Rauw Sablon

HISTORY

Etienne Rauw is 66 years old and Frans Sablon is 61 years old. They have been pigeon breeders for more than 50 years. They are very different people, but their passion for pigeons led them to become a team. Frans had an exquisite eye for the pure class and Etienne the ability to build an inbred strain of winners, with a large part of Jef De Ridder's pigeons - mixed with a touch of Roseel and Tournierm complete with the introduction of the super copy Freddy via Vandenheede. He took also the tandem from Lebbeke, national titles and National ace pigeons; His dream Par "Albert" "Paola" and exceptional racers and breeders like "De Limoges", "Goudklompje", and "Den Dromer" for their part are recognized worldwide. Thus, the Rauw-Sablon pigeons became world famous when Marcel Aelbrect (neighbour Frans Sablon) took the 1st National Ace pigeon and became the 1st National Champion with the offspring of the "offs" of the mould.

Erik Limbourg also created a furore with the 1st National Ace long distance pigeon KBDB 2005 (a direct Rauw-Sablon), 1st National Ace long distance pigeon KBDB 2006 (50% Rauw-Sablon) and 2nd National Ace long distance pigeon KBDB 2007 (a direct Rauw-Sablon). With these awards it seems that there are no more Belgian born national winners who have not been blessed with these noble bloodlines. But this couple were not always partners, they started successfully since 1972, when they decided that as a partnership there were many more advantages. Although the two went their separate ways in 2003, there is no other strain that dominates the tough one-day distance races like the Rauw-Sablon. Neither Etienne nor Frans had any experience with long distance pigeons because they had focused on middle distance racing.

In those days there was only room for the older birds which meant that the newly added long distance pigeons were going to have a hard time at the beginning to win a place in the loft. The first pigeon that had the chance to prove itself in the Barcelona team was his 4358204/80 which became a very good long distance racer. When he was eight years old, he flew from Barcelona with FCD and finished 4th out of 362 pigeons, Internationally he was 413th out of 21,194 pigeons. When he was nine years old, he flew from Barcelona FCD where he finished 6th out of 407 pigeons, Internationally he finished 527th out of 25,502 pigeons when he was 10 years old he went to the breeding house and made his presence felt throughout the team. A good point for this pair was that other fanciers did not see themselves able to cope with long distance racing with the excuse that to win long distance races you have to be very patient.

In the early 1990s, one of them retired from all other competitions, which led to early retirement so that they could work together as a team specialising in long-distance events in Belgium. With this new way of life and with more time to spend with the pigeons, the association increased its team of widowers to 18, which includes the yearlines. In long distance races they prefer to participate in one-day races. The main reason they do not participate in night races is because losses are more frequent and with only 18 racers, they do not want to risk it.