That saddle looks to be in excellent condition!
The words "special competition" refer to a specific leather treatment they used at Ideale. It appears to succeed the "professionale" treatment that they used until maybe the mid-60's. (In contrast, "Type Record" had no special treatment). i don't remember if I've seen advertising copy for "special competition" saddles, but the professional saddles were claimed to be 'impermeable" and "indeformable."
Anyway, the point is, this is treated leather, and we don't know the details of the treatment. But as was mentioned, they were made to be hard.
In my experience, you cannot soften the leather. You can reshape it to some degree (water will soften it temporarily, but after it dries it will be just as hard as before, if not harder). Neatsfoot oil won't do any harm, but don't expect miracles.
Yes, googled and found that too. I think I will do a simple clean up and put it on a bike I don't use often and start tooling around on it a bit. Why were they intented to be harder?