The Philippine Lemons

By Rey Bajenting
RB Sugbo Gamefowl Technology

In search of a breed, I discovered a legend.

 www.obooko.com

The Path
to a legend

I found the various stories behind the Philippine lemons

-- the origin, the history, the future, as well as some
myth.
But most of all I have come face to face with the
living legends—the remarkable gentlemen that breed
them.
From these master breeders, I gained deeper
knowledge and wisdom that will guide me as I go about
with my journey, as breeder and writer, to the
fascinating world of the lemons.
Moreover, from some of them,, I also got
beautiful specimen of the lemons to breed and behold.
My thanks to Mayor Juancho Aguirre, Mr. Paeng
Araneta, Mr. Lance de la Torre, Mr. Choy Ampil and,
Mr Joe Laureño for granting me interviews and lessons
in the art of breeding and cocking.

And, to Mr. Mark Aguirre, (deceased 2010) who

since then, has become a friend and partner. As well as
to his buddy and fellow breeder Bobot Chua, who had
been very helpful in providing me practical insight into
the character of the lemons.

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 The Philippine Lemons

Of course, to my friend Glen Lim and to my

cocking partners Steve Sarmago and Raul Ebeo for
being with me through the trips and the treks to the cold
mountains of Negros.

Steve Sarmago, the author’s friend and partner.

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The Philippine Lemons:

The legend continues
By Rey Bajenting
RB Sugbo Gamefowl Technology

This account on the different lemon strains was first

published in a regular issue of Pit Games Magazine, then as a
separate edition of Legends of the Pit, and finally in a
compilation of the Best of the Legends of the Pit.

The sugbo lemon, a strain developed by RB Sugbo

Gamefowl Technology.

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 The Philippine Lemons

The Philippine Lemons:

The legend continues

The beginning
Yes, it was the great American cocker Duke
Hulsey who, forty years ago, brought to the Philippines
the seeds of the tree that was to become the Philippine
lemons, but it were the Filipino breeders, mostly from
Negros, who nurtured them into what they are now.
In the 60’s the great American breeder Duke
Hulsey brought over to the country the lemon hackled
red battle fowl he used in competing on behalf of Don
Amado Araneta and son Jorge ―Nene‖ Araneta. Most of
these battle fowl were of Duke’s butcher-hatch-claret
blend. They were the predecessors of the Philippine
lemons.
Whether Duke had ever set them into a strain or
just produced them as battle crosses was uncertain.
Some of those he brought here might even be of
different breeds as the late Duke Hulsey had many
bloodlines.
No body could tell now with certainty, as nobody
seemed to have asked then. What was important at the

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time was, no matter what they were, the hulseys were

efficient killers.
Duke brought these fowl here in the 60’s yet.
Those years were then considered a new era in
Philippine cockfighting. It was the advent of imported
roosters that came in from the United States.
Now, forty years later as the sport experienced a
welcome transformation from an ordinary Filipino
pastime to a full blown industry, the bloodline is still
very much alive and in use by many Philippine breeders
and cockers.
Thanks to the many Filipino breeders, mostly in
Negros, who loved the bloodline and stuck with it,
through the years.

The birth of the lemons

Lance de la Torre told this writer that in the
sixties there was a certain Dr. Javelona who was
importing and fighting with success the hulsey fowl.
A bit later, whether inspired by the impressive
performances of the hulseys fought by Dr. Javelona, or
for any other reason, Don Amado Araneta began
sponsoring the campaign of Duke Hulsey here in the
Philippines.
At that time derbies were not popular. The big
timers then fought in hacks, conciertos and mains. Like
many of their contemporaries such as Eddie Araneta
and the Rivero brothers of Manila, the Plazas and
Chiongbians of Mindanao, Amado Garcia of Davao,

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The Lacsons of Negros, Nyor Dorong Paulin and Cong.

Ed Kintanar of Cebu, and others who fought imported
chickens, Don Amado and son George Araneta opted to
pin their hope on the imported hulseys.
The Duke brought with him here a number of his
fowl. A great majority of these fowl were battle crosses.
There were his lemon hackles. There were also some
birds with white under hackles. He also had varieties
called the cecils and even a line called miss u. And, of
course, also his greys.
Perhaps the best performers were the lemon
hackles as they became the most popular and a by-word
in Philippine cocking. These were his butcher-hatch-
claret blend, the ancestors of the Philippine lemons.
Again according to Lance de la Torre, it was
Freddie Yulo, then a close associate of Amado Araneta,
who was responsible for spreading out the hulsey lemon
hackles to the breeders in Negros Occidental. Where
and when the hulsey lemon hackles were called the
lemons for the first time was not clear. It was believed
however, that it was around this time that the name was
shortened to lemons.

