vincent' counts now several breeding references:
He is grandfather of:
7-16-21 Nat Zone Libourne yl 2016 – 392 p. 27-128-162 Nat Libourne yl 2016 – 3.697 p.
He is also double grandfather of 'Mister Brive' (BE17-1097092):
2. Brive zonal - 404 p. '18 (after loftmate) 294. National - 4,384 p. 150. Châteauroux I zonal - 2,200 p. '18 2524. National - 27,081 p. 61. Bourges provincial - 416 p. '18 102. National Zone - 1,000 p.
Click here to check the pedigree from 'Mister Brive'.
Guy & Michael Regnier from Pesche also raced some descendants of that one, including the '213/16' being a grandson. He won the following performances:
1. Nat Zone Limoges – 1.433 p. 23. National - 7.274 p. 17. Iprov. Vierzon – 9.260 p.
As we already wrote it above, the 'St-Vincent' is a full brother to 'Origui', 2nd national Agen against 3.180 yearlings.
'Origui' is at his turn grandfather of 'Miss Brive' (BE17-1097118):
1. Brive zonal - 404 p. '18 288. National - 4,384 p. 219. Andrezel provincial - 1,335 p. '18 280. Châteauroux I zonal - 2,200 p. '18
Click here to check the pedigree of 'Miss Brive'.
Best results of the yearlings 2018
23/06 Brive (688 km) Prov – 155 yl : 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 11, 14, 16, … (28/55) 23/06 Brive Lg-Hesb - 322 yl: 2, 3, 13, 16, 23, 26, 29, 33, 34, 35, ... (28/55) 23/06 Brive Zonal - 404 yl: 1, 2, 8, 12, 20, 24, 28, 32, 33, 34, 37, 39, 40, ... (27/55) 07/07 Limoges (661 km) Prov – 249 yl : 2, 6, 8, 19, 20, 21, 25, … (17/41) 07/07 Limoges EPR – 353 yl : 3, 8, 11, 22, 24, 26, 33, 34, … (16/41) 07/07 Limoges Zonal – 542 yl : 3, 7, 11, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31, … (16/41)
The yearling cocks were quickly stopped to prepare 2019. The winds were really too difficult in 2018 for the geographic situation of the Franssen loft and Francis rightly decided to stop them after two races to make sure he has enough quality in his team for 2019. Each reader of this report have to know that the youngsters are never trained during the year of their birth. As yearlings, they are trained 9 times before being basketted for the first provincial race (last year, it was with the race of Trelou, so +/- 230 km). Then, they are basketted for Bourges, Châteauroux to make sure they have enough experience. We are sure that we will hear again the name of Francis during the next racing season who is getting closer and closer now.
To end this report, we would like to list several names who have been successful with the pigeons from Francis Franssen :
Guy & Michael Regnier (Pesche):
1st Nat Zone Limoges old pigeons 18 – 1.433 p. & 23th national 7.274 p. (50 % Franssen – grandson 'St-Vincent')
Christian Bouhy (Battice):
19th Nat Marseille 2.336 p. '18 & 46th International 9.387 p. (50% Franssen)
Manu Genot (Hannut):
6th Pipa Ranking Limoges 14-15-16 (50% Franssen)
Bernard D’Hondt (Malonne):
His best yearling in 2017 is a 50 % Franssen (from the line of the 'St-Vincent')
Francis, we already wish you a successful season in 2019!