Eddy & Maarten Leutenez (Kluisbergen) Pure class spiced with an unprecedented winner's mentality

Anyone who does not know the father and son tandem Leutenez in the pigeon world has probably spent several years on another planet. They wrote history in Gavere, Semmerzake, Kruisem and now in Kluisbergen. Eddy and Linda still live in Kruisem but have not actively participated in races at this location since the 2022 season. The breeding pigeons find their home there and in this way an important step has been taken in a plan that had already been in realisation for several years. 
Rather unexpectedly, Maarten succeeded his father as a passionate caretaker and player. Eddy, who for health reasons had better not come into direct contact with pigeons too much, was given a more than worthy successor. Eddy's knowledge and experience could again be put to good use in Maarten's project. Linda and Eddy, together with Maarten, take care of the breeding pigeons in Kruisem.
Meanwhile, Maarten and his family built a beautiful house in Kluisbergen (Ruien) and the pigeon sport was fully exploited in this new location. A few transitional years were spent in the name of Milan Leutenez, but after the sale of most of the old racers, Eddy and Maarten have been racing since the 2022 season in the lofts in Kluisbergen. The circle is complete again !
An overview of the top national performances only confirms how unique their career is so far and we are convinced that we have not seen the very last of them. 
7 x 1st national
1st national Bourges 39,238b.
1st national La Souterraine 21,275b.
1st national La Souterraine 14,967b.
1st national Brive 12,573b.
1st National Brive 1,458b.
1st national Royan 1,097b.
1st national Argenton 16,946b. 

5 x 2nd national
2nd national La Soutteraine 11,859b.
2nd national La Soutteraine 10,530b.
2nd national Narbonne 4,665b.
2nd natonal La Soutteraine 1,908b.
2nd national Limoges 8.303d.                                                   

2 x 1st national ace KBDB with "Millo" and "Trapke "

"Het Bolleken"

It is the old strong base of top breeding hen "Het Bolleken" that continues to do it even now. Every top pigeon this year is a descendant of this famous hen. In her wake, as a strong sire, we also find "Oscar", who as a former national winner Argenton passes on his strong genes. Grandchildren of "Oscar" already flew 1st prize in the Schelde Verbond of 885 pigeons and the 72nd national on the past Argenton is also a grandchild of "Oscar".
The old strain (read "Het Bolleken", "Milan", "Oscar", "Alaphilippe", "Trapke", etc...) has been successfully supplemented with pigeons from Alain and Dirk Van Den Driessche (pigeons that were bought at the total sale of this colony a few years ago), Erik Limbourg, Marc Adam and friends of the house Jo and Raf Herbots with whom pigeons have been exchanged or bred together for several years already. Fondicon Emiel Denys also completes this list. Emiel bought "Trapke" (all-round topper) from Eddy and Maarten and descendants of this, coupled with "Sophia" (1st international Narbonne with Emiel) are at the basis of this year's success in the long-distance races Agen and Narbonne. 

A very limited racing team that impresses
This year saw a restart in Kluisbergen with youngsters and a (rather limited) team of yearlings. Maarten and Eddy still adore the youngsters as their favourite branch within pigeon racing. The youngsters have given them so many great results and pleasure in the past that it is woven into their blood. However, nothing prevents them from also excelling with older pigeons and hens. They have proved this more than enough in the past. For the 2022 season, they had two goals in mind: the youngsters and the long-distance and very long-distance races with yearlings.
The season started with 10 yearling cocks and 10 yearling hens. Within this team, 4 cocks were destined for the long distance races Agen and Narbonne. And this small but strong team did more than excellently. In a heavy and hard season, characterised by constantly harsh pigeon weather, these pigeons flew a magnificent record. 
Nationally they played top 150 on every flight with 2 times top 10 nationally. A very strong list of results !
28/06 : Tulle (594km) : 10th and 185th National against 6,842 yearlings 
02/07 : Agen (787km) : 19th National against 7,331 yearlings
09/07 : Brive (642km) : 29th and 179th National against 5,885 yearlings
23/07 : Souillac (669km) : 143rd and 189th National against 4,637 yearlings
29/07 : Narbonne (848km) : 149th National against 6,013 yearlings
06/08 : Libourne (724km) : 10th National against 2,992 yearlings
 

Argenton mon amour
...The love for playing with the young pigeons has also paid off in season 2022. From the start it was clear that the schwung was in the team and this has led to very nice results to date. Up until today, no less than 10 first prizes were played including 1st National Zone Argenton 3,459 b., 2 times 1st Scheldeverbond of +/- 1,000 b. Also on each provincial flight, leaders were played such as 5th Provincial Orléans 7,205 b., 8th Provincial Orléans 7,205 b., 10th Provincial Montoire 3,781 b. etc. And what was somewhat to be expected (although this is easier pronounced than realised) was that they would have another crack at the national races with the youngsters. Remember Oscar's 1st national Argenton some years back? 

21/08/2022
Argenton National: 22,869 pigeons
Argenton announced itself as a rather tough flight. The pigeons faced one more night of basket and the weather was quite tough for youngsters. But the Leutenez colony was on the appeal, more than on the appeal.... They got on the radar of the entries pretty quickly with a real top pigeon and it turned out that this would remain a top performance. This top pigeon resulted in 1st club, 1st national Zone A3 and national 12th prize out of 22,869 pigeons. But this was only the prelude to a magnificent result put down by the young guard on this national flight :
Argenton (484km) : Club : 365 d. : 1-2-3-8-11-12-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-24-27-... (38/74)
Argenton (484km) : Nat. A3 : 3,459 d. : 1-13-25-73-110-113-138-143-144-147-166-177-179-180-188-...
Argenton (484km) : National : 22,869 d. : 12-72-120-... 
The preparatory flights to the national Argenton clearly showed they were ready for it :
Pont St Maxence (175km) : Club : 286 d. : 1-2-3-4-4-6-7-8-9-9-14-15-16-17-22-23-27-28-... (60/75)
Pont St Maxence (175km) : Club : 367 d. : 1-3-4-5-5-7-8-9-10-10-16-17-18-19-25-26-...
Pont St Maxence (175km) : Combine : 1,143 d. : 1-22-25-26-26-28-40-41-42-42-71-73-78-…

27/08/2022
Argenton National 13,393 young birds
Taking all weather maps into observation, it would be a race where we would have to work harder than the week before. The middle distance flights were barely touching 1,200 metres per minute and so it would be a hard, fair but tough flight for Argenton. Weather conditions that the Leutenez pigeons like to work in and where the state of recovery from the previous flight would also be very important. This was the key question in the hours leading up to the arrival of the pigeons.
But when the first hen reported in Ruien, it soon became clear that this would be another strong performance, but even more so the arrivals that followed. A beautiful row of arrivals was set and pigeons arrived with a lot of panache and enthusiasm. The arrivals followed each other like balls on a paternoster and the stress quickly turned into great satisfaction because of the performance of the entire race team. It is clear that the pigeons recovered well and that they certainly still had the condition to finish a 484 km race.
This resulted in the following nice results:
Club : 254 youngsters : 1-2-3-4-6-8-9-12-14-16-17-19-20-22-23-25-26-28-... (39/71)
Nat. Zone A3 : 2,648 youngsters : 10-16-20-27-34-39-46-105-144-148-154-198-199-203-211-222-258-281-enz
National : 13,393 young : 35-58-74-98-142-173-189-...or as many as 7 pigeons in the top 200 nationally.

4 x Argenton - 12 x Top-200 national
If we analyse all this very well, we can say that the national race from Argenton is the favourite release place for Eddy & Maarten's pigeons. After "Oscar" already gave them a 1st national from Argenton, 12 times top 200 national were played on 4 flights from Argenton this year. Unique to see this performance list
Argenton June 4 : 78th national against 18,763d.
Argenton July 18 : 80th national against 12,938d.
Argenton Aug 21 : 12th-72nd-120th national against 22,869d.
Argenton Aug 27: 35th-58th-74th-98th-142nd-173rd-189th national against 13,393d. 
Proof that the Leutenez pigeons are still so keen to excel on flights from 500km. 

Fanciers beware ! 
This Monday 21st November at 2 p.m. (c.e.t.)
Don't let this opportunity pass by!

Despite the strong 2022 season, Eddy and Maarten have decided to auction some proven toppers from their so successful breeding line of the "Het Bolleken" and national Argenton winner "Oscar". 
Please note... some pigeons were bred by the Leutenez family but have flown at Herbots Gebroeders in Halle-Booienhoven. 

This top auction includes

"Golden Tulle": 1st National Tulle- fastest of 17,035 pigeons
"Sergio": 1st Nat. (z) Argenton - 12th National Argenton 22,869d.
"Julia": 4th Prov. ace pigeon great middle distance KBDB '22 - 18th Nat. ace pigeon great middle distance young - 4 flights - KBDB ranking
"Eagle Oscar": 5th Prov. ace pigeon all-round KBDB '22
10 different 1st prize winners
10 Top-100 national winners
20 Top-100 national zone winners

Eddy and Maarten sincerely thank all bidders and buyers and wish the buyers good luck with the new purchase(s)


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