“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
Three Borders Federation (Wincanton Race 4).
The Three Borders Federation were at Wincanton for the third young bird race and what a ’banger’ of a race it turned out to be, with the first five birds on the Federation result being on the same yard! The convoy of 748 birds had a good early toss, with Dom McCoy liberating with sun on the baskets at 09.30hrs into a light South East wind situation. I personally like the early liberations, even from the short race, because it beats clashing with other organisations and the air is fresher! The members enjoyed a good steady race and the Esher RPC members Imran Malik and Atif Khan recorded 1st, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st Federation. Brilliant pigeon racing by the lads! The Esher club also won the Federation the week previous, when Paul Arnold won from Blandford. I spoke to Imran Malik after the race and he told me, ‘our first arrival from Wincanton was our on the natural system and arrived with seven other darkness youngsters. The first bird on the ETS was our blue cock, now named the ‘The 83 Cock’ and he and the other early birds were all down from our top pair of breeders, ‘Tom’ and ‘Marijke’. This champion pair of stock birds are responsible for many winners in club, Federation and National races, including some in Belgium. ‘Tom’ was obtained from Tom Van Gavers best breeders, ‘Finn’ and ‘Tetske’ and ‘Marijke’ is from Baz Verkerk’s best racers, ‘Olympic Fire Eyes’ and ‘New Olympic Solange’. This was only our second young bird race of the season, as we had to miss the second one due to ‘far eye’; and was waiting for it to shift before we could carry on working with the youngsters. We like to give our youngsters plenty of work up to Winchester (50 miles) and after the first race we concentrate more on loft exercise, and minimal training from 20 miles. We feed Natural finesse sport widowhood mixture twice a day, with as much as they can eat’. The Malik and Khan loft has had a brilliant 2025 season, as well as winning the Three Borders Federation four time they won: 1st section, 2nd open NFC Nort Sur Erdre National (344 birds), 1st section, 8th open NFC Fourgeres National (5,272 birds) and 1st section, 62nd open BBC Fourgeres National (2,635 birds). Brilliant pigeon racing by the ‘Ace Lofts’.
The first ten in the Wincanton Federation result were: 1) Malik & Khan 1532: 2) Stuart Emans 1532: 3) Stuart Emans 1532: 4) Stuart Emans 1532: 5) Stuart Emans 1532: 6) Malik & Khan 1531: 7) Malik & Khan 1530: 8) Malik & Khan 1530: 9) Malik & Khan 1530: 10) Malik & Khan 1530. This was race number sixteen of the season and at this point the Mitcham & Merton are leaders for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 71 points and the Ashridge club are R/U on 58 points.
Imran Malik and Atif Khan call their racing lofts, ‘Ace Lofts’ and have enjoyed some wonderful success in recent seasons. They have won the Three Borders Federation many time with the highlights being, winning 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th Federation Blandford (1,116 birds), breaking the Federation record at that time for the most positions won in one race and then taking the first 15 position from another Blandford race, with 1,615 birds competing and breaking their own record for the most positions clocked. They have also won the ‘Fanciers of the Year Trophy’ and the ‘Ace Pigeon of the Year Trophy’ in the Three Borders Federation! Imran and Atif enjoy National racing and have an endless list of premier performances, including: 1st, 6th open BICC Alencon (4,759 birds), 1st, 2nd, 9th, open NFC Coutances (3,246 birds), 1st open BICC Falaise, 2nd, 3rd open BICC Guernsey (1,904 birds), 3rd open BICC Alencon (4,797 birds), 4th open NFC Coutances (3,200 birds), 5th open NFC Ancenis (5,577 birds), 7th, 8th, 10th open NFC Saints (3,726 birds), 8th, 10th open BICC Guernsey and 8th, 9th, 10th open BICC Guernsey (1,871 birds). What a fantastic racing record!
The Imran Malik and Atif Khan partnership’s smart loft is a brick structure, which was converted from a brick garden shed already in Imran’s garden. The original floor was concrete, but the partners have fitted a new wooden floor over the concrete and all trapping is through the open window for both young and old birds. The loft has three sections, with an aviary on one end, which houses a few latebreds and the loft is cleaned out every day, with the floor and perches being burnt off. Imran tells me, they keep several pairs of stock birds, which are different families that they blend together. When obtaining stock birds the partners go to the sauce and try and buy the very best that the fancier has to offer. They have visited most of the top lofts on the continent in the pursuit of very high quality pigeons, the likes of Van Gaver, Verkerk, Koopman, Demily Lillian, Rik Hermans etc. The breeders are paired up on Boxing Day and any new introductions into the stock loft are selected on the pedigree, and never type. The youngsters are put on the ‘darkness’ system on the last weekend in March and they come off normally at the back end of June. The loft houses 50 young birds for racing each and they race the whole programme, Imran maintains, he just loves young bird racing! Ten cocks are put on the widowhood system and the rest are raced to the perch, although they are allowed to pair up and have eggs and youngsters if they want. Training starts two weeks after they come off the ‘dark’ and this is worked up in stages to 25 miles and they get three 25 mile tosses ever week during the racing season. The widowhood cocks are treated like the old birds and are not trained during the racing season. The partner’s race cocks on the widowhood system and the old bird’s racers are paired up in January to rear a pair of youngsters and are trained on their second round of eggs, before going on the widowhood. The cocks are trained twice a day for eight day from 25 miles and are only sent to sprint races. Imran and Atif feed natural widowhood sport mixture and don’t break down. The racers are fed as much as they want twice a day, and fresh grit and water is provided every day, and if they give the birds any supplements, they are given on the feed, as it is wasted in the water. The partners show the hens to the widowhood cocks before basketing and they get the hen for a couple of hours on their return from the race. Imran only likes short racing and has no interest what so ever in long distance pigeon racing.
