McLaughlin Lofts Van Reet History 

 The year was 1990 and a good friend Tim Atkin from Rugby England was telling me about a young fancier winning 140 first in the last three years.  His name was Dean Pallatt.  What made Dean so interesting is that he was a good flyer maybe fourth best in the Leicestershire federation before he introduced the Staf Van Reet pigeons.

Dean Pallatt had a top-notch family of Grondalaers and Boers pigeons when he bought the very first young from Staf Van Reet.  Breeding from the young Van Reets Dean realized he had something very special.  The young Van Reets had an abundance of character and a very unique look of intelligence.  Dean wondered that maybe the Van Reets pigeons were as good as many of the fanciers throughout Belgium, Holland, Germany and the United Kingdom had claimed.  Dean had heard the rumors about the “Fastest pigeons in the world” but had not yet raced the Van Reets.  Could this group of 1988 young birds bred a few generations from the champions beat an already existing family of Grondalaers and Boers?

Dean started the training and the Van Reets he bred and even on short training tosses the Van Reets would break the flock and arrive home as a group ahead of the Grondalaers and Boers.  Dean was looking at the young bird season with so much anticipation.

The young bird season of 1988 had begun.  The young Van Reets not only flew to the top but they won 18 first prizes and 1st. Champion with a record point total in the Leicestershire Federation.  Dean had only changed his pigeons not his methods.  Needless to say the old families of Boers and Grondalaers were eliminated.

The following year was 1989, and the Van Reets would be tested during the old bird season racing on widowhood.  Not only did the yearling Van Reets dominate but also on many occasions he would get his entire entry on a drop ahead of the federation against thousands of pigeons.  Anyone who has ever raced in a large federation or combine realizes that topping the federation with more than one pigeon is nearly impossible.  Imagine having your entire entry on the drop to top the federation.  The same pigeons that cleaned up all the awards as young birds continued the winning ways as old birds.

At this point Dean had to make a decision.  He wanted to own the entire family of Van Reets.  Dean knew they would make him famous.  Dean negotiated and bought every pigeon from Van Reets except the Van Reet’s1989 young bird team.  Dean Pallatt now owned the top sprint family of pigeons in the world.  Many other studs offer Van Reet pigeons many generations from the originals.  In the 1990’s Van Reet himself began crossing in other families of pigeons with the young Dean left behind.

Dean proceeded to race the 1989 young birds again breaking his own record point total for the federation and won 33 first prizes, topping the federation many times.

In 1990 the world famous breeders and winners would be housed and bred from at Dean Pallatt’s.  Dean was thrilled about the up coming old bird season, until tragedy struck.  The complete team of two-year-old widowers were stolen.  Dean vowed the yearlings would hold up the winning ways and they sure did.  The yearlings won 1st. Champion of the federation again breaking the record for points.  The yearlings topped the federation many times taking up to 9 of the first 10 positions.  The totals for 1990 were 39 first prizes, 6 first federations and 2nd Midland Championships along with winning a car on a tough rainy day.

The following year, 1991, Dean had his greatest racing season again breaking all the records, winning 56 first prizes and many first federations.  Unfortunately this would be the beginning of the end for his personal racing.  He was voted out of all clubs and wished he had only clocked a few pigeons instead of topping the federation with his entire team.

The results were so devastating that clubs folded and boundaries were changes to keep Dean from competing.  Dean moved to a new location and set up his breeding and racing dream lofts.  Plenty of space including many individual pens for the champions.  No crosses are made.  Dean bred a daughter from one champion to the champion.

In 1996 after partitioning the federation for several years Dean again was allowed to race young birds.  The rule was he could only take federation honors and could only clock one pigeon.  The first week was a federation win by 12 minutes.  The second race back Dean won by 20 minutes.  The federation wanted to claim unattainable speed and throw out Dean’s pigeon.  The third week Dean clocked all his pigeons on the first drop and had 18 pigeons fourteen minutes ahead of the next bird in the federation.  The one bird counted but everyone knew he was getting the team out front of the federation.  This was Dean’s last season racing to date.

