Cătălin Apostu is, with no doubt, one of the appreciated pigeon fanciers of the Province of Moldova. One of the specialists of the Long distance category, the fancier from Vrancea County can be proud of his numerous appearances on the national podium starting with 2014. Last year he would bring Catalin a new Gold Award at National level, the pigeon named “Jianu” occupying the 6th place and winning a consistent prize of 10,000 lei.

When you talk about racing pigeons sport in Vrancea County, the name of Cătălin Apostu cannot be missing from the discussion. A young, tenacious and very ambitious pigeon fancier, he has a family of pigeons capable of occupying leading positions from an early age when they are engaged in the long distance stages. He has been competing with the pigeons since 2009, and the truly spectacular results appear since 2014 and continue in the same trend until now: 1st place National Long distance Ace yearlings 2014, 3rd place National Long distance Ace old birds 2014, 6th place National National Fanciers Long distance 2014, 2nd place 7th National Long distance Palmares 2014, 3rd place National Club Gold 2018, 4th place National Long distance Ace yearlings 2018, 9th place National Long distance yearlings 2018, 2nd place National Long distanceAce palmares 2019, 5th place National Long distance Palmares 2019, 6th place National Long distance Fanciers Palmares 2019 and 6th place National Club Gold 2021.

A family of pigeons “tailored” to the requirements of the Gold Club

As expected, Jianu, his 2021 gold-winning pigeon in the 2021 season, is bred from a national top performer cock named Bond, who took 2nd place in the National Long distance Ace yearlings, and his mother, Sora16, is the sister of Bugatti – 2nd place National Ace Long distance palmares and 3rd place National Club GOLD in 2018. In her turn, JIanu’s mother is the daughter of Apasha – 1st place National Ace Long distance yearlings, a special hen, who put very much imprinted on the Apostu loft. Jianu, 2003646-2020, managed to occupy the 22nd National place in the Long distance yearlings category, obtaining 25 penalty points from the first 3 stages of the long distance races:
Long distance Stage 1 – 105th place out of 6465 pigeons (580 km) – 16.2 points
Long distance 2 – 44th place out of 9835 pigeons (655 km) – 4.47 points
Long distance 3 – 15th place out of 3126 pigeons (655 km) – 4.80 points
At county level, the pigeon was champion in both the Long distance yearlings category and the Gold Club. The pigeons from the Apostu loft were flown to the widow all season in 2021, both partners being engaged in competitions. About his methods of feeding, recovery and treatments, Vrancea talks to us in more detail in the extensive video-interview, which you can watch by accessing the link:https://racingpigeons.ro/2020/08/10/catalin-apostu-regele-fondului-din-judetul-vrancea/. As pigoens selection methods, Apostu starts directly from the breeding loft, where he chose to breed only from the sons and grandsons of the top national pigeons, most based on at least one pigeon with very good results in his loft. At the beginning of the competition season, all the pigeons in the flight group are treated the same, without any favorites. Only after the arrivals from the first long distance race, the pigeons that rank in the leading places are considered as possible champions and receive a minimum of extra attention.

Apostu has been participating from the first edition of the Gold Club

Being a pigeon fancier who loves the Long distance category very much and a formidable competitor, he bought Gold rings from the first year in which the Gold Club was founded and “played” in this competition until now. From the rings purchased in 2017, the second year of the Gold Long distance Club, I managed to win the 3rd place National Gold in 2018 with “BUGATTI”, a pigeon that has demonstrated excellent flying qualities and is starting to show its reproductive value . It was expected that this type of competition would be set up in the marathon as well, because the marathon is the category most loved by Romanian pigeon fanciers ”.
Regarding the Gold Long distance Club’s regulations, Cătălin Apostu told us that some changes were good, but he would improve the current calculation formula: had ordered 2000 Gold rings. This means that all the pigeons that have Gold rings at that stage will have a very good score, well above the score from the normal ranking of the stage itself. It would be correct for the score to be calculated as follows: LP (place of the pigeon in the ranking of Gold-ringed pigeons) X 1,000 / (divided) by the number of pigeons with Gold-ringed engaged at that stage. Even in this case, those who buy more rings have an advantage, but it is a well-deserved advantage. We end up with stages where 100 pigeons with Gold rings participate, let’s say, and they all get a score from 2000 pigeons, that is, all up to 50 points. However, all in all, I think that when you breed a really good pigeon, it stands out regardless of the regulations. As for the transparency and fairness of the competition, I think there is nothing to object. I want to mention that, in 2020, I bought 40 Gold rings, and in the first stage of the 2021 season I participated with 30 of these pigeons. This year, I bought more rings than usual for the Gold Long distance Club and I also bought some rings for the Gold Marathon Club, where I will try to fly with my pigeons and I hope to claim a prize soon and within this competition”.