Was Hulsey’s hatch-claret-butcher blend

a strain or a cross?
American breeder Owen Mcguiness was the man
who bred for Duke Hulsey the butcher hatch claret
blend that was to become the lemons.

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For sure the blend started as a cross, as battle

fowl. What was not certain was whether or not it was
later set into a strain.
Some accounts, including that of Paeng Araneta
himself, had them as a strain, others said they remained
a cross.
But not all lemons, brought here by Hulsey were
of the same butcher hatch claret blend. The lemon 84,
for one, was supposed to be of a different bloodline.
The earlier fowl Hulsey brought in, that was in
1964, were mostly straight combs. They were the roots
of the batchoy lemons.
The next big batch came in 1967. They were
mostly pea combs, like the 84.
It was possible that Hulsey really had strains out
of these blends. But at the same time he was also
fighting triple crosses of his hatch, claret and butcher; or
whatever other blood was contained in his battle fowl.
American breeders at the time were fond of the three-
way rotational cross method of breeding.
A rotational three-way cross is done by
employing three blood lines. Let’s say at first a hatch
and a claret were bred to produce a 2-way hatch-claret
blend. Then a butcher cock was thrown into the hatch-
claret blend to produce a butcher x hatch-claret triple
cross. Subsequently a hatch cock was again thrown in to
increase the proportion of the hatch blood. The
following year, another claret was mated into the cross,
then next year a butcher, so forth and so on.

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 The Philippine Lemons

Breeders who desired to maintain this as a cross

and not a set-strain took extra care not to resort to
inbreeding by using unrelated hatches, clarets and
butchers. However, those who desired otherwise could
easily do it by resorting, at some point, to brother-sister
mating or back to pa, grandpa or other inbreeding
combinations.
Possibly, too, the hulsey blend started as a triple
cross, and through subsequent in-breeding, ended up a
strain.
However, what Mcguiness and Hulsey did to
their stock was their own.
Regardless, the fact was that the Negros breeders
who first had the hulsey birds, whether they were inbred
animals or not, really went to work and employed their
own inbreeding methods for purposes of setting their
own strains.
Most of these breeders because they only had
battle cocks or the male of the specie, used the back-to-
father method of line in-breeding.
What the different breeders had then were brood
cocks of the hulsey lemon hackle variety, which, might
have been not a breed or strain, but battle crosses that
were not even closely related to one another.
It was when these birds came in the hands of
responsible breeders, the likes; of Freddie Yulo, Nonoy
Jalandoni, Paeng Araneta, Batchoy Alunan, Juancho
Aguirre, Bob Cuenca, Tony Trebol, Lance dela Torre,
the Maravillas and the Ampils, Joe Laureño, and others

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that the respective lines of lemons were created —

different strains of Philippine lemons.
Whether or not Hulsey really got his lemon as a
strain is now immaterial. Hulsey had his hulsey lemon,
but, definitely we have got ours. Thanks to Filipino
breeders who had put in so many years of frustration,
inspiration, effort, and dedication, in order to create the
various Philippine lemon strains.

The Negros breeders

The brothers Freddie and Mariano Yulo were
among these Negros breeders who helped develop the
lemon strains. Moreover, they were the ones credited
for bringing to Negros most of the Hulsey cocks then in
the hands of the Aranetas in Manila.
The brothers who were close to the Aranetas
served as the pipeline of many Negros breeders to the
hulsey fowl. They also had their own strain, the
Hinigaran lemons, Hinigaran, Negros Occidental being
their hometown.
Another of these breeders was the late Mayor
Nonoy Jalandoni of La Carlota, Negros Occidental. He
created his own lemon strains which he fought,
popularized, and later shared with the other members of
the La Carlota group- Mayor Juancho Aguirre, Bob
Cuenca and Tony Trebol. To these days these three
remained top lemon breeders.
Mayor Aguirre confided to Pit Games that today,
of the three of them Bob Cuenca possessed the purest of

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the lemons as Cuenca succeeded up to these days, in

maintaining his line with no or just little infusion.
This was a confirmation of a claim by Richard
Infante, a long time breeding and conditioning assistant
to Bob Cuenca.
During an earlier interview with Pit Games
Infante said his boss had, for more than 30 years,
succeeded in maintaining the hulsey lemon almost in its
original state.
At about the same time that the members of the
La Carlota Group of Nonoy Jalandoni were breeding
their own lemon strains, or even earlier as some
accounts had it, Paeng Araneta and Batchoy Alunan
also had their lemons.
Then in 1967, Paeng Araneta who already had
acquired some of the Alunan lemons, imported a Duke
Hulsey lemon hackled pea combed, yellow legged cock.
It was rare as most of Duke’s lemon hackles were
straight comb. The cock, which was sporting leg band
no. 84 became the founder of the historical lemon 84
line.

