I kept my Stichelbaut family but used Gordon on them.”

So according to Bob there really are “Horses for Courses” and in this particular case the horses name is in fact “Gordon”! So let’s resume our story where did Bob go to from here? Well according to my recent conversation with Bob that took place early November 2007 he proceeded to mate the young “gift pigeon” eventually to be called the “Silverado Stier” to his best hen at that time, here is exactly what he said:

“I mated him (“Silverado Stier”) to a Stichelbaut/Gordon hen that I had. Used that pair as a pumper (foster parents) for the first two rounds of eggs. Then I raised a pair off them. That pair of babies, I gave to a friend of mine to fly. One of them won first as a young bird at 550 km. The other one won the next year first at 800 km. By now, the hen was already gone. I had sold her or something… I thought maybe this cock was something special and I started to look for a hen for him. Not from my family but from some Janssen family. Since I traveled for the sport and wrote for magazines in the sport, I knew many, many fanciers. In California I found a hen. Very special but still young. I asked the fancier to send me two babies off of that hen mated to whatever he thought was his best cock. This happened to be a Klak Janssen family and very good at the middle and long distance in California. However, it was a fast course and the birds had the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. They could not get lost. So I did not know if they would fly in the Midwest, through storms, weather fronts and bad weather. I did not know if the homing ability was strong enough.”

It is interesting that at this point Bob goes looking for a Janssen hen flies the youngsters from California falls in love with one of them:

“I trained the babies I got from the California fancier and like one so much that after the season, I just put her to stock to go onto this Janssen cock. One pair of Janssen’s could not hurt my loft. If good, I would keep them and if not, they would go like so many other Janssen’s did. Out of the loft to the waste can… That very first year, I bred six from the pair and five of them won for three different lofts. I had something but they had not yet been to the distance. These were the races that I wanted to win. I had already in the years past won so many of the middle races; it was the distance that I had a hunger to have victory in.”

Blue Pride was the Silverado Foundation hen that was always mated to “Silverado Stier” to produce incredible prepotent children including “Slade” , “The 540” cock, “Dolly” , “1710” and a host of others that have impacted on lofts around the world.

“Blue Pride and the “Silverado Stier” over a number of years bred 12 1st place winning children, as well as National Award winning pigeons however their children, virtually without exception bred 1st place after 1st place winners for Bob and a host of other fanciers. Bob never claimed that he had anything special that he brought to the table.He credited his foundation pair totally.He would often say that he got two superior pigeons that when mated together were possessed of a “genetic package” that was truly awesome. From this pair Bob mated together a brother and sister, the special mating was the “540” cock X “the 1710” hen which was his full sister.It was without a doubt the greatest move Bob could have made.This pair produced winner after winner and their children were even better breeders than their parents. Somehow the “genetic package “ was intensified.

Its so true is it not that the “hunger” is what drives you to try one more time, to hope, to will something into being you must have the will to achieve. Many have the talent most fall short in that they fail to “DARE” to achieve. They worry so much about the possibility of failure that they welcome mediocrity. Bob had a dream and he was prepared to risk all in an attempt to bring that dream of an all purpose American racing pigeon family to reality. Here is where it gets personally interesting for me. You see in late in 1992 I purchased at public auction, sight unseen an old “Silverado Family” Foundation Sire called “Slade” at that time I paid $2000.00 US for this cock and all on his pedigree, actually on a hunch that this “Silverado” genetic package would blend with my own “Spanjaard Family” line. I was not to be disappointed. Bob continued the story of the creation of his family as follows:

“"Slade" was one of the first young cocks I got from the pair. He won a young bird race and then was lost for four weeks. I thought, that is it. They are no better than the other Janssen’s around the world. I flew 12 widowhood cocks and had an empty box so when he came back; I put him into the widowhood loft and forgot him. He was just there. He must fly or die basically. That next spring as a yearling, I sent him to four different 800 km races on three different courses and he won one of them and scored in the top 10 on the others… Now, I knew I had something. I bred him and his young were no good. However, because he had flown so well, I bred 6 late hatches off his parents. So they were all in the stock loft as well. A new family plus the old family. ..I mated these six various ways. To the Stichelbauts and to the Gordon’s. One pair of brother and sister together.

