Bruce Lowe was a famous horse breeder. He became successful by studying lots of pedigrees. While studying these pedigrees he discovered that most successfull horses had the same magnificent ancestor. With that in mind he created a breeding system in his active lifetime as a top breeder.
Horses and racing pigeons aren’t entirely equal, but that makes no difference in breeding principles. If you look at the pedigrees of successful pigeons in the current pigeonsport, you’ll see the same base-pigeons over and over again. The Bruce-Lowe-system can be applied to racing pigeons by starting with the very best pigeon.
Toppigeons are rare and hard to get
Racing pigeons are becoming more and more expensive. Purchasing a good pigeon is getting harder. Still it’s better to buy a few good birds than buying more birds of lesser quality for the same money. If you don’t have the opportunity to buy a toppigeon, you still might be able to get your hands on a child or grandchild of a true toppigeon. With a good breeding system you can get amazing pigeons in your racing loft, if you start with great material.
Applying the Bruce Lowe system
Remember: the father of the mother has to be related to the mother of the father and vice versa. The closer a true toppigeon is in the pedigree, the better. After three or four generations the effect of this method will decrease. The better the top pigeon is, the better this system will work. It’s worth a try, not everyone can buy the very best pigeons, but you might get your hands on a halfbrother or halfsister.
Inbred pigeons have to be crossed to race well
Say you’ve bred a pigeon from halfbrother x halfsister. This bird will probably perform quite good, but will not be the best pigeon in your loft. You should do the same mating with another pair of halfbrother and halfsister and pair both inbreds with eachother to make a crossing. By doing this, you increased the change of a toppigeon a lot!
More on Bruce Lowe and Thoroughbred breeding theories can be read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoroughbred_breeding_theories
If you want to read more about Bruce Lowe and his breeding system, called the Figure system you might want to check this: