Vandenheede Freddy & Jacques (Kruisem): 1st National Libourne 3,884 yearbirds - fastest of 7,145b.

"Le Petit Prince"
B24-4141331
1st National Libourne 3,884 yearbirds - fastest of 7,145b.

Distance: 743km
Velocity: 1,293.04 m/m

National victory number 29 (since 1999) for the Vandenheede Brothers is a fact.
On July 12th, they already won 1st National Libourne with “Lord Souillac” (B24-4141105) against 4,234 yearlings (fastest of 8,811 pigeons), and now it was “Le Petit Prince” (B24-4141331) who claimed the national victory from Libourne (743 km).
“Le Petit Prince” is a small blue widower who started the season in the “rain-soaked” Bourges race and needed some time to recover from that flight, which was released under questionable conditions. Afterwards, he and his loft mates—who had also struggled at Bourges—were gradually brought back into shape through some short middle-distance races. “Le Petit Prince” made an impression by scoring in the top hundreds on the Châteaudun and Châteauroux flights.
The fact that he performed like that showed his owner he was ready.

“Does winning a national ever become routine?” we asked Freddy.
“Winning a national race is always a great pleasure, but our Libourne racers have truly surprised us with their overall result. We clocked no less than 41 pigeons in the National Top 100!”

Libourne National – 3,261 old birds:
4-13-16-17-19-20-32-34-36-38-43-59-63 etc. (25 out of 35 in the first quarter)

Libourne National – 3,884 yearlings:
1-4-5-7-8-13-16-20-24-26-28-33-45-48-51-54-58-61-62-64-72-75-91-93-100 etc.
(68 out of 101 in the first quarter)

Who has ever achieved such a result?
The Vandenheede racing team continues to deliver truly impressive “headline performances.”
“And now, part of this team will go to Tulle, and then the season will be over for both yearlings and old birds.”

Last year, the Vandenheede brothers had a phenomenal season with 2x 1st National Ace Pigeon KBDB and 2x 1st National wins — a full feature about this appeared on April 26, 2025.

Click here to read the full article again.

Freddy and Jacques, congratulations from the entire Herbots team.

Stefan Mertens