Sunday 22 September 2019

Dream achieved in fantastic season!

Our ambition when we setup up our breeding loft was to breed a 1st National winner and on the 20th September 2019 we achieved that ambition with 2nd National thrown in too! Our birds have once again exceeded all expectations this season at our test lofts and this years results have surpassed our wildest dreams!

This seasons results achieved by birds bred at Rasbull Lofts and raced by our test lofts:-

8 x 1st, 7 x 2nd, 6 x 3rd, 4 x 4th, 3 x 5th, 7 x 6th Club
2 x 1st, 2nd, 2 x 3rd, 4th, 5th, 2 x 7th, 10th, 2 x 12th, 14th, 2 x 15th, 23rd, 2 x 28th Federation
1st, 2nd, 13th, 14th, 25th, 41st National

Before I go on, I need to pay utmost respect and offer sincere congratulations to our test loft Mr and Mrs Winder, from Abercynon who have had an unbelievable season and who have tested our birds to the maximum. I have visited every week on race day to watch the birds come home and would like to thank Alan and Lorna for making me most welcome. They are top fanciers who put huge effort into the birds and deserve all the credit for what has been the season of their life!

Where to start? Firstly, there was the old bird season where our test loft birds won 6 x 1st, 5 x 2nd, 3rd, 3 x 5th, 4 x 6th Club. 1st, 3rd, 7th, 12th, 14th, 2 x 15th Federation. 13th, 14th, 25th National.

The highlights of the old bird season was the 1st Federation winner for Mr and Mrs Winder bred out of our No.1 stock cock Rasbull Semtex but the highlight without a doubt was a blue hen, who has now returned to our loft called Rasbull D'Artagnan who scored 1st Club, 7th Federation, 13th National Duffel, 341 miles, 932 birds and followed up this performance two weeks later to score 1st Club, 15th Federation, 14th National, 508 birds, 418 miles.

We now move to the young bird season where our birds won 2 x 1st, 2 x 2nd, 5 x 3rd, 4 x 4th Club, 2 x 1st, 2nd, 2 x 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th Federation, 1st, 2nd, 41st National. 

It goes without saying the highlight of the entire season was our test loft birds winning 1st and 2nd National, 263 miles, Burbure for Mr and Mrs Winder. It is an unbelievable achievement with just 1 second separating the two birds! The National winner has been named Rasbull Maximus and will return to Rasbull Lofts to begin his breeding career.

Sire of 1st National is Rasbull Nemesis, purchased direct from Koen Van Roy from his No.1 cock Lucky 29. Rasbull Nemesis is half brother to Olympic Linda, 28 x 1st and Olympiad pigeon. Dam of 1st National is Rasbull Valhalla, purchased direct from Jacob Poortvliet's No.1 cock Georgio, when paired to a daughter of his nestmate Georgina. Rasbull Valhalla is also the mother to the pigeon that finished 1st UK, 12th International, King of the Atlantic in the Derby Arona in 2017.

The National winner had already scored 3rd Club, 3rd Federation, 1,667 birds, 68 miles and 12th Federation, 4,323 birds, 68 miles prior to winning the big one! This resulted in Rasbull Maximus being awarded the JO Davies Cup (Best Young Bird in Wales).

If that wasn't good enough we also bred the 2nd National pigeon! She has been named Rasbull Athena and will also be returning to our breeding loft to begin her breeding career.

Sire of 2nd National is Rasbull Chief, purchased from AL Painter, direct from their No.1 breeding bird, The Golden Cock.

Dam of 2nd National is our No.1 breeding hen Rasbull 01. She is a daughter of our No.1 stock cock Rasbull Semtex. She is the Dam of last seasons 4th National, Duffel, 341 miles Rasbull Dicks 49er.

Another highlight of the season was our No.1 Cock Rasbull Semtex, now being Sire to 1st Federation, G.Sire to 1st Federation and G.G.Sire to 1st Federation! This is a fantastic line in our loft and when you also add G.Sire to 2nd National into the mix you can see why the loft is built entirely around this fabulous cock.

In addition to the results achieved we also scored well in the Penywaun Breeder Buyer winning £600 and also had a great run in the Knock out competition and finishing 3rd and winning £175 with another of our test lofts N.Bright & Son.

Another highlight was Mr and Mrs Winder winning 1st Club, 1st Federation this year with a pigeon bred by one of our test loft birds. The sire of 1st Federation was a cock that has scored 25th National, 341 miles and also 2nd Club, Kinzweiler, 418 miles. He has now returned to our loft and has been named Rasbull Ceasar. His nestmate won 1st Club, 1st Federation for Mr and Mrs Winder in 2017. His full sister is Rasbull D'Artagnan who was 13th and 14th National this year. Rasbull Ceasar is bred from Rasbull 27 who is now Sire and G.Sire to 7 x 1st, 2 x 1st Federations and is a son of Rasbull Semtex. The Dam of Rasbull Ceasar is Rasbull Kulpa 699, who was purchased from S&P Kulpa and is now Dam/G.Dam to 2 x 1st Federation.

Our attention now turns to breeding for next year. We have a breeding plan in progress and details of some of our pairings for next year are listed on our website. http://rasbull-lofts.co.uk/for%20sale.html

Nearly every pigeon in our loft has now bred at least 1st Club apart from select young birds which have been retained for breeding purposes this year including two crackers the same way bred as the National winner. We will have 17 or 18 pairs for breeding this coming season and we hope next year will again see improvements but it will be hard to match this season that's for sure! We have again removed any pigeons not producing and have added test loft birds who have scored 1st, 2nd, 13th, 14th, 25th National and sire to 1st Federation to our stock loft which will undoubtedly add to our winning gene pool already housed here at Rasbull Lofts.

We have entered 5 pigeons into the Derby Arona this year which will give us an interest throughout the cold winter months. We have sent 2 from Rasbull 66 x Rasbull Boudicea, 1 from Rasbull 26 x Rasbull Dicks 49er and 2 from Rasbull 27 x Rasbull Kulpa 699. Our best youngsters were retained for breeding purposes so it will be interesting to see how these perform.

Finally, thank you once again to our test loft who have made these results possible, in particular Mr and Mrs Winder. We look forward to continued success next year. We will announce next years Test lofts when they have been finalised in the next couple of months.


(National Presentation Night - 1st Combine, 1st National, JO Davies Cup - Best Young Bird Wales)


(Alan and Lorna holding 1st & 2nd National)


(Rasbull Maximus 1st Combine, 1st National, JO Davies Cup (Best Young Bird in Wales)


(Rasbull Athena 2nd Combine, 2nd National)


(Rasbull D'Artagnan 13th and 14th National)



(Rasbull Ceasar bred 1st Federation winner)