The coming of the 84s

In 1972 the 84s stunned the cocking world by
winning the international, besting a field composed of
all-imported line-ups. The popularity of the lemons in
general, and the lemon 84s in particular, spread through
out the land. Breeders from outside Negros started
breeding the lemons.

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One from Manila, Peter Uy, has for more than 30

years now maintained different lines of lemons infused
with different imported bloods.
Renown cocker Francis Afable, considered an
authority on bloodlines,
said that Uy has succeeded in maintaining different
lemon 84 lines infused with Billy Ruble blue face,
Harry Lee Strouth butcher, Dad Gleezen whitehackle,
and some sweaters, yellow legged hatches, and albanys.
According to Afable, these blood lines gave the lemons
the much needed shot in the arm.
Another Luzon breeder Tiny Meneses vouched
for the blending prowess of the lemon and considered it
one of the best base lines.
Meneses once wrote in a local magazine:
― Lemon is one of the best bloodlines there
is to produce good battlecrosses. Lemons are also
good even when fought pure. Lemons are smart
fowl, sometimes they are at their best when they
are at their dullest. They simply kill their
opponents very quickly without any fuss. Lemons
cross very well.‖

The lemons and the sweaters

Sources also told this writer that, at present, there
are breeders who are breeding the lemons but are hiding
the fact from the public. These breeders, for commercial

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reasons, prefer to advertise their birds as sweaters or

other imported breeds.
It is understandable. They want buyers to believe
that their birds are American breeds over which they
enjoy exclusive rights, and thus, are not easily
accessible. Of course, on the contrary, the lemons are
readily available in Negros and other parts of the
country.
What they might not have realized is that the
sweater which was originated by Harold Brown out of
yellow-legged macleans might contain the blood of the
hulsey lemon or vice versa.
Francis Afable wrote in Pit Games no. 3:
―. . . this popular strain (sweater) started in
the United States inside the breeding farm of
Harold Brown. He supposedly got a yellow
legged mclean cock from Ted Mclean and bred it
over a mclean-leiper hen with substantial success
in the mating. After blending them the first year,
breeding went back to the dad.‖
―These ¾ mcleans made history. Some
breeders I talked with were saying that the pea
combed, yellow legged and lemon hackled Duke
Hulsey lemon popular here is the same strain as
Harold Brown’s. The late Robbie White was said
to have confirmed this before he died.‖

According to the distinguished Negros breeders I

talked with, the lemon blends with most blood lines

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because it is a perfect combination of power in the hatch

in it, speed in the claret in it, and cutting ability in the
butcher in it.
Bob Cuenca crosses the lemon with hatch-claret
to increase power and speed. In effect, Bob Cuenca was
just adding more hatch-claret blood in proportion to the
butcher blood.
Paeng Araneta blends it with the blue face,
adding more hatch, to add gameness and also power to
his already quick 84s.
Juancho Aguirre has for years been winning in
style with his lemon-cecil greys and lately with lemon
sweaters and lemon kelsos.
The Ampils have their own lemon-roundheads,
lemon-dan grays, lemon-hatch blends. And, of course,
Lance de la Torre has his formidable lemon-boston
roundhead crosses.
Joe Laureño, has been doing pretty well with his
lemon-dink fair crosses.
Truly, indeed, Lance de la Torre summed it up in
so few a words when he said: ―In Negros you’re not
considered a breeder when you don’t breed the lemon.‖

The talents of the Negros breeders

It could be the original hulsey lemons were not a
breed but battle crosses that might not be even related to
one another. Most likely, the Negros breeders who got
them were not breeding seed fowls but battle cocks. It

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could be only because of the talent of some of these

breeders that lemon strains were created.
These breeders created strains out of one
individual brood cock. So the different lemon strains
may not be related to one another as they are mostly
products of line breeding to a single hulsey lemon battle
cock. These individual cocks might have come from
different families of lemon hackled hulsey fowl.
Definitely, the different lemon strains have
different genetic composition as each of the breeders of
the lemon strains used different bloodlines in the hen
side of the original matings from which they started the
line breeding back to the cock.
As examples to illustrate this point Pit Games
interviewed the originators of the lemon 84, the lemon
guapo, and the main man behind the batchoy lemons.

