Description
Siegels Presents Live and On Line Auction Bert and Nancy Van Oeckel & Raf Herbots 11/16/19 More Info coming please read ad's
Bart and Nancy Van Oeckel, Raf Herbots, Dean Ledet and Roland Gutierrez and Ed Minvielle auction of 37 highly select yearlings and late hatches from 2019.
Bart and Nancy Van Oeckel have taken the racing world by storm in Belgium over the past 7 to 8 years. They have consistently placed very high in the Belgian national races, especially the longer middle distance, one day races, like Chateauroux. Their loft has won at least 3 and come within a whisker
of winning five Belgian National races just within the last 5 years. In 2019, their performances from Chateauroux were extremely impressive. This is a distance to their loft of nearly 400 miles, and on both national weekends, (yes there are two Nationals from Chateauroux) they placed extremely high, and
with numbers of birds which shows the depth of their breeding. Yes, they won 2nd National in young birds against 19,529 birds but they also won 12th, 16th, 22nd, 26th, 27th, 68th, 69th, 70th, 77th, and on and on. In all, they had 105 prizes out of 218 birds shipped. Yes, they ship a lot, but so do all of the
other big name lofts and to show the depth of their breeding they had almost 50% of their birds in the prizes. In the Old Bird National they won 26 prizes on 38 birds shipped for an amazing 68% prize winning percentage and their first bird was 7th National against 5,640 birds. They also had 6 in the top 90
against the best lofts in all of Belgium. This is just one example of one National race. They are a threat on any given weekend at any given distance, but their birds seem to do best at distances above 300 miles. Head wind or tail wind, doesn't seem to matter as last year they had an amazing Chateauroux
race as well and the race was very hard with head winds all the way. It is well known around the pigeon world that Bart and Nancy's most famous race bird and really the one that brought initial fame to their loft was their famous "F-16." He was a National winner an Olympiade Ace and an amazing breeder.
What is not so well known is that his sire, the amazing breeder "Zwarte Diamant" (Black Diamond) is still breeding and still producing amazing breeders. In fact the sire of this year's (2019) Chateauroux 2nd National winner is a son of the great "Zwarte Diamant" so a half brother to "F-16." They test a lot
of birds and exchange pigeons with some of the top lofts in Belgium, like Gino Clicque, Kurt and Raf Platteeuw, Geert Lambrechts, Herbots Bros and others. The main thing that impresses me about them is that they test them hard, they train hard and race hard and only the top survivors of that schedule
remain to become breeders.
Raf Herbots is well known in the States, and in Belgium. Yes, he is a vet. Yes he is the son of the famous Phillip Herbots founder of Herbots Pigeon Products, a pigeon magazine, and of one of the most impressive thoroughbred pigeon breeding operations in the world. He is also Bart Van Oeckel's best friend,
and because he is the veterinarian for many of Belgium's best lofts, he also has access to some truly great pigeons. Raf and his son Kobe decided to start racing just a few short years ago, as Raf thought that it would be good for Kobe to learn more about the birds and he was showing a keen interest in the
birds. So they built a small, very functional loft that houses only 12 pairs of breeders. To stock that loft, they had an amazing array of people to ask for help. Starting with his father Phillip and brother Jo, Raf obtained some outstanding "National I" Schellens blood, then from his best friend Bart Van Oeckel he obtained
not one but two daughters of the great "F-16." From his other great friends and acquaintances in the sport Raf was able acquire spectacular breeders, the like which few people have access to. Within a very short time the winning came and it has been extraordinary to say the least. Raf and Kobe have won over 70
firsts in just a few seasons, and have placed very high in some major National races, and have already bred a hen that was the 1st Ace of all Belgium for 4 national races. The selection is very keen with only 12 pairs, and with the amount of winning they have been doing, it appears that they've been making good choices.
Birds from their very best breeders are in this auction.
