Romanian businessman Florea Sorin has been acquiring birds with the best bloodlines from Europe in the past few years such as Italian ace bird Il Ragno. Recent results now show that he is well on his way to reaching his ultime goal: breeding and racing successfully across the world.
Buying the best for his dad
Florea Sorin was born in a family of which the father raced pigeons. Being very passionate about his hobby, Pea Ion quickly turned his son Florea into a pigeon fancier as well. Because at the time Pea Ion did not have the financial means to buy the best birds and now his son and successful businesssman Florea has, Team Floria Sorin has been investing in high-quality birds for the past few years. It is Florea’s way of showing gratitude to his father. Countless birds from supreme Western European bloodlines moved to Romania such as Geerinckx, Vandenabeele, Van Dyck, Derwa, Limbourg, De Cock, Drapa, Krüger, Veenstra and Koopman.
Il Ragno
In addition, Team Florea Sorin has also been acquiring ace birds from other countries than Belgium, Germany and Holland, albeit offspring from birds of those countries. One of their latest purchases is long distance ace bird IT10-025321 Il Ragno, raced in Italy by Stella Rossa. Il Ragno finished the 2011 season in Italy as 1st National Ace Bird Long Distance Italy thanks to the following superb performances:
- 1st Interprovincial Molfetta (594 km) 3,372 birds (1113 m/min)
- 1st Interregional Otranto (791 km) 2,600 birds (1043 m/min)
- 4th Interregional Brindisi (723 km) 3,403 birds (1039 m/min)
Not surprising when we closely examine the bird’s pedigree. Il Ragno descends from many famous bloodlines. His dam Graziella is a 100% Etienne Devos bird and a daughter of Devos’s 1st Nat. Ace Bird Belgium 1997 As Pipo. As Pipo himself is 50 per cent (late) Etienne Devos and 50 per cent Noël Lippens, both known for being amongst Belgium’s best long distance racers. Il Ragno’s sire Bigio is an Andre Verbesselt bird from the famous Marcel Aelbrecht bloodline. Bigio is a son of the ace breeding pair Son Bak 17 (brother to 14th, 15th and 20th Nat.) x Miss Joice (half-sister of 1st and 7th Nat. Ace Bird Belgium). Check out Il Ragno’s pedigree for yourself here.
Return on investment
It didn’t take long before the first returns on Team Florea Sorin’s investments showed. The most recent successes with offspring from their acquisitions were achieved in the latest edition of the Derby Arona, the one loft race organised on the Spanish island of Tenerife and known for being the toughest race in the world. Team Florea Sorin won no less than four top 100 positions in the world’s most extreme one loft race:
- 5th final race: RO-444852 – bloodlines: Louis van Loon, Janssen Brothers, Eros Carboni, Helmut & Alfons Klaas, Hardy Krüger
- 33rd final race: RO-010050 – bloodlines: Janssen Brothers, Jan Hooymans, Pieter Veenstra, Gaby Vandenabeele
- 88th final race: RO-010061 – bloodlines: Casaert-Senechal, Sjaak Buwalda, Georges Carteus
- 92nd final race: RO-444602 – bloodlines: Andreas Drapa, Janssen Brothers, Jan v.d. Pasch
Around that same time, German fancier Klaus Stieneker also achieved success with offspring from Team Florea Sorin’s bird. His RO14-0050535 Nicoleta became best yearling ace hen in the pigeon racing association of Greven with eleven prizes, having the most ace points of all of this year’s ace birds in the association. At the higher regional and provincial levels, she finished fourteenth best yearling ace hen (500 fanciers) and seventeenth best yearling ace hen (around 4,000 fanciers) respectively.
These references underline the excellent pigeon transfers that Team Florea Sorin has done so far in reaching his goal: breeding and racing successfully across the world. There is no doubt that many more eye-catching results will follow in the near future.