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The lemon 84
According to the personal account of Rafael
―Paeng‖ C. Araneta (RCA) he got a pea comb fowl
from Duke Hulsey in the mid sixties with leg band
number 84. He bred this cock to his earlier hulsey
lemon hens out of stock from his friend, the late
Batchoy Alunan.
He then mated the female offspring of this mating
back to the father to produce three-quarters of the
original lemon 84 cock. The males of this generation,
Paeng told this writer, just kept on winning and became
so popular. These he called the lemon 84s in reference
to the leg band number of the original cock.
From hereon, in almost every generation, he
applied both the brother sister mating and the breeding
back to the father methods. At some point, some green
legged fowl were produced. Thus, he was able to create
sub-families of green legged lemons, making the lemon
84 as, perhaps, the only lemon strain that formally has a
sub-family of green legged fowl.
The 84’s come in both pea comb and straight
comb. The straight combs do not look much different
from some of the other lemon strains in Negros. And,
according to Paeng, the old 84’s fought similar to the
other lemons except that they were much quicker.
At the height of the popularity of the lemon 84
many Negros breeders claimed to have the strain when
in fact what they got were lemons of other variety.
Paeng, however, admitted to having lent 84’s to Mayor

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Jalandoni and Tony Trebol. Thus, these two top

breeders might have really bred the 84’s in addition to
the equally formidable lemon lines they already had. It
was also possible that from these two gentlemen the
lemon 84 bloodline was spread out to their friends and
buyers.
Today the lemon 84 bloodline is very much alive
not only in the hands of many breeders all over the
country, but also in the farm of Paeng Araneta himself.

Better than ever lemon 84.

―My lemon 84 now is better than ever,‖ Paeng
told this writer. ―although, so is the competition,‖ he
added.
When asked why, and what’s the difference
between the 84 of the old and the present day 84, Mr.
Araneta said:
― The 84’s had always been quicker compared to
the other lemons. Now they are even quicker and they
pack more power with the infusion of my blue face
hatch blood.‖
Later, at RCA’s farm, this writer discovered that
the present day 84 is also pretty by lemon standard.
Lemons have never been known for being beautiful, but
the new 84’s are. And, they are quick and agile, with
some power to spare.
Yes, Paeng’s ― Better than Ever‖ lemon 84’s may
have a future as much as they have a past.

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The lemon guapo

Mayor Juancho Aguirre and his lemon guapo

Another strain of lemon that has been around for

more than 30 years is the lemon guapo of Mayor
Juancho Aguirre.
According to mayor Juancho in the sixties and the
70s Negros was full of so-called lemon lines. There
were the 84, the batchoy, the togo, the massa, and the
hinigaran, to name a few. The 84 was Paeng’s creation.
Batchoy and massa were name of the breeders who

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originated these lines, while Hinigaran is the place of

Freddie Yulo, who had been the Negrenses’ foremost
source of hulsey lemon cocks.
At that time most Negros breeders, including the
group of Mayor Juancho, did not have the technical
knowledge and support that present day breeders enjoy.
For them, it was, almost always a hit and miss affair.
Thus, they really had a hard time producing good birds,
much less maintain their winning lines.
Indeed, it was the reason, mayor Juancho said,
that they sponsored the Duke himself to stay in Negros
for a while to teach them the rudiments of breeding and
fighting.
Because of this lack of scientific knowledge,
coupled with the fact that the breeders also failed to
assess accurately the value of these lemons, most of
these lines either went to extinction or took the back
seat.
The 84s and the batchoys are still around. The
massa and togo are no longer heard of. The hinigaran
has reincarnated as the Guapo line.

Here is the story:

At about the time, Paeng’s 84s were making
waves, disaster hit mayor Aguirre’s stock. Avian pest
wiped out his flock. Among, the very few survivors
were a lemon brood cock and a baby stag that was
suffering from a limber neck as result of barely
surviving the epidemic.