The Van Reets have remarkable qualities that make the family somewhat unique.  They are close bred predominantly down from two brothers, 57 X 1st, “Daniel” and his full brother 26 X 1st, “Dikke Prins”.  The two cocks were mated to a couple spectacular sprint hens and then back to their nieces.  The Van Reets are inbred but win bred straight as well as being so pre-potent that they win for generations. 

McLaughlin Lofts bought children from all the Van Reet super champions and many of the champions themselves.  We bought some direct Van Reet breeders before any out crosses by Van Reet were made.   We also bought some of the biggest multiple race winners the sport has ever known.  The results through McLaughlin Van Reets have not  been matched  by any others.

No loft comes close to McLaughlin Lofts in quality or performance.

 

Editors note:  Van Reet sold all the breeders to Dean Pallatt in 1989. Van Reet sold out completely nearly ten years ago. McLaughlin Lofts bought the very best Van Reets ever to enter the US from 1991 to 1999.

 

STAF VAN REET OF MOL

“The fastest pigeon in the world” claimed Piet De Weerd - it’s a common claim, especially in magazines and clubs. Many different fanciers have made the claim. Staf Van Reet, of Mol, has never been guilty of such statements - but others extol the virtues of his pigeons.

 

Staf has always had a breeding pair which produced one good flyer after another. Pigeons which easily flew to dozens of first prizes, almost always on pure speed from Quivrain, to be precise.  And when any fancier, anywhere in the Netherlands or Belgium, unpacks birds which are genuine contenders for the first prize, you all know how the average fancier reacts. His achievements are derived with the remark that “he’s seen nothing yet”. In other words, coming first means nothing if there’s no competition.

 

Well, with regard to Van Reet, there are convincing arguments to underline the superior quality of his pigeons in terms of speed.  As many as 22 times, his birds have been the fastest in the entire province of Antwerp. According to Van Reet himself, more than 100,000 pigeons from the province are actually released from Quivrain each week. Staf was born in 1935. His grandfather was a “fancier” and from his earliest years, Staf was involved with the pigeons. His grandfather answered to the name Staf Snijers and

Van Reet can still remember when, at age 10, he went with him to Janssen’s.

It was not entirely by chance that the Arendonk grandfather did so well. Janssen’s cousin lived next door to Van Reet.

 

Grandfather Snijers was a person who had to spend money on his pigeons. More than that  every penny he earned went towards buying pigeons, grandfather Snijers came into possession of the pure Janssen strain. He had also bought two pigeons from the sale by the famous Louis Vermeyen.

 

The Vermeyen type seemed to “match” the Janssen pigeons very well. In 1961, grand father Van Reet died and the pigeons were sold again. Van Reet bought the eight, which were, in his opinion, the best, and amongst these were three half-brothers. Pigeons bred from the same Vermeyen female with three different males of the Janssen strain via Vreys.

 

With the three half-brothers Van Reet defeated all the competition in Mol and the surrounding area in 1962, 1963, and 1964.  He bought two pigeons, a Schalie female from a Vos breeder - which went missing from the coop and a male.

 

 The cock was a direct descendant of “Halve Fabry of 60”, which was also the progenitor of “Oude Witoger of 65”. He was then period with a female bred from the Vermeyen/Janssen cross. From this pair, Van Reet got the legendary “Janssen pigeon of 69”. Together with the “Genopte Witpen of 68”, they formed Van Reet’s “Golden Pair”.

 The “Genopte Witpen” was bred from Vos, directly descended from “Natural”, and a daughter of “Blauwe of 57”. The latter was one of the three half brothers and a fantastic flyer. This Golden Pair actually came about by chance. The cock appeared regularly every Sunday but to the great sorrow of Staf, obstinately refused to come in. To the point where he stopped thinking about flying and “in anger” took him to the breeding coop.

 

 As a young bird, the female had already proved her quality by winning 3 first prizes. The first young produced by the pair was the “Prinz of 72”.  As a young bird he never saw the basket and as a yearling was suddenly thrown in at the deep end.  After a few failures, which can be expected from such an inexperienced pigeon, he emerged in Quivrain as a flyer to beat them all. In this 132 km flight, he took 32 first prizes until clever Jan Grondelaers got wind of the existence of the high flyer. In 1978, “Prinz of 72” moved to Opglabbeck for a substantial sum, and the following year showed what a connoisseur Grondelaers is. From Prinz he bred his Stuka, famous in two ways: Stuka would race home to the coop so incredibly fast that on four occasions not even Jan himself or any of his watchers saw him arrive. Jan heard him each time without seeing a feather, just a thump on the floor of the coop. Another feature of Stuka (B-79-5185502) was that he won 12 first prizes. It is interesting to hear how Prinz got his name.

