The Freialdenhofen family is proud about their national winner from Barcelona
Barcelona, the race of the season
This is obviously the most important classic race of the season. The pigeons were released on 30 June and 25,382 pigeons had been basketed. There were 10,685 pigeons from Belgium, 6,912 from The Netherlands, 3,232 from France, 1,733 from Germany, 475 from Great Britain, 63 from Luxemburg and no less than 2,282 from Poland. Last year there were 25,320 pigeons at the start but there were a significantly lower number of Polish pigeons. All pigeons were released on Friday at 9:30 in the morning with a clear sky, good visibility and a slight north-east wind. The release was delayed, as a result of which not a single pigeon could reach its loft on the day of the release.
This was a Barcelona race to remember. This year’s edition is regarded as one of the toughest ones of the last ten years and fanciers had to wait quite some time for their pigeons to arrive. The French fancier Thil Claude clocked his first pigeon at 8:25 in the morning but it was not the international winner. The pigeons landed with long intervals and we had to wait a long time for the announcement of the international winner. The international first prize was won by the Belgian Luc Wiels from Roosdaal, who clocked his pigeon at 10:19:10” after a race of 1,057.761km. His winning pigeon had an average speed of 944.289 m/min; no pigeon achieved a velocity of over 1,000 m/min.
The national winner from Barcelona in Germany
The first national from Germany was clocked at 11:58’01”
The Freialdenhofen family once again managed to win a national first prize. Their hen Käthe arrived at the loft at 11:58’01”. This hen achieved a velocity of 904.897 m/min over a distance of 1,103.085km and she is expected to win a 13th international prize as well. You can read between the lines that the pigeons arrived home rather slowly. The second national prize was won by Rudolf Grün. His pigeon covered 968.73km and was clocked at 10:19’00”, achieving a velocity of 864.93 m/min. The third prize went to Burkhard Heller, who clocked his pigeon at 12:56’00”. His pigeon covered 1,092km with a velocity of 855.129 m/min. You can notice a significant time gap between the winners.
Dirk Freialdenhofen and the national winner
Käthe, 1st National Barcelona
This is a dream come true! Käthe (06348-11-427) had already won the first national from Pau and the first national from Agen (Bordeaux) and last weekend she added a third national victory to her list of achievements this season. The motivated Freialdenhofen family was of course extremely happy with this result. Three national victories in three national races; this is an achievement that will be hard to match. Remember that we have a few more international races coming up this season…
Let’s go back to the race itself. The national and international race was not yet closed on Sunday evening. This means a lot of pigeon fanciers were still waiting for their pigeons to arrive.
The origins of Käthe
We are of course eager to know whether or not Käthe belongs to the bloodlines of Forrest Gump. Is she related to some of the other important lines of the Freialdenhofen family instead? I was very excited to see her pedigree. I could not see the name of Forrest Gump on her pedigree but that does not mean she is not related at all. The sire of Käthe is Son Barcelona (06793-08-927), with Bauhaus-Devers origins. This Son Barcelona has already bred a number of excellent descendants: he is the sire of the 10th national Narbonne 2012, 20th national Bordeaux 2011, 52nd Narbonne 2012 and 96th national Bordeaux 2012. This is an impressive list of top quality descendants. The parents of Son Barcelona are worth mentioning as well. His sire, Brother Dax (06793-03-739) was first international Ace Pigeon from 2006 to 2008 and 6th international Ace Pigeon from 2007 to 2009. Brother Dax was paired to the hen that won a 12th Ace Pigeon 2007. This hen has excellent origins as well.
The dam is Irun Lady (06348-04-839), winner of a first national from Irun in 2007 against 2,633 pigeons. She also won a 33rd international from Narbonne against 5,870 pigeons in 2005 and a 83rd national from Carcassonne against 2,717 pigeons in 2006. She is also a half sister of Forrest Gump (via her mother). Her sire is a half brother of that same Forrest Gump. You can see that the bloodline of Forrest Gump plays a key role as well. Click here for the full pedigree of Käthe.
The sire of Käthe
The dam of Käthe
That was it for today. We are curious to see what the rest of the season will bring for the family of Freialdenhofen & Sons. I think there are more surprises to come this season.
First prizes won with pigeons of Freialdenhofen
1st Prize 215 p. with a ten min. lead over 250 km (Taiwan) 1st Prize GDANSK 1,045 km 3,027 p. 2012 (Rumania) 1st Prize GDANSK 1,064 km 1,006 p. 2012 (Rumania) 1st, 2nd and 3rd Prize Varsovia 780 km 857 p. 2011 (Rumania) 1st Nat. Ace Hen 2012 (Germany) 1st + 2nd Olympiad Race London Zone II 622 km 2012 (Germany) 1st Nat. Ace Pigeon in the Barcelona races 2008-2010 1st Nat. Narbonne 2011 (Germany) 1st Nat. Perpignan 2005 (Germany) 1st Nat. San Sebastian 2003 (The Netherlands) 1st Nat. Limoges Yearlings 2003 (Germany) 1st Sector 2 Dax 2003 (Germany) 1st Sector 1 Bordeaux 2007 (Germany) 1st Prize Oostende 2007 (Germany) 1st Prize Tours 9,767 p. (Germany) 1st Prize Orléans 15,604 p. 2006 (Germany) 1st Prize Wrocaaw 5,711 p. 2008 (Poland) 1st Prize Poitiers 2,183 p. 2008 (Germany) 1st Prize Suwalki 1,089 p. 2008 (Rumania) 1st Prize Morro Jable 512 p. 2008 (Spain) 1st Prize Odessa 509 p. 2009 (Rumania) 1st Prize 318 km 633 p. 2010 (Taiwan) 1st Prize Radauti Prut 350 km 518 p. 2011 (Rumania)
The PIPA team wishes the Freialdenhofen family all the best for the rest of the season.
Many congratulations on this wonderful victory!