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Discouraged and decided to take a leave from

breeding, the mayor gave the brood cock to his brother-
in-law Bob Cuenca who had a lot of the same lemon
strain- the hinigaran variety.
Mayor Juancho also gave the surviving limber
necked hinigaran lemon baby stag to a kumpadre who
peddled chickens.
After a year, the mayor casually asked his
kumpadre about the limber necked stag. To his surprise,
the limber neck was not only fine but indeed was a very
beautiful specimen of a cock.
They started calling it guapo. After a while they
fought guapo. It won four fights practically unscathed.
On its fifth win guapo was badly wounded.
Mayor Juancho, whose interest in breeding had
been slowly revived, decided to breed guapo. He bred
the erstwhile limber neck to some cecil hens and some
hatch hens.
He kept breeding the best pullets back to guapo,
at the same time employ some brother-to-sister matings,
until he was able to set the strain he called lemon guapo.
―I continued to play around with many inbreeding
variations of the guapo line, always keeping in mind
absolute quality control,‖ Mayor Aguirre told this
writer.
Eventually the line with the infusion of the cecil
blood was discontinued because according to him the
cecils tend to produce oversized offspring. (The cecils
referred to were not of Cecil Davies bloodline but a line

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of Duke Hulsey which Duke called as such. They were

reds with white under hackles.)

The malatuba family of the guapo

After almost forty years of playing around with
the guapo bloodline, suddenly a bunch of the present
day guapos came out malatuba or pumpkin in plumage.
These pumpkins are direct decendants to a guapo
lemon that had just recently died but not before reaching
the age of nine. According to mayor juancho, this
particular cock became a hennie or binabaye after its
last moult.
He consulted veterinarians on the phenomenon.
All they could say was that it could be a result of altered
hormone balance as brood cocks were normally pumped
with hormones to induce fertility.
How about the bunch of pumpkin guapos? They
could not be result of hormone imbalance. They could
only be throwbacks.
The pumpkins came out of a likewise pumpkin
cock that is son to the old lemon-turned- binabaye brood
cock. This pumpkin lemon broodcock could be a case of
―throwback beyond the original.‖
The original hulsey cocks brought to the country
in the sixties were not malatuba. The throw back must
be way way back to their earlier predecessors. Perhaps,
somewhere along the line long before the hatch-claret-
butcher lines were blended by Duke Hulsey, any one or

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more of the said bloodlines carried some pumpkin

genes. I suspect it must have been the clarets.
According to the History of Game Strains
(Johnson and Holcomb) in 1927, a Duryea cock which
was thrown in to contribute to the development of the
claret bloodline, produced many wonderful pumpkin
cocks.
This could be the reason why Juancho’s lemon
guapo is now producing pumpkin throwbacks. And,
their fighting styles? Well, JGA’s pumpkin lemon
guapos are the most powerful lemons I’ve seen. And,
they still fight like lemons should—smart and quick.

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Joe Laureño and the batchoys.

The author, Rey Bajenting with a now very rare Batchoy lemon.

The batchoy lemons were among the first lemon lines

that made it to the big time. They were straight combed,

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lemon hackled low stationed cocks and originated by

the late Batchoy Alunan. Unknown to many then, there
was one other man behind the success of the batchoys—
Joe Laureño, Mr Alunan’s trusted chickenman.
Batchoy Alunan died in 1980. Now 25 years
after, the batchoys, in their original state, are very much
alive in the farm of Joe Laureño.
Joe had been associated with Batchoy from 1968
to the latter’s death in 1980. As a parting gift from the
family, he was made to settle for some fowl instead of
cash. From then on, the burden of preserving the
batchoy lines fell upon Joe’s shoulder.
According to Joe, he got 2 broodcocks and 13
hens. Out of these, he had managed to reconstruct the
batchoy bloodlines.
Joe told Pit games that there were actually three
kinds of lemon in the batchoy yards. There was the 84,
the left ins and the line that was called the batchoys. Of
course there were also other bloodlines such as the
equally formidable batchoy greys.
The line called batchoy is low stationed and very
barako. This particular batchoys were tough and they
fought like hatches. The left ins were beautiful and were
the smart ones. The blend of the two lines gave them
numerous successes then, along with Francis de Borja
and Jesse Cabalza, who were foremost chicken fighters
of the time.

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The 84s really came from the original 84 cock.

The original 84 cock was with Batchoy Alunan for a
while and Joe bred it to some of their own lemons.
With just the 2 cocks and 13 hens, Joe did not
only manage to restore the batchoys, he was also able to
discover blends that made his lemons comparable to the
best of the best bloodlines of today.

How did he do it?

