“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Three Borders Federation (Blandford Race 1).

The Three Borders Federation had to change their race point location for the second week on the trot in mid-May. The Federation was to go to Yeovil for its sixth race, but had to divert to Blandford a few days before the event, because of overcrowding at the race point. With still no Channel racing at this time of the season, I think most of the organisations are racing from the West Country awaiting clearance to go across to France. Our convoyer, Dom McCoy, checked with the RPRA and there was approximately 30 liberation around the New Forest area on that Saturday, also the BICC and BBC had big convoys at Guernsey. The large Welsh organisation was at Epson Down and were flying into the west. Dom phoned around on the day and found a clear line of flight, liberating at 11.00hrs in a south west wind. The Federation members had another ‘banger’ of a race, with good returns! The Esher RPC recoded their sixth Federation winner of the season, when the Banstead loft of Vic Emberson won again and chalked up his fourth Federation win of the 2022 season. Here is a little update on Vic’s performance so far this season: 1^st, 9^th, 10, 11^th, 12^th, 13^th,17^th, 24^th, 25^th Federation Wincanton (1), 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 7^th, 17^th Federation Wincanton (2), 11^th, 12^th, 16^th, 17^th, 18^th, 19^th, 22^nd Federation Yeovil, 17^th, 22^nd Federation Honiton, 1^st, 9^th, 18^th, 22^nd Federation Exeter, 1^st Federation Blandford. Brilliant pigeon racing!

The first ten in the Blandford (1) Federation result were: 1) Vic Emberson 1710: 2) Malik & Khan 1704: 3) Malik & Khan 1703: 4) M/M Graham Evans 1703: 5) Malik & Khan 1703: 6) Malik & Khan 1702: 7) R. Suchocki 1701: 8) Malik & Khan 1701: 9) M/M Burczak 1700: 10) Freddie Ditch Jnr 1699. This was race number six of the season and at this point the Esher club are leading for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 32 points, with the Mitcham & Morden club being R/U on 21 points.

The Malik & Khan partnership of the Esher club have been ‘knocking at the door’ in the early part of the season and came to the fore from the Blandford race, recording 2^nd, 3^rd, 5^th, 6^th, 8^th Federation, clocking all five pigeons with in ten seconds. Look out everyone, the lads are hitting some good form! After a brilliant 2017 racing season the Esher club had a lean year performance wise in the Federation in the 2018, but have come back with a ‘banger’ of a start to 2019! The competition in the Three Borders Federation was strong and hard in the 2017 season, and once again the mighty Esher & Dist. RPC came out on top, winning the ‘Federation Points’ Trophy’, with 176 points. The club has won the championship nine times in the last fourteen years and this time was very tight run race, with the runners up being the Spelthorne club, on 171 points. It is common knowledge that the Esher is a very strong club, sending up to 300 birds a week and in most races, short or long, members have to more or less win the Federation to win the club. Needless to say the Esher member’s presence is very strong in the Federation results and won 176 racing positions, including seven 1^st Federation winners in the 2017 season. A fantastic club performance! The Esher club must rate as one of the premier clubs in the south of England and is dripping with top quality fanciers who are hell bent on winning the Three Borders Federation every weekend. The Federation ‘Individual Points Trophy’ was won by a country mile by Malik & Khan of the Esher club, on 92 points and they won 77 Federation positions, and topped the Federation five times in the 2017 season. They also won the ‘Ken Besant Memorial Trophy’ for best pigeon of the year, won by GB 17 N 50001, the winner of 1^st Federation (twice) and 3^rd Federation (twice) in the 2017 racing season. Well done to the Imran and the lads, a fantastic performance! Bobby and Danny Carter also of the Esher club and Renato Obertelli of the South Downs club were joint runner up for the ‘Individual Points Trophy’, with 37 points and both these lofts won 1^st Federation in the 2017 season.

Malik & Khan have been one of the premier lofts in the South of England for several 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 1^st 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.

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 only likes short racing and has no interest what so ever in long distance pigeon racing. Whether it be the old bird or young bird widowhood system, the birds are broke down for several days each week and the hens are shown on marking night, but if it looks like being a very easy race, they might only be shown the nest bowls. The cocks get their mates for a couple of hours on their return from the race. The partners 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 12 pairs of stock birds and they are all Janssen, but different lines. 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, although Imran says, he wished he had it in him to stop a few and save them for old birds racing, but he is to greedy and want to win everything he can with young birds. He 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 old birds and are not trained during the racing season.

Malik & Khan only joined the Esher club in the 2012 season and these young lads have been outstanding in the Three Borders Federation for several years, 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 1^st, 2^nd, 9^th, 10^th Federation in that season. Malik & Khan finished the 2014 racing season in great style by winning 1^st, 2^nd Federation from Taunton and then two weeks later they won 1^st 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 1^st Federation for the second time in two weeks and this time winning 1^st 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!

It had been a busy winter for the officer of the Federation in 2014 and one of the main things to come from all their good efforts, was they had purchased a transporter for the 2015 season. The membership owed a debt of gratitude to several of our Federation officers who had put in a lot of time and effort over an eight week period, to ensure that we had first class transport for our pigeons in the 2015 racing season. In some cases it was at personal sacrifice, uses family time to get the vehicle ready for the first race! What can I say about the hard working Federation secretary, Bryan Poulton, and the then transport manager, Dom McCoy, that hasn’t been said before, except they have put in double overtime on the new transporter? A vote of thanks are in order to the Federation chairman, David Lebby, who has given the Federation a £12,000 interest free loan to purchase the new vehicle and to Alan Tullett of the then Guildford club, who took the lads up to Hull to pick up the transporter. I personally did several young bird auctions to raise money to cover some of the diet. David Lebby has done so much good work for the Three Borders Federation over the years and is very successful racing his pigeons in the Mitcham club. The new convoyer / driver at that time was our own, Dom McCoy, who had been a premier pigeon fancier for over fifty years and he has previously convoyed very successfully for the North Road Federation. Dom McCoy told me he had sacrificing his own racing over the seasons, after taking on the convoyer’s job and can see where he is coming from, as I was a chief convoyer for the L&SECC for nine years and did the same.

