Every year the racing pigeon fraternity hosts a number of “money” races which get bigger and bigger, with the stakes going higher and higher. The dividends of potential returns are often so high that one can afford to lose most races and still make a profit by winning just one big event.
Races are held at club, division and federation or union level. Transvaal Homing Union and the Pigeon Federation also jointly host a car race, where the prize is a brand-new Nissan bakkie. Then there are “one-loft” races hosted by specialist trainers from various loft locations across the country. The Southern Suburbs Specialist Club’s 2007 winners T his club is part of a group of specialist fanciers in Gauteng who use a racing system where each fancier only enters a limited number of pigeons per race.
Racing with fewer pigeons makes the sport more affordable and helps fanciers to specialise because they can attend to an individual bird’s progress within the flock. Two “money” races are held annually: the R1 000 Ring Race and the Baby Sale Race. R acing pigeon identification rings were sold to club members at 000 each last year. These were rung on the youngsters of the participating fanciers, which took part in the 000 from Colesberg this year. First and second place went to Chris van Jaarsveldt, who won R6 000 for the category and R4 500 for each position. Third was Henry Annandale who won R2 000, and fourth was Neels Gouws who won R1 000.
For the Baby Sale Race, newly bred youngsters were auctioned off to club members last year. An identification ring was also sold after every other baby. These rings were rung onto the legs of babies that would participate in this year’s race. winners were: First: Vic du Toit – R16 000 Second: Greg van der Walt – R10 000 Third: George Read – R6 000 Fourth: van der Walt – R4 000 Fifth: Paul Trollip – 000 Sixth: Koos Van Jaarsveldt – R2 000 C ongratulations to all the winners. – Thomas Smit ([email protected] or call (011) 680 4778). |fw