Imran Malik and Atif Khan joined the Esher club in the 2012 season and these young lads have been outstanding in the Three Borders Federation ever since, including winning the SMT Combine for the first time with a youngster several years ago. Imran Malik started racing pigeons in the 2004 season with a team of young birds purchased from Louella Pigeon World and in the 2005 season Janssens were introduced from Imran’s uncles, Khan Brothers of Kingston. The 2005 young bird season saw him smash his novice status and recorded 1st, 2nd, 9th, 10th Federation in that season. Imran and Atif finished the 2014 racing season in great style by winning 1st, 2nd Federation from Taunton and then two weeks later they won 1st Federation from the last and longest young bird race from Yelverton. These lads are really outstanding young bird specialists, winning the Federation every season with their babies. The Federation sent 1,471 birds to Taunton and Malik & Khan won the Federation by 9ypm clear. Two weeks later the membership entered 867 birds in to the last race from Yelverton and with the wind being a brisk east / north east, the birds had a hard push over the 180 miles home, with the winners taking over 4 hours 30 minutes to finish. The Tolworth lofts of Malik & Khan were well on the pace again, recorded 1st Federation for the second time in two weeks and this time winning 1st SMT Combine (1,516 birds). A really great performance, with the lads winning a fast short race and then the longest young bird race, which was hard and slow! Imran and Atif have been one of the premier lofts in the South of England for many years now and have won many top positions in the Federation, Combine and National. In the 2015 season the Federation ‘Individual Points Trophy’ was won by a country mile by Malik & Khan and then again in the 2017 season. The Three Borders Federation’s young bird racing results in recent seasons have pretty much been dominated by the Esher & District RPC partnership of Malik & Khan, winning 1st Federation many times and numerous other positions. A few years ago I use to write that these young lads were up and coming stars in our sport, but after their recent performances it is safe to say there are now at the very top of the ratings!
Stuart Emans is enjoying a great 2026 season, firstly winning 1st Federation from the first Blandford race and has since won 2nd Federation seven times! The Emans loft recorded 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Federation Blandford, with Stuart’s good blue chequer pied cock, ‘Pipped At The Post’ winning the race. This game round about cock was given his name because as a yearling in the 2025 he was beaten on the ETS to win 2nd Federation Honiton by his loft mate, Stuart’s champion blue cock, ‘Harry 048’. ‘Harry 048’ has won the Federation three times from Okehampton (twice) and Honiton, plus 9th Federation Wincanton and was bred by his good friend Gary Young. He is named, ‘Harry 048’ after Stuart’s son Harry and is raced on the Widowhood system. He is a bit special! ‘Pipped At The Post’ was bred by Gerald Delany and wasn’t beaten his time, with the next four pigeons on the Federation result being four of Stuarts yearlings! Brilliant pigeon racing! Stuart lives in Sutton and for his profession he is a fireman. Stuart is our very hard working Federation secretary and he is one of the our best, being the ‘Federation Champion’ in the 2024 and 2025 racing seasons. He started up in the pigeon racing sport in 2008 and has won the Federation many time through the years, the highlight was winning 1st Three Borders Federation, 2nd Combine Bergerac and winning the Federation ‘Channel Averages’. Because of family and work commitments he had to pack up his pigeons for five year and restarted up in 2023 with young birds from his good friends Gary Young and Gerald Delaney. The 2024 season had seen Stuart race those yearlings with outstanding success. He pairs up in in February and races his fourteen cocks and seven hens on the roundabout system. His smart 24ft loft is set up for ETS trapping and is made up of a section for the old cocks, another for the young birds and the roundabout hens are housed in an aviary. He is not interested in fancy pedigrees or eye sign when selecting breeding pigeons and maintains the basket is the only way to find out if a pigeon is any good or not. Stuart gives his birds about ten training tosses up to 27 miles before the first race and then they get two exercise sessions every day around the loft once racing starts. All the races are fed on Stuart’s own widowhood mixture, which he makes up himself and the racers are never broke down.
That’s it for this week! Well done to Imran Malik and Atif Khan for their first Federation winner of the season! If you win and want a write up in this space, contact me on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email me on:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)
