AMERICAN “GURNAY SPECIALIST” (Continued)
By Tom Smith, Spring Hill, Florida
In 2002 while judging a show in Medford, Oregon with Gary Braden, Alan showed Gary
some of his Gurnays. Gary asked him if he knew Dr. John Kazmierczak of Trenton, New Jersey,
owner of Copper Beech Loft, who had a wonderful family of racing Gurnays. A few months
later, Alan contacted John, and they had an insightful conversation over the phone. John, being
the unofficial “patron” of Gurnays in America, offered to send Alan some “real true to type
racing Gurnays. A short time later a basket full of John’s “Copper Beech” Gurnays arrived at
Alan’s loft; “some wonderful looking and handling Gurnays!”
John’s family of Gurnays was created by crossing pure Gurnays from several different
sources, both domestic and imports from GB over the past thirty plus years. The biggest
influence were the Ted Hart Gurnays (GB) via Dave Seidman of Queens, New York. Your
author (Tom Smith) personally knew Dave Seidman for many years and exchanged birds with
him. In fact one of his Ted Hart Gurnays bred my first Gurnay race winner, the “Smash Cock.”
Most of my Gurnays emanated mainly from Perkins Bros. Mill Hill (GB) ace “TYBALT,” and
Tom Watson of Washington (GB) Olympiade Gold Medal winner “White Throat!” Tom’s son
Ian still flies today in the Up North Combine. Dave actually visited Renier Gurnay’s loft in
Verviers, Belgium during WWII, when he was in the U.S. Army. He also visited the loft of
Lucien Bastin in Verviers. He told me several stories of how he looked for pigeon lofts while he
was a soldier fighting in Europe! Pigeons were his great love. Dave gave me his treasured photo
of the Gurnay loft that he took while stationed in Belgium. Unfortunately, there were no mor
Gurnay pigeons in the loft, but after the war Dave imported Gurnays and Lucien Bastins from GB
where they had been kept as pure as the day they left Belgium. They were beautiful specimens.
The Gurnays had some stunning “Bronzes” among them, while the Bastins had some of the
striking “Chocolates.” Dave raced them both in the Bronx, New York area with much success.
The “Copper Beech” Gurnays are the flying type Gurnays, not show birds, but the main
difference between the two families are that John’s Gurnays have larger feet and legs, thicker
bone structure, and their bodies are a little larger, a good medium to big in size. Alan’s Gurnays
have been purposely bred with smaller feet, “since birds don’t race with their feet,” and by doing
this he doesn’t have to cut bands off birds as they age. He says he has bred his Gurnays to a
uniform medium size because he has “small hands” and wants the birds to “fit” in his hands.
John is only interested in the racing Gurnays, true to the original type, which he has researched
extensively thru articles and old photographs of the original Gurnays. John has imported Gurnays
from many sources over the past thirty odd years, and the majority from Great Britain, including
the well-known George Snell.
Alan began racing the Kasmierczak-Gurnays in 2004 and has done well with them,
although his unfavorable loft location makes racing difficult. Alan lives (this is now “lived,”
after the devastating fires a few years ago) in Happy Camp, in the lush Klamath National Forest,
45 miles west off the north to south line of flight (Rte 97) to lofts around Yreka, California that
belong to the Siskiyou Racing Pigeon Club. The race course itself is a tough one with mountains
and valleys all the way. Speeds are typically 1000 ypm – 1400 ypm. Another big problem for
Alan is hawks and falcons. They are protected in the National Forest and are prolific. He has to
be constantly on guard. Quite often his birds get hit when they are out exercising. Alan has also
“crossed” his show Gurnays on John’s racing Gurnays with success, breeding some good racers.
Alan has blended together several lines of Gurnays to create his racing family. His
highly successful racing reds emanate from the “Coach” Dorer reds down from Basil Beebe
(GB), the Dave Seidman “Ted Harts, GB” and the “600 Mile Winner” line. The “600 Mile
Winner” was flown by Roy Gray of Florida. It is interesting to note that it is a “pure” Gurnay
whose ancestors are from Hal Conn and Dr. K once again! Alan says “I think that’s one of the
reasons why I’m so fond of the Gurnays: their long-distance blood is there, even though the
parents may not have been flown…” The “600” is mated to a real nice diploma hen called
“Boots,” from Dr. K and will be remated later this year to a daughter of the “Scottish National
Winner” (a Gurnay) and to his ace Red Hen, winner of 2 x 1st 150 miles. The 600 Mile Winner’s
sister looks exactly like Renier Gurnay’s “ANGOULEME,” especially the head. Alan has her
mated to a full brother, with great expectations of producing some wonderful original type
Gurnays. (See photo of “Angouleme” on page 40 of Fred Shaw’s book RACING TO WIN.)
These lines have been bred back and forth to produce pure Gurnay winners.
[To Be Continued.
Thank you very much for your attention. the pigeons are beautiful and eat well. Im recommending your pigeons to my friends. I hope to buy more pigeons from you in the future. Thank you.
Arrived early and in perfect condition. I have 8 favorites.
The Alexander Hansenne is indeed a remarkable Racing Pigeon Strain. Dr Willaim Anderson in his book "The Sport of Racing Pigeons" 1947 writes extensively about this outstanding Fancier. I luck to have an original copy of the book. Need i say i myself have of the Bronze chequers in my stock loft Well wishes to you
