Jouke made a fresh start in this new pigeon loft in 2019, relying on a group of descendants of the fantastic Esmee, paired to some other renowned pigeons. It was with these pigeons that he competed in ten sprint races that year. They achieved some great results, and they proved to be quite successful again in 2020, this time as one year olds. For instance, the team claimed a 1st and 7th NPO in the one day long distance race from Sens (18th of July) of 6,629 pigeons, and they also had the fastest pigeon in S4 of 12,703 pigeons (reread our earlier report here). They took as many as three first prizes at NPO/provincial level. We take a look at some of their best results and their championship titles this year.
Like we said, many of today's best racing birds are still descendants of Esmee. She had been paired to some other highly renowned breeders, including the legendary Harry, his son New Harry (both Jan Hooymans) and Porsche 911 (PEC), and together they bred quite a few highly successful descendants. We will be looking at a few of these race winners in a moment, but we would like to start by putting Esmee in the spotlight one more time.
Super class hen Esmee was born in 2012, and she marked the breakthrough of Tjeerd and Jouke's pigeon racing career. She was already 9th National ace pigeon allround in the TBOTB competition as a yearling in 2013. And her most prestigious victory was her 1st NPO Châlons, where she claimed victory with a 100 m/min lead (or 23 minutes) as the fastest of 11,000 pigeons, racing in 33 degree temperatures. She won an impressive 17 prizes 1 per 100 over the course of her career. We take a look at her best achievements and titles:
After what had been a very strong racing career, Esmee developed into an excellent breeding hen. But she got sick in the winter of 2017-2018 and she died a short time later. However, despite having only spent a few years in the breeding loft, she has bred some absolutely fantastic descendants, often crossbred with the cream of the crop of other Dutch fanciers. Tjeerd and Jouke were particularly successful with pigeons that they bred together with Jan Hooymans. Esmee was paired to Jan's legendary Harry, combining two national ace pigeons as well as two national winners. Esmee also combined really well with New Harry, and there was also a joint breeding involving Esmee x Porsche 911 (PEC), which proved very successful too.
NL15-1850078 Hallilujah x NL12-4245276 New Hope
One of the products of the joint breeding of Esmee x Harry was Hallilujah, which has become one of the leading names in Harkema. To begin with, he is the sire/grandfather of several top ten winners NPO. Hallilujah has been paired to breeding hen New Hope, and together they have bred several strong racing birds, including the fantastic Prince Esmee, winner of 2 x 1st NPO in just two weeks' time. And a brother of Hallilujah is also proving to be a successful breeder for Jan Hooymans: one of his youngsters has a 10th NPO to his name in Kerkdriel.
Hallilujah is now the sire or grandfather of:
NL17-4289807 Prince Esmee
Prince Esmee is a son of the aforementioned breeding pair Hallilujah x New Hope, making him a grandson of dream pair Harry x Esmee.
Prince Esmee was sensational in 2018, claiming two victories NPO in just two weeks' time (click here for our report on this sensational victory). He came to the fore already as a young bird, winning a 2nd Asse Zellik of 4,122 pigeons. And he is proving to be an excellent breeder as well; he is now the sire/grandfather of:
NL17-1410114 New Esmee
Like we said, the combination of Esmee and New Harry (of Jan Hooymans) was a great success too. For instance, a daughter of this combination has won a 6th NPO Roye for Jan Hooymans (raced by Christian v.d. Wetering). And Tjeerd and Jouke have a talented new breeding hen in their collection, bred from Esmee x Harry. She is called New Esmee, and she is already the dam of:
NL13-4242338 Mr. Sky
Mr. Sky was the first telltale sign of the many breeding qualities of Esmee and her most important sons. He won for instance:
And he turned out to be a great breeding bird himself as well; he is now the sire/grandfather of:
BE17-4062707 Daughter Porsche 911 x Esmee
One particularly special pairing of two super class birds was that of Porsche 911 x Esmee. We already discussed Esmee's list of achievements, but we also wanted to include the palmares of Porsche 911. He won the following prizes:
Grandchildren of Porsche 911 won two national first prizes in 2020 alone, besides a 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Zone/prov. Meanwhile, a daughter of Porsche 911 x Esmee appears to have inherited the breeding qualities of both her parents in her early career as a breeder. She is already the dam of:
NL14-1373376 The Only One
The Only one is a full brother of the phenomenal Esmee.
He plays an important role in the lofts of Tjeerd and Jouke as a breeder. He is for instance:
NL15-1848864 Blue Harry
Besides the joint breeding involving Harry and Esmee, there was another son of Harry that moved from Kerkdriel to Harkema: Blue Harry. He is a direct son of Harry x Daughter Harry. And Daughter Harry is in turn a full sister of Beauty Harry.
Blue Harry has lived up to the reputation of his predecessors; he is already the sire/grandfather of:
NL13-1630238 Special Vita
The last pigeon that we wanted to introduce here is Special Vita. She is a 100% Pieter Veenstra bird and she is related to some big names, including Mr. Blue, broer Dolce Vita etc.
She is the dam of two provincial winners in 2020 alone: a 1st Arlon of 17,209 pigeons and a 1st Gennep of 13,311 pigeons. Her youngsters and grandchildren have won the following prizes:
Outstanding in other lofts as well
In the wake of the fantastic results of Tjeerd and Jouke, we also saw some excellent results from other fanciers with descendants of those same breeders. We take a look at the list of references from pigeons bred directly from the Elzinga bloodlines, including nothing but first prizes in major races in 2020: