"The Lucky One"
B24-5007028
1st National Bourges 7,666 yearbirds

Distance: 513km
Velocity: 1,480.49 m/m

Marc Bosmans and Dirk Leekens greet us with a big smile on their faces. It’s no surprise that a bottle of champagne has already been opened on Vijverstraat in Beverlo—after all, winning Bourges nationally is the highlight for every middle and long-distance pigeon fancier in Belgium. Marc and Dirk won 1st National Bourges against 7,666 yearlings, and with an average speed of 1,480.49 m/min, this was also good for 2nd fastest overall out of no less than 34,429 pigeons released from Bourges. This victory marks the fifth national win for the partnership since its formation. Previously, they already claimed: 1st National Chateauroux (twice), 1st National Gueret, 1st National Argenton. In his previous pigeon racing career, Dirk also won 1st National Brive.

"The Lucky One"

Sometimes man or animal just needs a bit of luck. And judging by the name of their winning hen, we suspected there might be a story behind this performance. “Not necessarily behind the win itself,” Dirk tells us as we walk to the hens’ loft. The winning bird, “The Lucky One”, already had a respectable record: 13th Chimay against 1,527 pigeons, 29th Soissons against 2,199 pigeons, 48th National Argenton against 13,988 pigeons. But the week after Argenton, she returned home from an intermediate flight with a severe chest injury. “We suspect that during the release she was struck to the ground by the mass of pigeons exiting the truck at the same time.” It was a serious injury—she had to stay home and recover for no less than 6 weeks. Her first flight after recovery was the Interprovincial Sancoins, where she placed 37th against 2,956 pigeons, followed now by her brilliant win at Bourges. Her father is a son of “Lucky Luke,” the foundation breeder of the Bosmans-Leekens loft, crossed with the unique “Athena” line from Rik Hermans. Her mother is “Ito” (4th Olympiad pigeon yearling, Oradea 2022), with genes from the famous “Harry” line by Jan Hooymans.

Top Season

Marc and Dirk can look back on a truly top season. This year alone, they’ve won 1st place on 35 different races, including: 14 x 1st regional, 4 x 1st provincial. Even though they have a top-class cock like “Marco” (winner of 2 x 1st provincial), they’re less satisfied with the cock birds overall.
“We started with 18 yearling cocks and 16 old cocks. But like many others, we suffered losses and are now down to just 5 yearlings and 4 old birds.”
Once the cocks start flying nationals, they’re raced every two weeks. Besides the widowers, they also had 16 old and 35 yearling hens.
“We’re very satisfied with the hens’ results, but even there we had our share of losses. The first national race from Bourges was truly an irresponsible release. Congratulations to the winners whose birds managed to stay ahead of the bad weather—but for the rest, it was a disaster. Many birds were ‘ruined’ that day.” From now on, the focus will shift to the young birds. Only a few old/yearling hens, which were raced on the total widowhood system, will finish off the final national races in nest position.

We wish them the best of luck going forward!

Stefan Mertens