Carnival City Allflight Lofts

A One-Day Pigeon Racing Loft takes in newly weaned racing pigeons from fanciers and races them on the fanciers’ behalf. The youngsters are homed and loft-trained at the same loft complex. Once they are ready, following the pretraining flights, they’re sent to the final to compete for a cash prize.
Issue Date: 31 October 2008

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From left: Egbert O’Kelly owns
Out of Africa Lofts, Johan Mulder
(loft manager), Shorty (loft assistant)
and Juan Breytenbach (partner).
Courtesy of Out of Africa Lofts

A One-Day Pigeon Racing Loft takes in newly weaned racing pigeons from fanciers and races them on the fanciers’ behalf. The youngsters are homed and loft-trained at the same loft complex. Once they are ready, following the pretraining flights, they’re sent to the final to compete for a cash prize.

Allflight One-Day Loft is situated on the premises of Carnival City, east of Johannesburg. It’s managed by Herman van Rensburg Sr and Jr. administration is done by Marlize Meiring and the driver, Gys Britz, is assisted by a number of loft helpers. The Van Rensburgs are accomplished pigeon fanciers. Van Rensburg Jr was honoured with the highest order of merits by Absa Bank for successfully training the Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race lofts.

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There are a few race events divided into one summer race and three winter races. The three winter races are: The Allflight – AF500 he fancier can enter two pigeons for R600 each, which qualifies for one reserve pigeon to replace a main bird that strays at a perch fee of R300. Should the reserve pigeon stay on, the entrant can book it in by paying the remaining R300. The intake of youngsters for 2009 started on 1 October 2008 and will go on until 31 January 2009.

Pigeons will participate in at least five pre-race training flights, known as Hot Spots, which pay out additional cash prizes. The main race was held from Noupoort on 24 September 2008. top three winners were: 1st WP & BL Kitchenbrand – R50 000 2nd LJF Marx – R20 000 3rd On Tap Syndicate – R15 000 here were 80 prize positions paying out a combined sum of R167 250

The Champion Best Bird of the AF500 series is owned by Stander and Son. The Allflight R3K Young Bird Challenge he R3K race is so called because the entry fee is R3 000 per bird. main race was held on 24 September 2008 from Colesberg. It paid out 20 cash prize positions with the lowest position receiving R1 500. combined cash prize pay-out was R233 500. Points Champion Bird is owned by Bela Vista Trust and it scooped R5 000. he top three winners were: 1st Partners Jannie De Beer and Jacques Labuschagne – R120 000 2nd Bela Vista – R30 000 3rd J&G Greef – R20 000 The Allflight Junior/PDI (Previously Disadvantaged Individuals) he costs are R300 per bird with a maximum of two birds per family. final was won by M Marais, netting him R2 500. Best Bird was won by Brandon Frazer, netting him R500.

The Allflight 2009 Summer Challenge F anciers from SA, the US, Belgium, UK, Austria and Germany have entered about 700 pigeons for the event scheduled for 10 January 2009 from the Gariep Dam outside Colesberg. A total of €130 (R2 268) secured one entry with two reserved which could be activated at €100 (R1 748) each before the race. first prize is expected to be around €12 500 (R218 353). Out of Africa Lofts – The Top 2008 Achiever Besides winning a new Cherry QQ 3 in the Allflight Raceview Motor Car Race from Edenburg, Out of Africa Lofts, owned by Egbert O’ Kelly, was the only fancier to score two positions in the top 20 of the R3K final. He owns the Runner-up Best Bird of the R3K series and the third Best Bird in the AF500 series. He also scored 2nd, 2x 3rd, 4th, 8th and 10th place in various Hot Spots. – Thomas Smit ([email protected]