Our History

The history of J.P.S. Lofts and our racing partnership

In 2009 I contacted Ian Stafford with the intentions of buying some birds from him. This proved to be a very fruitful call as Ian not only let us have some top birds from his already established Jos Thone birds, but gave us valuable advice on modern methods, etc. Later on we decided to go into partnership and started buying birds jointly. This not only enabled us to buy more expensive birds but also meant that the birds got tried out in 2 different loft locations, thus sorting the wheat from the chaff in a shorter space of time. Purchasing expensive birds doesn’t necessarily guarantee that they will breed winners. However, by racing from 2 different loft locations means more youngsters are raced from the principal birds and therefore helps to discover which lines go best together.

We decided not to go for one specific family or fancier but looked at who was winning big in recent years in both the UK and Europe. Every fancier has good and bad birds and we only wanted them from their very best, ie national/international winners. In Holland we decided to pay a visit to Hugo Batenburg. We were so impressed with his birds and his honesty that we decided to invest in his best. Hugo, in partnership with Pipa, bought the New Laureaat for approx. 250,000 euro. This cock is one of the finest birds I have ever handled. It not only won 1st International Barcelona but flew it 3 years in succession, winning a Golden Wing Award. This cock carries the bloodlines of the old Van Braunes. The grandfather of the New Laureaat also won 1st International Barcelona for Carlo Gyslebrecht.

The two things that stood out about this cock is that very rare does a donkey breed a Derby winner and a Derby winner with more Derby winners in its immediate pedigree stands more chance of producing another Derby winner. The second thing about this cock connects us to the second fancier we purchased from, namely Etienne Mierlaan. Both these fanciers carry a lot of the Laureaat Barcelona blood and nobody in recent years has won more at the distance than Etienne. His results speak for themselves. We bought the only son of the Monar, 1st Internat Narbonnes and Perpignon Lady in the UK.

The Etienne Meirlaen birds were not necessarily the best lookers but all of them had fantastic feathering and, more importantly top winning genes generation after generation. We invested a small fortune buying top birds from Etienne’s best. Etienne’s no 1 stock hen was Yelena. She bred the Monar, the Montali and the Montaubaun. This trio of top cocks were fantastic racers. Yelena as bred from a pigeon called Topstar from Raoul Verstraette. Topstar also bred a pigeon called Xtra, also winner of 1st Nat. We therefore decided to purchase 2 from Topstar when paired to Diva who won 2nd Internat Dax. Also we bought 2 from Etienne’s Cor, winner of 1st Nat Ace Bird KBDB 2008.

In our search for top long distance winning bloodlines we decided to visit Germany and purchased a son, a daughter and a sister of Euro Diamond from Hans Pieter Brokamp. Whilst in the company, we were introduced to 2 young guys who Brokamp described as the best Barcelona fliers in Europpe, namely Rutz and Sons. A visit was arranged with them. In fact, Ian was one of the first fanciers to bring these birds to the UK. We purchased, yet again, only from their very best, ie one from Beloki, 2 from Ivo, 1 from Stella, 1 from Barcelona Princess and 1 or 2 other choice specimens.

The final and probably  most important pieces of the jigsaw were THE MACHINE ,MUKIN FAGIC,AND BIG SMITHY,all top long distance national winners these  birds was bred from the crossing of the DE RAUW SABLON bloodlines via MARCEL ALBRECHT and the DR  BROCKAMP EURO DIAMOND LINES  there mother/fathers  being double grand children of EURO DIAMOND .These cocks will be paired to all the top hens then there  dtrs paired on to all the top cocks and hopefully produce some top birds full of European international winning bloodlines.

Along side the extreme long distance lines we thought that we needed a slightly quicker bird ie middle to long distance bloodlines ,so we decided to visit RUDY DE SAERE fro ruiselede who is with out doubt one of the best one day long distance fanciers in  Belgium, his birds are all based around the gaby vandenabeele dentergem  bloodlines ,we were so impressed with the man and his birds we decided to invest heavily in his birds buying at least 3 birds from each of his national winners and top breeders giving us a fantastic middle long distance base.

After sourcing the best middle and long distance bloodlines ,it was decided to find a top sprint family and after discussing thisc with Thomas Gyslebrecht of Pipa it was decided to go after the Srefaan Lambrechts and a deal was done to buy two full rounds.

This gives you an insight into the reasons why we went to these fanciers. We are more interested in winning genes paired to winning genes as we think too many people are more interested in pure bred pigeons that do not exist.