2010 Canadian National Jacobin Show Judges Report

I again would like to say thanks to Clint Robertson and all of the members for allowing me the honor and pleasure of coming to Winnipeg Dec. 3-4, 2010 to have your birds placed in front of me to allow me to pass my judgment on them. This show was held in conjunction with the CPFA Classic Show, which was hosted by the Winnipeg Fancy Pigeon Assn.

I arrived on Thursday afternoon and was picked up at the airport by Clint and his son Ty, who had just arrived in town from their home. We all went to the hotel where we stayed and freshened up a little and then went to the show hall, where they cooped their birds and then proceeded to set up the show area for the Jacobins. The show was again held at the Assiniboia Downs racetrack, the same location that it was held at in 2001, which was when I was first honored with judging a show in Canada.

The judging of the Jacobins started Friday around 10:00 AM with all of the exhibitors being present except for Justin Robertson, who was having to attend classes, so the colors he had birds in were held off until he could attend the show in the afternoon. There were a little over 150 birds shown with many of them not being totally finished as the weather had been extremely cold earlier and was still very cold when the show was held. All of the color classes did have birds that were really close to being finished, but none were 100% yet, as this is an earlier show and extremely hard to get the birds to finish on time. Though when the color class winners came up for the finals, they were all real nice birds and represented the birds and class winners really good. They were all smooth and most all finished, which was real nice to see.

I didn't take notes about many of the classes like I should have done, to do a proper show report, but I will report on the classes as I remember them, and from the few notes that I did make.

The first class, the kite/dun was won by GuyPerreault with a kite OC, which had a much better finish and fit of feather when it came down to the class win over the other kites and duns.

The indigo/ andalusian class was a smaller class and the winner which was an OH by Clint Robertson had very good station, good color and was put together real well.

The almond class was another small class which surprised me, as I thought there would be more almonds. I do remember the YC as being real smooth and a good showing bird. The almonds were also won by Guy.

The brown class is one I remember well and it was because of the quality of the browns that were shown. They were some of the best browns that I had seen in a long while; the class was won with a real nice bird that was shown by Justin Robertson.

The yellows, again I was surprised by the few shown, was won by Clint with a real nice, well put together bird, which I thought would look good in my loft, but it is still at his. The reds, one of the largest color classes, many of the birds shown were no quite finished yet and had trouble holding their feathers. As I had stated before all of the class winners were nearly finished and the winning red shown by Guy was a real nice bird also. It was smoother that the 2nd place bird overall and was a nice stationing showier bird.

The black class, which I remember real well, was the one color class with the best depth of overall birds in a single class shown. I will not forget when I looked at the first class, the young hens, in the last show cage was a hen that was showing and looked like a statue. The great feather quality and the bird was built and put together great. This hen went on to win best black for Clint. The young cocks were about the same with another outstanding bird that was 2nd black overall.

The white class, the largest of the color classes, was another good class of whites overall, but like the other classes there was a few birds that were just not quite finished. The winning OC bird shown by Guy was finished great, good hood setting and a good showing bird. I also remember the YC that I like real well that just needed to be finished a little more and he could have easily won the white class, a real nice showy bird also.

The splash class, the 3rd largest class of the show had some very well finished birds, one of the best classes for overall finish of the birds. This class was won by Clint with a very well proportioned bird, good condition and fit of feather. The bird had better whip in and top feather that the second placing bird.

The four bar classes, the AOC, Blue, Cream, and Mealy were all won by Justin. All of the bars in the four color classes could compete anywhere and do real well. They are some of the best bars I have seen in many, many years. One of the areas that I did see that could use some improvement was the color of the blue cocks. Many of the cock birds had poor colored wings, being not clean and sooty colored, while the hens were good colored. The blues cocks had enough good other features to overcome the color problem though and were exceptional barred birds. I will always remember the great cream hen also. She had very good type, and extremely smooth feather, a beautiful bird.

When all of the class winners were bought up for Champion of Show, the color classes were all well represented, with all of the champions of colors looking real good. When time came to pick the Champion, the White OC of Guy Perreault's came out on top this day, over the Reserve Splash OC bird of Clint Robertson's. Both of the 2 top birds were real close, both good feather, good top, free showing birds. The white was just a little more refined than the splash. Best Opposite Sex was won by Justin Robertson with that beautiful cream hen that I described above in the bar classes, a beautiful bird. When the young birds came up for me to pick Best Young another bird stood out above the rest in the group. The young white cock shown by Clint was the Best Young. This bird fit and showed well everywhere, even though it wasn't 100% finished, another great bird.

Thanks again for inviting me to share in your wonderful show, and all of the memories I will have again.

John Hundrup