 

Borgmans from Turnhout, who at that time was racing through the Noyon flights like a hurricane, bought a female from Van Reet’s “Golden Pair”. She bred so well that Borgmans called her his “Prinses”. It struck Staf Van Reet as a suitable name, so the “Prinsen” family was created by Van Reet. In the plural, as you can’t call a breeding pair a “Golden Pair” if they only have one chick.

 

In 1974, the Dikke Prins was born (B-74-6710998). He flew 26 first prizes.

Still in 1974, the Witoog Prins was born (B-74-670895). He sat on the flight coop, but before his season began, broke one of his wings (fortunately, as it happens). He was of necessity rehoused in the breeding coop and there produced several first prize winners, the most famous being the “Genopte Witpen of 76”. 1976 is the year in which the most spectacular son of the breeding pair was born, Daniel (B-76-6635973). He flew no less than 57 firsts. The story is that a friend of Van Reet took him to the “De Reisduif” championships in his worst season. He came out of the box as the best speed pigeon in Belgium! Staf van Reet races his birds from the first week in March to the

last Sunday in July. Always alone. Then he lets them nest, and as soon as they have young, he flies them again - in the autumn. With young in the nest, the birds get home even faster, according to Van Reet. This system naturally has its disadvantages. “Daniel” was left standing in five starting pens in the winter of 79/80. And understandably, Staf thought he would have to slow down with Daniel.

 

On his first flight, in spite of his frequent victories, he only came in 4th. But Daniel, on his first competition in 1979, proved that the starting pen isn’t that important if the quality’s there. He won with a four-minute lead. In June and July of that year, Daniel won the first prize 12 times in succession. Staf says that with such pride that you know he’s not boasting.

 

The Kleine Prins (B-76-6721975) is a brother of the phenomenon described. Staf lent him out in1982 to the German van Ravenstein. From him, in 1983, he bred a female who won 9 first prizes before going missing on a disastrous flight. In 1978, the “Prins of 78” was born from the Golden Pair (B-78-7722716).  He flew only as a yearling and a two-year old. That didn’t prevent him taking 12 firsts. He was the last pigeon the breeding pair produced. The cock ceased to be fertile, and the female stopped laying eggs. Both partners had given up at the same time.  It is remarkable that from this pair, two totally different types of pigeons came. One type resembled the father (such as Daniel), the other was the image of the mother (such as Grondelaer’s Prins).   That’s not important. Both were equally good flyers.

 

The Van Reet pigeons were able to keep up their lead. From 1972 to 1976, Staf paired up with  Frans Verbruggen. During that time, they raced many times, and their successes were nearly all on speed alone. Which reminds us of the remarkable flight from Lirnoges in 1975. Eleven birds were entered, and ten were clocked in within 11 minutes. In the national results, “Van Reet of Mol” stole the show with 10 prizes starting with 4th, 7th, and 9th overall. 31,000 BF were bet on the flight. The ten pigeons brought home BF 197,000.

 

From this period, Van Reet also remembers the result at Dourant in the Zuiderkempen races. He won the top four. His greatest rival at the time - so he says- was none other than Janeke Wouters.  In 1975, the Van Reet/Verbruggen combination was crowned Champion of the East Antwerp area.  Second was Mariman Raey and 3rd Gust Hofkens.

Later van Reet was to put even more effort into speed. As on the Sunday when he took part in a “match race” with just two birds: Daniel and Prins. They flew into the coop together, 8 minutes before the third pigeon in the race.  Van Reet keeps his pigeons in a bone-dry attic coop, which is never heated artificially. The females are always shown to the males before they are put into the basket, but when they get home from the

flight, there’s no system. Sometimes the mating is short, sometimes a male and female can look at each other for four hours. The coops are well ventilated and the males are free to sit on the coop.