Tony Buttigieg of Newport

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SIMPLE IS BEST

The astonishing success story of Tony Buttigieg of Newport

by Gareth Watkins

Tony Buttigieg

How’s this for a season’s racing:- 16 x 1st club; 11 x 2nd club; 4 x 3rd club. Add to that lot 11 x 1st Fed; 6 x 2nd Fed; 3 x 3rd Fed AND 6 x 1st; 2 x 2nd; 2 x 3rd in Federation Open races, PLUS 4 x 1st; 3 x 2nd and one 3rd Open in Welsh Grand National FC races and you have the perfect racing season.

The above wins were achieved by Tony Buttigieg, a young Newport fancier, during the 2009 season and these wins follow on from an almost equally impressive 2008 racing season when the Buttigieg team won 8x 1st club; 6 x 1st Fed; 2 x 1st Fed Open and 2 x 1st WGNFC.

Not surprisingly therefore the name of Buttigieg has been constantly in the thoughts of north road fanciers in Wales for the best part of two years. In the company of Ray Strawbridge, I recently visited Tony’s home in the Gaer district of Newport in order to give this keen young fancier the recognition that his performances over the past two seasons has demanded.

Tony is a working man with a young family and as such his time spent with the pigeons is at a premium as he has to balance his home and work responsibilities with his ambitions as a top class pigeon fancier. As a result, the daily loft management system that Tony has developed has been “stripped down” to the bare necessities, or to put it another way, as the heading to this report states – simple is best.

The amazing results outlined in the opening paragraph have been achieved racing just 15 widowhood/ celibate cocks and 8 racing hens. The bloodlines raced are a combination of Janssens from Kenny Fletcher of Newport who, when racing was a multiple Federation winner in his own right. Added to these are Bert Hession Staf Van Reets plus some of Brian Sheppard’s International winning bloodlines crossed with birds originating from the Yorkshire lofts of Jackson & Andrews. The sire of “Shaw Gold” and the “02 cock” was bred by Fred Hall & Daughter of Worthing, whilst the dam originated in the Sussex lofts of former Pau NFC King’s Cup winner John Magee. This stock pair was then sold to the Skelmersdale partnership of Southern & McCrudden who actually bred the “02 cock”. The pair were subsequently gifted by the partners to Tony who bred Shaw Gold in his Newport loft. The type of bird raced is on the small side of medium, mostly blues with the occasional chequer and pied. They were lean, mean and raring to go even though it was a dismal damp day in early October when we visited. The type of bird raced is on the small side of medium, mostly blues with the occasional chequer and pied. They were lean, mean and raring to go even though it was a dismal damp day in early October when we visited.

The loft measures 22 ft x 6ft and faces west and is divided into three sections. One section for the racing hens and the hens that are later mated to the widowhood / celibate cocks; one section for the cocks and a third section for the young bird team. The hens section has a small aviary attached to the south facing wall so the hens can relax in the sunshine when the cocks are not at exercise. The young birds also have access to an aviary and this also doubles as a basket store as it has a roof made from opaque plastic sheets which allows sunlight to enter but keeps the rain out. A further small loft, which Tony told me is now used as a “corn store”, completes the L shaped set up.

The fifteen racing cocks are not mated before racing starts nor are the 8 racing hens. The cocks get a few training spins from just 11 miles before the first race and no training thereafter. Hens are shown briefly before basketting and the hens along with nest pans are in the cocks’ boxes awaiting the racers on their return. The eight racing hens are privately trained to Liverpool approximately 150 miles at least five times before their selected race which in 2009 was the Crieff National at 333 miles. Note, the eight hens did not compete in any club races before their first National race. The next race for the hens was again from Crieff and their third and final race of the season was from Thurso at 490 miles. Any hens that show an inclination to mate are rewarded by being allowed to sit some stock bird’s eggs and rear the subsequent hatchlings. Once old bird racing is over, the old birds are allowed to choose a mate and settle down to rear what is for the cocks, their first youngsters of the season.

Cocks and hens are exercised for one hour once per day and are fed in to their one daily meal. This is mixed by Tony from various mixes and straights and is adjusted as Tony sees fit. From speaking to Tony I can tell you that the race mix is extremely light and contains a very high proportion of carbohydrates. The birds are fed to appetite but no food is left in the loft, the pigeons have to eat all of the feed mix and Tony has noticed that they eat an average of 1 – 1 ¼ ounces per bird per day.

Young birds are raced on the darkness system and again have one hours exercise each day. The young cocks and hens are kept separate during the week, as by the time young bird racing comes around the old racing cocks have been moved over to the old hens’ section to rear their first youngsters and the young hens then occupy the old cocks’ section. The youngsters are allowed together for a short time just before basketting.

The young bird team is trained to 11 miles before being entered in their first race which is usually an 85 mile dash from Shrewsbury. However, some of the young cocks are extensively trained privately as far as Shrewsbury but are not raced as young birds.

Before racing begins all birds, be they old birds or young birds undergo a 10 day treatment with Baytril this is followed successively by treatments for cocci, canker and worms.

Right then, what of the top performers in this team of top performers. First to hand was a young blue cock now named “Dusty Maize”. He got his name because Tony gave a friend a bag of dog tooth maize that was a “bit floury” as it had not been cleaned. The friend refused to feed it to his birds so Tony took it home and fed it to his young bird team in the lead up to the young bird National. Result – “Dusty Maize” wins the young bird National! This young blue cock was just on medium size with a bit of depth to the front of the keel. He was entered in 6 young bird races winning 5 x 1sts and 1 x 2nd club plus 4 x 1st, 1 x 2nd & 1 x 3rd Fed and 2 x 1st National along with 2 x 1st Fed open and 1st Welsh Championship Club. Not a bad haul for a young pigeon in its first season’s racing.

Also handled was “The 02 Cock” a long casted pencil blue with a broad green circle of eyesign. This one has won 1st National Crieff being the only bird on the day into Wales vel 876 ypm, arriving at 21.39 at night after 11 hours and 9 minutes on the wing. A few weeks later he was entered in the Thurso race and homed on the day to win 1st club,1st Fed 1st Fed Open and 2nd Open National.

“Shaw Gold” is yet another racing phenomenon and she is also full sister to “The 02 Cock” above. In 2008 as a young bird this hen’s performances earned her the J.O. Davies Trophy awarded by the WHPU for the Best young Bird in Wales, and amongst her many wins were:- 1st Fed, Open and 1st National Hexham; 1st Fed Shrewsbury; 1st Fed Nantwich; 4th Fed Wakefield. In her first race in 2009 she won 1st club, Fed, Open and 1st National Crieff, winning the National by 3 hours in a very difficult race with only 7 birds home on the day in Wales.

The next champion on the Buttigieg production line is blue pied cock “The 35 Cock” whose wins include 5 x 1sts club; 3 x 1sts Fed; 1st Fed Open and 10th Open National as well as many other “minor” club and Fed prizes.

Success on this scale does not come without some disadvantages and Tony has already suffered the wrath of the “green eyed monster” from certain quarters so much so that he scrapped his ETS system for the young birds in 2009 and reverted to the trusty T3 with no reduction in his success rate!!

Who knows what the future holds for this top class young fancier from Newport. One thing is certain – there’s not a lot left for him to win on the North road racing into Wales.