The Allflight One-day Racing
Pigeon Loft at Carnival City in Springs, Jo’burg, is managed by Herman van Rensburg and his son, Herman Jr. Pigeon fanciers pay R750 per bird to enter their newly weaned pigeons into Allflight to be trained and raced in the winter and/or summer race. Five Hot Spot races were successfully held before the main race, and the final event of the winter race was held on 9 August, 2010.
Hot Spot 1 (26 June)
Pigeons: 995. Liberation from Heilbron. Distance: 134km.Unfortunately, the Frik & Dennis Venter partnership didn’t activate their reserve entry Fuse when paying the entry fee and so were disqualified from receiving any prize money. Coming early in the training programme, Hot Spot 1 proved rather tough for the inexperienced flock. Around 100 pigeons got lost and didn’t make it home in time.
Hot Spot 2 (3 July)
Pigeons: 906. Liberation from Kroonstad. Distance: 185km.Return was better as the latecomers stayed on the line of flight. The R500 forfeited by Riaan Louw in not activating his entry could’ve bought him at least two big bags of pigeon feed with change to spare!
Hot Spot 3 (10 July)
Pigeons: 917. Liberation from Ventersburg. Distance: 243km.This proved to be the fastest of the series as the pigeons reacted favourably to the wind. The first 25 timed in on the same minute.
Hot Spot 4 (17 July)
Pigeons: 894. Liberation from Winburg. Distance: 280km.The Boshoffs had a good Hot Spot, coming second and third at moderate speed in comfortable racing conditions.
Hot Spot 5 (24 July)
Pigeons: 868. Liberation from Bloemfontein. Distance: 387km.The slowest paced of all the Hot Spots and good experience for the final.
Winter Race (9 August)
Pigeons: 807. Liberation from Colesberg. Distance: 587km.There were 70 cash prizes awarded, with the 70th position receiving R500. In contrast to the Hot Spots, the final was fast-paced with more than 20 pigeons arriving simultaneously. Within six minutes 70 pigeons had timed in.
Allflight Best Birds
The three most consistent performers were:Dolf Herbst’s Jessie (ZA/D 010 6365) winning R10 000.
Muller & Botha’s Sun Bird (ZA 010 20912) winning R5 000.Armstrong Brothers’ Electric Blue (ZA NJ 09 04760) winning R2 500.Jessie comes from a blend of older bloodlines – the Janssens, Oscar, Putterie and Hermans strains.
Allflight Car Race winners
These winners were decided on the best combined performance between the Hot Spot five and the final race. There were too few pigeons for the car to be awarded. Instead cash prizes were handed out.
Allflight Pontool Prize
In a “pontool”, fanciers can nominate any or all of their participating pigeons in each of Hot Spot five and final race at R50 each. A nominated pigeon must win the Hot Spot to win the pontool or the money is carried over to the next flight. It wasn’t won in the Hot Spot five. Bela Vista won it in final race, earning R5 760.
Contact Thomas Smit on 011 680 4778 or e-mail [email protected].Visit www.allflite.co.za.
