When we arrived in Ballingstraat in Gullegem, we saw about ten fanciers chatting pleasantly with a beer or a soft drink in hand. Everyone was happy and enthusiastic about the performance of “Milow Jacques,” who had just won 1st National Bourges for yearlings and was also the fastest of all 46,444 Bourges pigeons. The celebration had clearly already started, although the “guest of honor,” Andy Seynaeve, was nowhere to be seen. “You’ll have to wait another hour,” someone whispered to me. “Andy is a self-employed hairdresser and he couldn’t exactly tell his customers he couldn’t do their hair because he had won with the pigeons.” No… customers come first… completely understandable.

About an hour later, we were finally able to congratulate Andy. Friendly Andy is a real chatterbox, and by simply asking one question, we learned the whole story behind this victory.

Restart

“I’ve been involved with pigeons all my life,” Andy begins his story. “In 1978, the name Jacques & Andy Seynaeve was born, but in 2015 Jacques had had enough. Jacques belonged to the ‘old school’ and wasn’t very keen on all the innovations entering pigeon racing. I continued alone, but as a self-employed hairdresser, it wasn’t easy. Then in 2018, it was decided that in the province of West Flanders all races would take place on Saturdays, and pigeon racing became completely incompatible with my work, so I threw in the towel. I only kept a few pigeons to maintain some life around the yard.

Just a few meters from my home lives well-known champion and former national winner Freddy Neyrinck (we can actually see each other’s lofts), and he made sure I never lost my connection with the sport. Then the PAS system came onto the market, and since 2025 I’ve been active again. With 75% of my pigeons coming from Freddy Neyrinck, supplemented with pigeons from Joël Verschoot, Denijs Eric, Vermandere Eric, Clicque Gino, and a touch of Maes Anthony, I feel I now have a very solid breeding base.

The goal is to excel in long-distance racing (flights of 600 km / 700 km). My team consists of 9 old cocks and 36 yearling cocks. They train once a day for a full hour, and the Van Robaeys mixtures (the Flight Force range consisting of 3-phase feeds) are on the menu. Medically, I consult Medibird-Degudap (Izegem).

The National Bourges winner and the star of this first national race of the 2026 season is the blue cock “Milow Jacques” (B25-3003870). He was raced on pure widowhood, and whether he was motivated in any special way is hard to say. “Apparently he was,” says owner Andy, “because otherwise you don’t achieve a victory like this. ‘Milow Jacques’ was the only pigeon among the 46,444 Bourges participants to exceed the 1,400 m/min mark. The other podium places in the yearling category were taken by Vandenheede Freddy & Jacques (1399 m/min) and D’Hondt Martin (1391 m/min).

The future of ‘Milow Jacques’ will take place in the Far East because, thanks to the professional support of the Herbots family, he is heading to a new owner.

Andy: “In closing, I would like to thank all my friends for all the support and congratulations. Especially my neighbor Freddy Neyrinck and mentor Gino Mispelaere. This Bourges victory is my very first national victory, and at the moment itself, as a winner, everything happens so quickly around you, but now that things have calmed down a bit, I can truly enjoy this unique triumph. ‘Once in a lifetime’… hopefully not, and maybe one day I’ll get to experience all of this again.”

"Milow Jacques"
B25-3003870
1st National Bourges yearbirds - fastest of 46,444 birds

Distance: 446km
Velocity: 1,403.63 m/m

Stefan Mertens