Joe did it with the time-honored method of back
crossing to the purer parent, and other forms of in-
breeding. Of course, he also resorted to the inevitable
infusion of new blood at some point. New bloods that
were eventually slowly bred out in order to once again
purify the lemon blood.
He has fought them crossed with several different
bloodlines with same success-- in the bakbakan, in the
world slasher, and in many great gathering of great
feathered warriors.
As most of us know, Joe is very active in the big
times nowadays. He is now among the country’s big
boys. Joe and his son Johnny have won the prestigious
Balbina Breeders Cup twice already.
The entry JVL is always in the thick of the big
fights. Where and when the best chickens of the land
see action, Mang Joe and his fowl are there to reckon
with.
In his very beautiful farm that this writer visited,
there was an array of imported dink fairs sweaters,

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yellow legged hatches, Roger Robert’s hatchets,

mcleans and other hatches. Yes, there were some two
thousand beauties on cord. Amid these jewels, still were
the batchoy lemons of the old. Not so beautiful, but so
precious.

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Lance: In negros you are not a breeder

if you have got no lemons

Lance de la Torre with Raul Ebeo (left) and the author at Lance’s
farm in Talisay, Negros Occidental.

Inasmuch as you cannot start a story about the

lemons without mentioning Paeng Araneta, certainly,
you could not end it without reference to Lance de la
Torre.

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Lance, the big boy who rose from the ranks. The
former policeman who resigned from service to pursue
a much greater love of his—cockfighting.
He went to Manila to condition, handle and tie
the knife on the chickens of prominent cockers.
In due time, he proved his worth.
He found a partner and he was suddenly into
breeding, and, became a world slasher champion, the
first to score 8 straight wins in the wsc.
Lance’s lemons are of the Nonoy Jalandoni and
Nene Velez variety. Not much different from those of
Juancho Aguirre and the rest of the La Carlota group.
His lemons are probably the most expensive around, but
like the Rolls Royce, they are worth every penny, even
more.
His lemons blend well with his roundheads, and
with most of his other lines. Straight combed, and
medium stationed, they come with some shades of
malatuba in the breast. They look like the old time
lemons but they pack more wallop and are quicker than
most. They are really a wonder to behold.
When I was in Lance’s farm, in Talisay, Negros
Occ., I was treated to a long sparring session. The
lemons were sparred along side his newly acquired
bloodlines such as the much sought after Jr. Belt Cowan
roundhead, as well as his old reliables such as his
boston and his regular roundheads. There were also his
hatches and his greys, the lance greys that sold for more
than a hundred grand a trio.

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Against this formidable array of distinguished

bloodlines, Lance’s lemons held their own.
The master breeder in lance has somehow
managed to infuse the much needed booster to enable
his lemons fight as fit for the modern times.
His lemons are intelligent, quick and powerful.
Considering Lance’s obsession with gameness, we can
be rest assured too that his lemons are more than fairly
game.
Lance, the man who said that: ―you are not a
breeder if you don’t have the lemon,‖ also admitted to
this writer: ―I am not an all out lemon fanatic, I know
the limitations of the lemons but I know its blending
value too.‖

The lemons’ attributes and records

Known for its brainy fighting style, accurate
cutting ability and excellent timing, the lemon is,
without doubt, one of the great bloodlines in the history
of cockfighting.
After forty years of remarkable presence in the
Philippine cocking scene, the lemons have definitely
passed the test of time, and with flying colors.
Despite the advent of the so-called modern
yellow legged and green legged hatches, the super
kelsos, the magnum and bonecrusher hatches, the
numerous variations of the old time roundheads, and
other newly created or revitalized old strains, the

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lemons are still sought after by top notch breeders who

know of the lemons’ value.

The lemons first caught the attention of the

international cocking community in 1972. That year the
lemon 84s of Paeng Araneta won the international
derby. The 84s were the only local breed entered in that
grand event.
Another high point of the lemons came in 1997
when Lance de la Torre, in tandem with Patrick
Antonio, won solo that year’s edition of the World
Slasher Cup II. Lance de la Torre unveiled to the world
the might and ring savvy of his lemon-roundhead
crosses to score 8 straight victories. It was then an
unprecedented feat.
Prior to that no one had ever scored 8 straight
wins in the WSC. The record was eventually tied 7
years later by Rudy Salud and Lito Orillaza who copped
the 2004 edition of world slasher cup I. Salud and
Orillaza showed cocks coming from bloodlines of
another Negros stalwart, Danilo Hinlo.
In year 2000, Bob Cuenca, a member of the La
Carlota, Negros lemon group, likewise in tandem with
Patrick Antonio, won a share of that year’s January
edition of the world slasher.
That same year, Peping Ricafort scored a grand
slam. He emerged co-champion in both the January and
June editions of the world slasher cup. Ricafort later
divulged in a magazine interview that he always made it