It was really great to hear the news that Dom McCoy has taken on the job of Federation convoyer again this season, after doing such an outstanding job in previous seasons. Dom & Claire McCoy’s ‘Gladiator Lofts’ at Ashford have great results every year with 2010 being one of their best! As the 2010 season progressed their performances got even better and better. Dom’s young birds finished the season in fantastic style by winning 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th Three Borders Federation (1,422 birds) Wincanton, 1^st Three Borders Federation (836 birds) Exeter. Brilliant pigeon racing in one of the strongest Federations in the South of England! Dom and Claire had yet another great year racing in 2011 and won eleven firsts in the very strong Shepperton club, including Falaise, Messac and Bergerac, and 4^th Federation Messac (857 birds), 2^nd Federation, 4^th SMT Combine Bergerac (450 miles), 7^th, 18^th Federation Taunton (1525 birds), 9^th Federation Newton Abbot (885 birds). There is a bit of a story behind Dom and Claire’s Bergerac win, in the fact that they had never sent to this 450 mile race point before and they only sent one pigeon to record this brilliant performance.

The McCoy’s have a wonderful loft set up at their home in Ashford and in recent years have dedicated most of their lives racing their Van Loon, Jan Huybregts and Karel Boeckx pigeons, with outstanding success. On my visit to ‘Gladiator Lofts’ I was particularly impressed with Dom’s five compartment 40ft stock loft, which had big roomy sections and 10ft aviary attached. The breeding sections and the nest boxes were very big and well ventilated, and the inmates looked in ‘mint’ condition. The section housing the Van Loon pigeons, which were nearly all blue pigeons, was a sight to behold! I handled several of Dom’s top breeders including his champion mealy cock, ‘Gladiator Del Pierro’, which is the sire and grand sire of countless winner, and winner of 17 firsts racing himself. A fantastic pigeon! He keeps a big team of stock birds, which are paired up the week after the BHW Blackpool show weather permitting and the main part of the stock birds are his fantastic Tom Roden and Bolton & Williamson / Van Loons. The race birds are not bred from, with all the young bird race team coming from the stock loft and he mixes his own corn for the stock birds. When bringing in a new stock bird, Dom looks for a pedigree of winning bloodlines, with a good line of outstanding winning pigeons. The stock loft is cleaned regularly and a deep litter is used on the floor. All Dom’s birds are parted at the end of September to get on with their mould and are given regular baths in the aviaries.

The race birds are housed in very smart 44ft loft, which runs down the side of the garden and Dom told me he races the old birds on the Roundabout system because it suits his life style, and the Widowhood is a terrible waste of good hens. Hen trains the old birds together, releasing the hens first followed by their mates, and by the time the cocks arrive home the hens are already locked up in their section. The sexes are kept separated mostly from Sunday until Thursday and are allowed to run together in the nest box section on Friday before going in to marking. Dom says, ‘the name of the game is keep them motivated’. The old birds are trained every day from Monday to Thursday, depending on the weather and the whole loft management is geared to sprint racing. The racers are fed on a ‘Garvo’ corn mixture and are given as much as the can eat, except on Friday when they get one early morning feed. Dom told me on my visit to Ashford, that he is mostly interested in the sprint Federation racing, but has some older pigeons in the race team, and would like to have a bash at some 500 mile racing in the future.

Dominic says his late father, Tom McCoy, was an outstanding pigeon racer in the London area for many years and his motto was no medication, plenty of training, good feeding and the best will survive and win. He says pigeon racing is a different game today and thinks the modern day sport is all about feeding, fitness, motivation and of course good pigeons. The young birds race to a 10ft loft, with ETS trapping. He never sends his young birds racing if they are on their last two flights, although these days he feels to be competitive in young bird racing they should be on the ‘darkness’ system. As soon as racing is finished he keeps the birds in the loft and feeds plenty of small seeds and butter milk in the drinkers. He never pulls flights to complete the moult and as yearlings his birds are treated with great respect and are mostly kept under 300 miles. He likes to be easy on the yearlings so they have a good moult and bring them out again as two year olds.

Dominic’s late father, Tom McCoy, was a good friend of the previous Three Borders Federation convoyer, Garry Essex and they raced in the ‘City Arms’ club. When I asked Dom how he started up in the sport, he told me, ‘My life with pigeons began in 1965 when my father, Tommy, was racing at the time in partnership with my uncle flying as, G. Olive & T. McCoy and they were very successful flying both north and south road. I began by cleaning out the lofts and waiting for birds to come back from training. I won my first race at the grand age of 13 years old from Dorchester (110 miles), flying at our local club the ‘City Arms’ in Hammersmith, which was a member club of the West Middlesex Federation. Later on when I was in my teenage years pigeons took second place too me going out and having holidays and I never raced or kept pigeons myself after 1970, until my restart in 2005. My family, including my brothers and uncles have all raced pigeons all through the years and the McCoy family are all very heavy in to pigeons. In 2005 my wife, Claire, decided that I needed a hobby and my brother, Billy, who flies in the Richmond Flying Club as T. McCoy & Son, suggested I should get restarted with the pigeons. So there it was settled, pigeons from that day have become my resurrected love’

That’s it for this week! Congratulations to Vic Emberson on his fourth 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: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)