Unless assisted by a mentor and driven by a special interest in racing pigeons, beginners find the cost and other challenges of conventional pigeon racing near impossible to overcome.
The South African National Pigeon Organisation (SANPO) has roughly 4 200 active pigeon fanciers on record, with an estimated majority over the age of 50.
Sadly, the South African pigeon racing scene has changed and the sport is running on empty. The question is whether privately owned One Loft Races, some with millions up for grabs, can provide some relief to keep the sport’s flame alive in South Africa.
No longer the poor man’s racehorses
In the old days, pigeon passion and love for the sport of pigeon racing contributed to the collective sentiment at a social, people-friendly clubhouse. Racing pigeons, or homers as they were called, were referred to as the ‘poor man’s racehorses’.
In 1968, when my own interest in pigeon racing began, I remember that, with a few exceptions, fellow fanciers were from the lower- to average-income group, working at the mine or post office and other offices of administration.
Our local barber was a pigeon fancier, and the club champion worked at the post office, while the runner-up club champion worked at the railways.
To practise pigeon racing from a garden loft in your backyard was always known to be reasonably expensive. However, one could save up and manage to meet the financial demands of pigeon racing without hurting your budget.
The pigeon budget was initially assisted by the influx of fanciers from the middle- and upper-middle-class income group, with an escalating interest over the years from the rich and super-rich taking up pigeon racing. Specialist clubs were formed for those opting to compete for higher stakes.
In a conventional pigeon club, one could manage to recover your annual cost of racing with good pigeons and wise training skills. There were enough members to meet the budget for clubs, unions and the federation to host races.
Turning professional
The rise of competitors from amateur to professional in the sport of pigeon racing came true in the sense that extra cash could buy you better pigeons, afford you better housing for your birds and an advance on specialised training systems, with some fanciers employing full-time loft staff.
Despite the limit placed on the number of pigeons one was allowed to enter, in an attempt to level the playing field, small teams of fanciers had to invest extra time and effort to reach the top of the scoreboard. (Increasing competition is always a good thing, otherwise your results are less admirable, and the quality of your pigeons will not be properly tested and verified.)
Greed, ego and winning at all costs negatively impacted honest passion, as doping and other forms of cheating were identified, and SANPO had its hands full with implementing rules and penalties against pigeon doping.
Bad membership relations often resulted in club hopping and, in some cases, the formation of a new club to better manage the divide between individuals who simply could not get along. It does not appear that our society, in general, made an effort to consider the right to be treated with ‘inherited’ human dignity as enshrined in the South African Constitution.
There are also simply too many bullies in the pigeon sport, which makes it hard for some clubs to be people-friendly.
Court cases seemed to be a preferred or only way for some to settle a dispute, and SANPO also had to often get its legal team in place to meet demands deemed justifiable to be argued in court. It was sad to note a member being sued to deliver an apology considered due, and a fancier needed to go to court to fight an unreasonable ban from pigeon racing.
According to Shane Gerber, Eastern Cape champion fancier and former vice-president of SANPO, the South African racing pigeon fraternity will be responsible for its own downfall.
Costs up, membership down
As the cost of pigeon racing began to increase over the years, fanciers from the lower-income group starting leaving the sport, and with more fanciers from the middle-income group also resigning, the membership count has become too low to justify keeping the doors of many pigeon clubs open.
Attorney Gys Louw says a pigeon fancier needs to invest an annual budget of around R80 000 if he/she wishes to competitively practise this hobby. This figure can easily escalate towards R100 000 due to unforeseen expenses such as veterinarian bills.
Competing in pigeon racing is too expensive for the reward of a handshake only. With the exception of a few clubs, it’s even too expensive to put together an affordable prize scheme to budget for cash prizes.
One loft to the rescue
In One Loft racing, privately owned business enterprises erect communal pigeon lofts to which participants send their young pigeons to be homed and trained to compete for cash prizes.
The divide between the specialist and the amateur in terms of costs and experience falls away as a professional team at One Loft manages your pigeons for you.
The race results of pre-final events, called Hot Spots, building up towards a grand finale are published, and you may catch up on your pigeons’ progress online.
Some ‘old-timers’ are hanging on by means of a cut-throat budget, racing from their home lofts purely for the love of and passion for the sport, but many are switching over to One Loft Races.
Koot and Hilda Strydom own Central Provincial Loft in Bloemfontein, one of the largest One Lofts in South Africa. The loft was inaugurated in 2011. The cost of participation is an affordable R1 500 per pigeon sent, with the total payout set at R1,2 million. The final race winner earns a cool R100 000.
A brand-new car is also up for grabs at no extra cost of entry. Hilda explains that one reason for the boom in One Loft Races is the security factor, as fanciers living in rural areas may not feel safe driving long distances to clubhouses, leaving their families at home alone.
Don’t miss part two of this series. It will cover Len Knoetze’s US$205 000 (about R4 million at the time) win with his pigeon Triple XXX at last year’s AfrikaPro, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s One Loft Race.
Thomas Smit is a racing pigeon journalist.