From the Stichelbauts, I got nothing that flew well. The brother sister pair only bred one that flew well. However, the two pairs that were Gordon and Janssen cross, bred me birds that won in young birds five of the 11 races I flew. 800 yards a minute through 1700 yards a minute.

I thought wow! However, I was still not convinced. I certainly did not realize that I had stumbled by accident the foundation of a family that would in the years to come make me known around much of the world.

My breeding was planned. It was test, test, and test. However, it was not genius or smart.” A word of extreme caution is necessary at this point: Remember that inbreeding is a tool to an end. It is a special purpose tool. In and of itself, it cannot create anything new; it can only fix in a family desirable or undesirable genes by bringing all genes to a homozygous state. If the fancier is unfortunate enough to choose incorrectly in his original stock, then the task of breeding out the undesirable characteristics may prove totally impossible-and so it does in most cases.

In the hands of a visionary it is possible to conclude that an inbred family can be purified, in which case the offspring would be almost identical in appearance, equally good racers, potential winners on race day, and ultimately, very valuable stock birds. In addition. Such a family would be highly desirable for out crossing because of their homozygosity. This is in fact the theory and rarely is it ever achieved without great struggle and perseverance. Bob Kinney has, in my opinion proven that he was so determined. Here is how Bob described his revelation:

“I had the right pigeons in the loft to put together and I put them together every which way possible and I raced them.

Over the next year or so, many races for myself and other fanciers that had the birds from me for testing were to be won, including a national champion daughter came from the original pair.
Finally, the light bulb in my brain came on and became bright.

I got rid of all the Stichelbauts. Every one of them. There was about 35 pair at that point in time. I went to 7 stock pair. Huge risk to my future again. That was the original Janssen pair. Several of their sons and daughters that were never raced. Just bred for stock. Plus an old Gordon cock that I really did not like. My purpose now was to build a family. I insisted in my mind that if they were good, then inbreeding the brothers and sisters would work and the genetic package would be stronger the next generation. Some of the inbreeds were good. Not great but good. All of the babies from the Gordon Cock and one of the Janssen hens were great. One became a national champion. I was now a strong force on the long distance races. Depending on the day. It could be a Janssen straight but most often was a Janssen/ Gordon.

I went to a sale of birds from a one loft race and bought all the birds that were in that race from three different lofts. No matter where they scored, as it did not matter. My thinking was if these fanciers put the birds into this race, they did so to win the money and glory so they had off their best in there. The entry fee was expensive to enter and not a race to send "try me outs" to. I bought five and they were all Gordon’s. I took them home and crossed them to my Janssen’s that next year. From one, came many more good to great racers. Now, I had enough to make 3/4 crosses. An old timer told me that when building a family, you work with a cross of two or three inbred proven lines. Then you take those crosses that fly or breed like champions and mate them back to either side of the family. You keep the gene package strong and even intensify it for winning.

I did just that.”

The following year came solid success for Bob in one of the largest club’s in the USA:

“The next year, my club that was the second biggest in the US with many great national champion fanciers and famous birds over the years was dominated by my family of pigeons. This club was over 70 years old and my new family of birds broke every record there was in the club that season. When it came time for the awards dinner, they just put them all on my table and took away the one or two that I did not win. I enjoyed that evening like no other I can remember. However, I am not sure that my club mates and competitors enjoyed it nearly as much as I did!”

