Pedigree analysis with race data: reading a pedigree through real results

Güvercin Yeri · Updated: October 15, 2026 · About 8 min read

On a pedigree you will often see achievement notes next to the ancestors, such as "1st National" or "3rd Final". These notes are valuable, but most of the time they are the statement of whoever prepared the document: which race it was, how many birds competed and in which year is often not written down and cannot be verified. Güvercin Yeri's approach to pedigrees was designed to fill this gap: to read the birds in a bloodline together with their actual race records.

1. The limits of a classic pedigree

Most pedigree programs are built to turn a family tree into a tidy document: the boxes are filled in, names and achievement notes are written, and the document is printed. What the document says, however, depends entirely on the information entered. A buyer who wants to check an ancestor's achievement has to find the result list of that race themselves, and most of the time they cannot.

The consequence is this: when two pedigrees are laid side by side, it is hard to tell from the documents which one rests on a stronger family. You cannot see how many of the listed achievements were won in large, demanding races and how many in small ones.

2. Reading the bloodline with real race records

Güvercin Yeri stores millions of race results imported from racing sources around the world, linked to ring numbers. When you bring your pedigree into the system, every box in the bloodline is linked to a ring number. If that ring has race records in the system, the bird's actual results become visible alongside the pedigree:

The races the bird competed in, their dates and organisations,
Its position in each race, the number of birds entered and its velocity,
An overall view of the bird's results: at which distances and in which part of the field it came home.

So instead of the sentence "his father was a very good bird", you see in which races the father finished in which position among how many birds. The pedigree stops being a document of claims and becomes an analysis tool backed by evidence.

3. From a single bird to the family and the line

A bird's value is shown not only by its own results but also by the overall performance of its family. The main layers examined in a pedigree analysis based on race data are:

Layer	What is examined?	What does it tell you?
Central bird	The bird's own race results	The bird's directly proven performance
Parents	The racing history of the sire and dam	How the bird's genetic source performed in practice
Siblings	Results of birds from the same parents	Whether the family's racing ability repeats
Offspring	Results of the bird's youngsters	What the bird passes on as a breeder
Line	Results of ancestors in earlier generations	Whether success is concentrated in a particular branch

A single champion in a family may be luck. Many birds from the same family consistently finishing in the top part of the field, in different organisations and different years, is a much stronger sign. The real strength of pedigree analysis with race data is that it makes this repetition visible.

4. Why are the document note and the race record kept apart?

Comments in the pedigree boxes (for example a sibling's or a youngster's result) are valuable clues and are used in the analysis. But they are the statement of whoever prepared the document. Güvercin Yeri deliberately does not mix these two kinds of information:

Race record: A result imported from the source and matched by ring number. It is used as evidence in the analysis.
Document note: The comment written on the pedigree. In the analysis it is shown under a separate heading, as a quotation, and is not counted as a proven result.

Cases where an achievement written on the document can be confirmed by a race record are especially valuable; notes that cannot be confirmed are not wrong, they are simply not yet proven. This distinction lets buyers and breeders make decisions knowing what they are relying on.

5. How to use it

Bring the pedigree into the system: Upload a photo of the paper pedigree. The boxes are read automatically; correct any unreadable parts by comparing them with the document, then save. Entering ring numbers correctly is the foundation of matching.
Link the birds to your loft: Register your own birds, their mates and their youngsters in your loft. The family tree is built from these links.
Open the race report: Depending on your package, create a race report for a bird with summaries of the central bird, the family and the line. The report shows the race records in the system and the pedigree notes under separate headings.
AI commentary (Pro): In the Pro package, the report is supported by an AI summary that reads the race records and pedigree notes together. This summary does not invent scores or probabilities of success; it describes the available evidence in clear language and points out missing information.

We explain how to read the pedigree itself in the pedigree article, and how to assess race results in the race result article.

6. Limitations and realistic expectations

Race data is strong evidence, but it does not tell the whole story. Some races may not have been imported into the system yet; club races in some countries are not published digitally. The absence of a record for an ancestor in the system does not mean it did not race or that it was unsuccessful. Also, a good bloodline is no guarantee that every youngster will be good; rearing, health and luck always play a part.

Used correctly, pedigree analysis with race data helps you rely on evidence rather than guesswork in pairing and buying decisions. As the number of imported races grows and more breeders bring their pedigrees into the system, the scope of the analyses will widen as well.