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a point that all cocks he bred have drops of the lemon

84 blood which he got directly from the originator
Paeng Araneta.
In January 2001, Tony Trebol, another member of
the La Carlota lemon group won another WSC title.
These series of major achievements by the
lemons were no easy feats considering they came in the
wake of perennial challenges from the sweaters of
Carol Nesmith, Bruce Barnette, and Dink Fair, the
Roger Roberts hatchets; and the birds of Johnny
Jumper, Ray Alexander, and those of many other
American and local breeders.

Brainy and quick

The lemons are medium to low station. They fight
smart, cut well and have excellent timing. They come in
plumage from red with lemon hackles to downright
lemon like color. They come either in straight or pea
combs, but mostly straight combs, except for the 84s
which are basically pea combs. More than ninety
percent of the lemons come in yellow legs. A few are
green legged. Fewer still are white legged. They are not
as beautiful as, say, the sweaters, but the lemons have a
bearing of the royalty and confidence of a champion.
The lemons exude an aura, so to say.
In the pit, they keep their cool under extreme
pressure. Under attack, the lemon extricate itself by
either gracefully side stepping or topping the opponent.

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When attacking, the lemon does not resort to fancy

shuffles and multiple cutting. It simply hits with fatal
single strokes.
The lemon may not look so fast in its movements
but, in reality, it is quick to the draw and extremely
accurate. There is rhythm to its blows that draws the
opponent to its beat, and poetry in its motions that
baffles the opponent into lowering its guards.
The lemons are patient and brainy. They are what
is called ―abang‖ in Tagalog and ―kumpas‖ in Bisaya.
They wait for the opponent to make the first move.
They seem to know that, more often than not, the first
move is a mistake.
Then the lemons are vertical flyers. When the
other cock strikes the lemon goes up vertically to top
the opponent, and not diagonally as most cocks do.
This is geometry and physics in action. When two
birds go up together in the air vertically, the point of
contact is prolonged and gravity more centered that
when one of the birds breaks diagonally forward. Thus,
breaking vertically, the bird on top will have more time
to inflict damage; whereas, in a diagonal flight the
inertia of the forward blow will likely prevent the blade
from going deeper into the flesh.
On the ground, when evading blows, the lemon
side steps or back pedals instead of ducking. And, it
counters accurately. According to Mayor Juancho
Aguirre, to him the ultimate maneuver of a cock is back
pedaling at the same time ―nagiiwan ng paa‖ or counter

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striking effectively. ―The lemon can do it, can do it in

style,‖ he said.
Also the lemons are not bill holders. They strike
with their feet not with their beaks. They have this
staccato type of blows that seem to always beat the
opponent to the draw. In breeding, too, the lemon
blends well with almost any other bloodline.

The future
The Philippine lemons have a colorful past, and a
solid present. What about the future stored for them?
The lemons should still be around for the years to
come. Efforts by our best breeders to preserve the line,
improve on them, and correct the weaknesses will
guarantee that the lemons are here to stay for several
decades more.
The lemon’s main drawbacks are the lack of
station and power. Its gameness, according to some is
also a suspect. But this has been disputed by others who
swore that there are dead game lemons as well.
With the infusion of other bloodlines, and the
respective breeders ability to perceive and foresee, these
problems have been corrected.
The lemon guapo of mayor Juancho is an
example of a new generation lemons. Lance’s lemons
are comparable to, if not better than, most of the modern
day sweaters, kelsos, and roundheads.

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Also, there abound all over the country, new

breeders that are out to continue breeding, improving
and propagating the lemons.
Morover, the lemons have continued to prove
their blending worth. A look at the winning crosses in
the big fights nowadays will show the high percentage
of fowl with lemon blood. The JVL dink-lemon crosses
are example of these winning fowl, as well, as those of
Dicky Lim’s and the Julao Bros.

Yes, the great Duke Hulsey brought his lemons to

the Philippines, but the Filipino breeders, were the ones
who created the lemons of today – The Philippine
Lemons.

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About RB Sugbo
Gamefowl Technology
(Visit rbscal.webs.com)

“Measured against the eternity, our time on earth is just a blink

of an eye. But the consequence of it will last forever. The deeds
of this life are destiny of the next” --- Rick Warren in his book
the Purpose Driven Life.