So through very good luck, a lot of dedication, perseverance and vision Bob Kinney managed to create and sustain a family of “all purpose” racing pigeons for almost four decades. There was certainly more that he wished to achieve. But let’s look at what he did achieve:

In the years since, the victories have become so routine that one takes them for granted. I was racing widowhood with 12 cock birds vs. an entire combine of fanciers flying hens natural. It is difficult to beat hens on natural AT THE DISTANCE UNLESS YOU HAVE THE WIDOWERS JUST RIGHT. I became very proficient at widowhood. The greatest long distance race that I ever flew was an 800km race. Tough tough day with no day birds at all anywhere. I was middle to long end and kept expecting a call that the short end had a bird at dark or something. Never came. Next morning about 7:30 am, which was an hour and half after sunrise, I got a bird. It was 3/4 Gordon and 1/4 Janssen. Pencil blue cock. This was June 6th, 1992. The winner was 91 ER 1001. About 20 minutes later I got a second bird. 89 ER 1961 BB cock. He was 3/4 Janssen family. Five minutes later I got another. This was my national champion "1505" DC cock. (See the World Champions book, 1994 Edition published by Kenichi Yoshihara of Champion Trade Company in Japan). Eight minutes after "1505" came 90 NVC 1083 BB cock. Seven minutes after him came "Moneymaker" who was not of my family but a cock that in the years to come would be bred throughout it. Then a few minutes later I got TB 1751, a 3/4 Janssen cock.

Those were the "Awesome Six". They took first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth of both club and combine. I had shipped 10 birds of the 12 bird team to the race as I recall as we had some more long races coming up and I wanted two held back to increase their reserve if needed for a 1200 km race coming in three weeks. Two weeks later on June 20th, the same team went back to 800 km. Again, a tough race. I got "Moneymaker" just after dark and he won both the club and the combine. One other day bird that came about the same time that he did but it was 32 miles short of me. Then the next morning they rained in. When it was all done, my team took 1st, 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 14th, 15th, 20th positions.
The trophy with these two races on it is still on my wall and will be until passed on to my son who is also racing my family.

In the years since, the victories keep coming. "Asia' who was a son of national champion "1505" when mated to the "1515 Hen" so he is about a quarter Gordon went onto become the foundation cock for the next generation or two of the family. "Asia" won first combine at 930 km. His mother, the "1515 Hen" is off of a full brother sister pairing. They are both off of the original pair. She and her sister "1316" who is still here and alive but laying only an occasional egg, are the birds behind the NEXT STEP UP in the family. The base of the Silverado family. Many call it a Janssen family but I never have. It is my family and a Janssen Gordon family. I still keep some straight Gordon's and if you remember I told you earlier I did not like the looks of them and how they handled. That is pretty much still the case. However, the are amongst the best anywhere. My son and I probably have the best breeding Gordon hen in this country, the "483". Major winner after major winner off her and off her kids when on my family. I had a lot of splash and white show up in my family based around a cock called "Prodigy" who was a cock I bred but and in the family a lot but mostly gone now. I don't want to encourage the splash or lots of white so those go to sales as a rule. They are just as good and the pieds have proven over and over to be some of the best breeders but when you mate them close as I do, you get to much of it. I had a white cock that had bred in two years 4 or 5 winners that was of this "Prodigy" line and I sent him to a friend. I brought him back this summer to use on "483" so I could preserve that genetic line within the family. I did not want the white color but got it anyway, so I will keep the first two from this pair for the future and hope to breed back away from it.

So as we now clearly see the “Silverado Family” is in fact a unique family that is a cross of mainly Janssen and Gordon the family is inbred/line bred with the basket essentially making the final decision. So far it has progressed under the founder’s vision for almost four decades whether it continues is now in the hands of his son James Kinney as well as others who over the years have tested the “Silverado Family” stock. Over the years I had often thought of Bob as a “bull in a china shop”. Earlier this year I saw another side of Bob. I have fond memories of Bob coming to Canada to participate in the two incredible “Sick Children’s Hospital Charity Auctions” that I organized in 1994 and 1995 that raised over $25,000.00 for the Hospital for Sick Kids. So I guess that it was only appropriate that Bob, on November 4th 2007, should have been in Canada for an auction of his pigeons in Oshawa Ontario. A few of my friends and I had dinner with him at the Mandarin on the evening that he arrived. He loved the food and the friends so much so that we went there a second time, after his auction, and treated us all to a wonderful dinner before he left for home. That evening ,at his motel room, as we said goodbye he gave me a great big hug, thanked me and said that I was a good friend to him and that he would return to spend more time with me. Bob loved his son James, loved his family, loved Africa and had told me that day, that if he were ever to die he would prefer to do so in the “African wilderness”. So it has come to pass. Bob had written extensively on Africa and had asked me to edit a series of short stories on his beloved Africa. He planed to build a home in Africa and live there at least six months of every year. He had the region picked out, had told me with great delight of his plans for establishing a new racing pigeon club in the area, he had so many plans, so much that he wanted to do. He loved his “Silverado Family” of racing pigeons and through good fortune, great instincts, incredible know how, he perpetuated this family for over 4 decades and moved it from accomplishment to even greater accomplishment. He was present in Africa as two pigeons bred by him, were mated together to produce the winner of the greatest pigeon race in the world “The Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race”. He was proud, rightly so for he had achieved what few will ever achieve. As “Former International Marketing Director Sun City Million” he was directly responsible for helping to make the “Sun City Million Dollar” the greatest, most prestigious pigeon race in the world. Robert Kinney founded an “American Family of Racing Pigeons” second to none in the world.

Figure 1 November 3rd Bob Kinney and Silvio Mattacchione at the Mandarin in Oshawa Ontario



The “Silverado Family” will continue to successfully fly the skies of Africa, China, Taiwan, Canada, USA, and Europe with distinction, for generations to come. Long ago I saw Bob at his lowest and in November I saw a man at the very top of his game, in love with his family, proud as punch of his son James and all that he hoped for him, I saw a man in love with his adopted people and his adopted country “AFRICA”, I saw a man in love with LIFE .Bob Kinney was very much a big man, at 6ft 4 inches he was in his prime, strong and ready to achieve even more. Even so, I saw a change in him he was no longer a “bull in a china shop” he had mellowed to a great degree, more contemplative and more philosophical. God keep you safe dear friend and may your spirit watch over the African plains and may your incredible family of racing pigeons fly the “Silverado” skies of the world! So to conclude Bob Kinney’s good deed to that ailing fancier was repaid to him handsomely!

“Honey”
94 TB 4729 BB w/1wf Hen

Current Silverado Family Foundation hen. Dam of over 30 firsts that we know of, and grand dam and great grand dam to countless. She is a truly great, great hen. Her mother is the legendary “1515 Hen”. Her half brother is “Asia”- first 600 miles and foundation cock. Her nest mate is the “Klak Cock” sire of 11 first. I sold her as a squeaker out of the nest to a fancier Dick Crawford. Mr. Williams purchased her years later on Crawford’s death. For Mr. Crawford, she bred over 20 different first. For Mr.



Williams she bred:

1st 125 miles,1st 400 miles, 1st 300 miles

3rd 275 miles, 1st 250 miles, 1st 275 miles

1st 475 miles, 1st 200 miles

Equal 1st 250 miles,11th 400 miles (22 day birds)

I got her back home in Jan 2003. Since then she has bred first after first and super breeders for me and for others.




The great “17” hen is a grand daughter (double 1st Place Winner 320 miles, out front 10 to 20 minutes and dam, gr dam of many winners). Remember, the winner of the Million Dollar race was a grand child of 1515. As was the 5th place winner a few years later. Also the year I had two birds out front 1st and 2nd position vs. 4000 birds off the best of the world in the million for several weeks in a row in the overall results, one was off of “Honey”. This is the same line that produced First Federation and second Federation vs. over 3000 and 4000 birds in Africa. Plus other Federation winners and Federation Champion Birds. This family wins out front, over and over.

Silvio Mattacchione