Dean Ledet and Roland Gutierrez are long time friends and long time pigeon fanciers. Roland lives in Tulsa, Okla. and Dean lives down in the bayous of south Louisiana, in a little town called Morgan City. They breed and exchange birds, test them hard and enter futurities under the name LEDEGUTZ. Whatever they are doing
they're doing it right because they are hot as firecrackers lately. Just in the last several years this combo has won 1st average speed America's Int. Challenge and 1st average speed California Classic. They've had a bird on or near the first drop on several of the bigger futurities in the USA. In 2019, they bred 2 birds for other
fanciers who had lost their birds in the Texas Center Convention race and those birds both ended up in the top 5 pigeons, including a 1st in the "D" loft. In 2018, Dean bred a bird that he shipped to fly in the IF Convention race and while that bird didn't win a top prize in the convention itself, it did race so well that it won 1st IF
Hall of Fame YB. This year also in 2019, a bird that Dean bred just won 1st overall in the AU Convention race in Ogden, Utah. When you're hot, you're hot and right now Dean and Roland's birds are as hot as any around. Their top winners are basically coming from everything they have, but they have some very good
Jelle Roziers as they got on the Rozier's bandwagon long before anyone else. They've also done very well with an old line of Van Loons and Janssens that Dean's been fine tuning for years. To that they add the Kannibaal blood via a bird named Kid Kannibaal" from Protégé along with some imports that they brought in
direct from Dirk Van Dyck. "Kid Kannibaal" passed away at a relatively young age, but before he did he proved in his short time that he was the real deal as a long list of winners have been coming down from him. Good pigeons and strong selection lead to top flight success with these guys. They've put up some dandies.
I'm Ed Minvielle and yes I'm the one writing all of this. Most of you know that I own the Siegel Company and in just a few weeks (Thanksgiving) I'll celebrate my 30th year of Siegel ownership. Really hard to believe. In those 30 years I've made hundreds upon hundreds of friends in the sport, both in the USA and in Europe and really
around the world. People like Bart and Nancy Van Oeckel and Raf Herbots have now become close friends of mine and it was their idea that I help them do an auction here in the States. What friendships like these have offered me is a unique opportunity to acquire top flight pigeons. Whenever my budget has allowed, I have done that,
often buying out entire lofts to perhaps obtain just a few super breeders. Since the company requires an enormous amount of my time to run it properly, I have had to give up racing myself and instead concentrate on breeding. My hobby is racing pigeons, and even though I would love to race them, it makes more sense for me to stay close
to the sport by breeding and letting my friends and customers test the birds for me. Over the years birds that I have been associated with either as direct breeder or from a family that I have created have put up some mighty impressive performances. In the earlier years I was fortunate to win E-1 two years in a row in the great Snow Bird Classic
back when the race was really huge and many well known legends were competing in it. In 2005 my good friend Jeff Smith won 1st Sun City South Africa with a bird whose father I bred. That same year, the great Art Hees won 1st Overall North American Ace with a hen that I bred and later named "Miss Artesian" after him. Just a few years
after that my good friend Mike Cortes and his partner Cesar Zayas "Cuco" won 1st Gulf Coast Classic with "Classic Boy" flown by Manny Gonzalez's "Gallo Loft." The mother of "Classic Boy" named "Andromeda" was bred by me. So began the famous Chocolate family. Another North American Overall Ace pigeon, actually a grandson of
"Miss Artesian" came on the scene when "El Maestro" had a masterful season over the skies of Florida in 2015. The winning has continued, some years better than others, but the families remain here and are always in flux as I never let any family become obsolete just to keep the family "pure." That's not what the top European breeders do and it isn't
what I will do. I continue to line-breed around super breeders and racers but if I think a family needs something, I'm out there trying to get something to help make that family more competitive. More recent highlights of some of my birds include 6x 1sts in Texas Center Convention races, 1st California Classic 2017, 1st Hoosier Classic (grandfather bred by me) 2018, 1st GHC Classic 2018 (from a bird I sold at auction in GHC), 1st Windy City Classic (bred from a child of the Chocolate Pair), 1st Grain Belt Classic 2018 (down from Super 36 family), 1st World Ace Challenge overall 2016 (Schellens/Vernazza) & again 1st World Ace Challenge overall 2018 (Stichelbaut/Super 36), 1st San Jacinto Classic (Musketier/Gevaert Van Schoorisse), 1st Cajun Classic 350 final race 2017 (Musketier/Super 36), 2nd Apple Cup for David Clausing (sire from Super 36 line), 2x 1sts two weeks in a row Central Jersey Combine at two different lofts. I consider that quite an accomplishment. Several 1st Champion birds in clubs and combines around the country, including the GHC in Florida, along with a good number of Hall of Fame Qualifiers and other top club and combine champs. I'm dedicated to breeding good birds and when I have them in an auction like this up with birds of the quality that these guys are putting in, you can bet I'm digging as deep as I can. Thank you for considering our birds and good luck to all bidders. May all your pigeon dreams come true!