The above quotation is in dedication to a friend who

passed away a few years ago. Ernesto ―Erning‖Panuncillo. To us,
who had known him well, he was more than just a dedicated
sabungero. Ever helpful to anybody who needed his expertise; he
was extremely honest; and selfless, almost to a fault, he was
indeed an epitome of a Filipino cocker.

We called each other ―Sanga‖(partner in

Cebuano).We were more than just cocking buddies. We were
life-long friends— like brothers indeed.

He was always helping me in my cocking ventures.

When I decided to go full blast with breeding some years back,
he helped me sourced out top breeding materials.

It was because of him that I was able to acquire the

patriarch of all the RB Sugbo ponkan lines -- my favorite brood
cock ―Ponkan,‖ an EDL/Excellence sweater, who at the time was
otherwise,definitely not for sale in the hands of his brother
Arthur, proprietor of the cockers and agrivet product distribution
chain,Pacific Barato.

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Most of all, he was the one who first mentioned my

name to publisher Manny Berbano. It led to my writing for Pit
Games and Llammado magazines, an opportunity I cherished
most.

Because of my knowing Manny I was able to acquire

more top-quality imported and local materials; and, met in
person, distinguished breeders, and legends of our time. And,
because of Pit Games and Llammado, I gained new friends and
customers from as far as the Ilocos regions in the north, and
Basilan in the south, not to mention the many others outside the
country. These things, I owed to Sanga.

Erning was also instrumental to the mission-vision of

RB Sugbo chicken venture. Sanga had repeatedly told me:
“Breed for the common sabungeros, the ordinary cockers and
small time breeders who have neither the access nor the means to
acquire expensive fowl. And, don’t just sell them chickens, also
afford them technology.”

His idea was that we will not just breed and sell fowl
but also take active part in technology transfer, thus the name RB
Sugbo Gamefowl Technology.

On our part, with right technology, we could produce

more good chickens at much lower cost. Therefore,we could
priced our fowl at a level affordable to the common sabungeros.

Now, RB Sugbo Gamefowl Technology is committed

to helping the common sabungeros.

RB Sugbo breeds quality fowl affordable to the

common sabungero. It is also engaged in the transfer of
gamefowl technology, for as economically as possible. RB Sugbo

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GT has been doing this since 2003 . RB Sugbo is constantly into

research on the different aspects of cockfighting such as
selection, handling, conditioning, pointing, and effective knife
designs.

The Blakliz, one of the bloodlines formed by RB Sugbo

Gamefowl Technology. Named after wife Liz, the blakliz also
carries the blood of “Ponkan,” the sweater broodcock from Doc
Ayong Lorenzo, the patriarch of ponkan the bloodline and
other RB Sugbo lines.

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Since 2007, RB Sugbo GT has been totally committed to

helping Masang Nagmamanok (MANA) Inc., a nationwide
movement championing the cause of the common sabungeros.

Sugbo bloodlines such as the Ponkans and Sugbo Lemons,

priced well within the reach of the common sabungero,are
holding their own against respectable opposition.

RB Sugbo publications are also well circulated among the

common sabungeros, mainly through MANA. It also conducts
seminars, trainings and at-farm-hands -on and/or on-line
technology transfer.

RB Sugbo GT is also technical and marketing consultant to

a number of upstart breeders in the Philippines. Founder Rey
Bajenting is also founder of MANA, writer in Pit Games and
LLammado Magazines, Editor of Dyaryo Larga and founding
director of Central Visayas Breeders Association (CVBA).

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The Blueface of RB Sugbo. This bloodline is a very good

blender with most other bloodlines. The RBS blueface came
from good friend Jason Garces, who in turn got this valuable
bloodline from Gov. Arthur “Chongkee” Uy of Davao.

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The Philippine Lemons

Published worldwide by RB Sugbo GT
Visit rbscal.webs.com

Free Edition

 Copyright 2011 RB Sugbo GT

This edition is available free of charge as service to the sabungero public by

Masang Nagmamanok (MANA) Inc. and RB Sugbo Gamefowl Technology; it
may be amended and updated at any time by the author so please visit
manainc.web.com or rbscal.webs.com to ensure you have the latest edition.

Although free of charge, this work remains protected by Copyright and must
not be sold in digital or printed form. Free circulation of this edition is,
however, encouraged. You may forward this copy to friends.

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