Quality never lies was one of the many expressions of pigeon sport monument Piet De Weerdt, internationally famous connoisseur of the best pigeons. We don't know if he ever valued the pigeons of Jos Thoné out of As in the Limburg province, but one thing is for sure: this expression is certainly true for Jos' birds. It doesn't matter in which remote corner of the world you may be racing pigeons, Jos Thoné is a name that is known everywhere. This is due not only to his excellent record list in Belgium, but also due to the performances of his pigeons on the international forum.

Jos Thoné before his lofts in As.

There is hardly a race to be mentioned or Jos Thoné has won it at least once. All the distances from Quièvrain to Barcelona can be found on this performance list. All Belgian pigeon sport magazines have crowned him their champion one year or another. It is no different for our very own Belgian Superstar Competition, which is held in the margin of the Million Dollar Race in South Africa. Without exaggeration it can be said that winning the Belgian Superstar is no small feat. First of all your competitors consist of the top names of Belgian pigeon sport. Secondly these top champions do send the best of their best to Sun City (one would be crazy to do otherwise if one pools 1000 USD per bird). Thirdly, to stay in the competition your bird cannot miss a single training session of above 80 km; arriving once too late means you're out. And lastly your bird has to have the best average result on all training races above 80 km, including the 5 Hot Spots, plus the final race itself. In other words, to win the Belgian Superstar your pigeon has to be a real allrounder, covering distances from 81 to 550 km, week in, week out. Fortunately this is exactly what Jos Thoné's pigeons are all about. No small wonder then that last year Jos Thoné was crowned the Belgian Superstar in the prestigeous Park Hotel in Lokeren.

This year it seems like Jos is going to have another go at trying to win top honours in the MDPR. On 27 December his "Paris Hilton" showed its class by ending as the first Belgian pigeon in Training 6b at the 36th position overall against a racing field of 3047 birds. "Paris Hilton" is inbred toward the line of Sumo. The father is a son of Sedna (which is a granddaughter of Sumo) and the mother is a direct daughter of Sumo. Some more details on this famous pigeon are certainly in order: Sumo is the grandfather of the 1st International Narbonne 2005 and 2nd International Narbonne 2005. Both pigeons were the fastest among 10000 competitors. Sumo is also the grandfather of the 1st International Dax 2003 against 19420 pigeons and of the 2nd International Dax 2004 against 17526 pigeons. Granddaughter Sedna, 1st International Narbonne against 5870 pigeons and the fastest of 10000 pigeons was also 7th semi-National Jarnac against 5005 birds and 206th St. Vincent against 10020 pigeons. This record list was enough for Sedna to become 1st National Acepigeon AVR Yearlings Long Distance, 1st West European Ace Pigeon Country Cup Very Long Distance, 1st Provincial Ace Pigeon Yearlings Long Distance and 1st National Acepigeon Yearlings LCB.

A pigeon with such a pedigree certainly has a bright future in the Million Dollar Race final of 2 February!

Text: August Daelemans
Pictures: Jos Thoné