“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Three Borders Federation (Wincanton).

One of the most important races of the year is the first young race! In my opinion this event is so important, because it is the competitor’s first experience of being race marked, spending the night in a race crate on a lorry and being in a mass liberation. I think this sets them up for their racing life. I’m pleased to report that our Federation’s first young bird race was a brilliant success! The Three Borders Federation held its first young bird race from Wincanton on the last weekend in July and Dom McCoy, the Federation convoyer, liberated the birds at 07.30hrs, in to a light South West wind situation to beat the heat and clashing with other organisations. Dom reported first class weather conditions and the convoy cleared the Wincanton liberation site in good time. Members enjoyed a great fast race and Stuart Emans of the Mitcham & Merton club won 1^st Federation Honiton, recording his third Federation winner of the season, previously winning from Okehampton and Honiton with his old birds. Stuart’s youngsters really did come well, recording 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 12^th, 13^th, 14^th, 15^th, 16^th, 17^th Federation. Prior to this season Stuart had only won the Federation from France and has come out this year and won three firsts in the Federation in inland races. Great pigeon racing, mate!

The first ten in the Wincanton Federation result were: 1) Stuart Emans 1551: 2) Stuart Emans 1550: 3) Stuart Emans 1549: 4) Stuart Emans 1549: 5) Terry & Sue Leonard 1537: 6) Terry & Sue Leonard 1535: 7) Terry & Sue Leonard 1534: 8) Nicolae Dragan 1532: 9) Paul Arnold 1532: 10) Paul Arnold 1530. This was race number twelve of the season and at this point the Ashridge club are leading for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 47 points, with the Mitcham & Morden club being R/U on 44 points.

This is Stuart Emans’ third hit this season and because it is a young bird Federation winner we are going to talk about his youngsters and how he manages them. His young bird loft 12ft x 3ft, an aviary on the front and all trapping is for the ETS System. When he weans his youngsters at three weeks old, they go straight on the ‘darkness’ system. They are exercised around the loft once a day and called back in with a whistle, which has been used every time they are fed. Feeding consists of a breeding mixture with a little Barley added and are fed a small amounts until they start to leave the Barley. The young bird team are kept on the breeding mixture until they come off the ‘Darkness’ on the 21^st June. When they come off the ‘darkness’ they are fed on high Carbohydrate mixture, with Barley added and are fed as much as like until they leave the Barley. Stuart starts training the babies as soon as they start to rang from the loft. This is while they are on the ‘Darkness’ system. His first training toss is from five miles and the youngsters are kept at this point until they come straight out of the training basket, race home and go into the loft trap. They then move up to 14 miles and then finally 27 miles. Before the first race the young birds have been in the training basket on average around 30 times. All young birds are flown to the perch and not separated as Stuart doesn’t have the time with work commitments.

When I asked Stuart about his young bird Wincanton Federation winner he said, ‘Wincanton is 99 miles from my loft in Sutton and I sent 25 birds for their first race. On the morning of the race I received the phone call from the club secretary to say the birds were liberated at 7.30am. Sitting in the garden with ‘droppers’ and whistle at the ready a batch of around 20 pigeons could be seen coming on line from the race point and four birds pulled out and hit my loft. My first pigeon to hit the ETS pad with the flying time of 1hour 52 minutes was our good hen, ‘Fiona 263’, which is named after my lovely wife. She was one of a batch of pigeons bred by Gary Young for us from his wonderful Federation winning family. She was closely followed in by a blue cock gifted to me by my good friend, Tony Dye. It was a very satisfying start to the young bird season, winning the first ten positions in the club and the first four in the Federation. Well done to all the winners and all on the Federation result sheet’.

Stuart Emans lives in Sutton and for his profession he is a fireman. Stuart said his wonderful Gerald Delaney blue hen, ‘Jade 821’, has been so brilliant in the 2024 season and given him a lot of pleasure, winning 2^nd Federation Okehampton, 3^rd Federation Wincanton, 5^th Federation Wincanton and 15^th Federation Honiton. A strong contender for Federation ‘pigeon of the year’, I think Stuart! He started up in the pigeon racing sport in 2008 and has won the Federation several time through the years, the highlight was winning 1^st Three Borders Federation, 2^nd 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 has 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.

Terry and Sue Leonard had a good race from Wincanton taking the first six positions in the Ashridge club and 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 19^th, 23^rd, 24^th Federation. The partners have been premier pigeon racers in the Surrey area for many years, including winning the Three Borders Federation championship twice in recent seasons. They enjoyed another great year in 2023, winning many trophies, including R/U for the ‘Individual Points Trophy’ and premier positions in the Federation, including twice 1^st Federation. The Federation were at Wincanton with the young birds and Terry and Sue of the Ashridge club enjoy some great success by recording their second Federation winner of the season and taking the first five positions in the Wincanton Federation result. This was the partners first young bird race of the season, after have some bad luck on the build-up. Terry had his ‘A’ team first round youngsters in two crates in the garden and while he was in the house getting ready for work, they were attacked by a Fox. The Fox chewed two dowels out of the end of the crate and killed 12 of the 14 youngsters in it! He had to replace the killed birds with ‘B’ team later bred youngsters, which was a major setback for his racing preparation. Terry missed the first race and sent 16 babies to the Wincanton race, with the first three birds on the ETS being ‘B’ team youngsters. His Federation winner was the Ceulemans / Peter Van Der black pied cock, ‘Parkview Kayla’s Bro’ and he is half-brother to Terry’s good Federation winning hen, ‘Kayla’s Girl’. The second bird home, to win 2^nd Federation was the Ceulemans blue pied hen, ‘Parkview 34’. The Three Borders Federation were at Wincanton on the last weekend of April in 2023 for the second old bird race and members sent 855 birds, for what turned out to be fast race, being liberated  in a southerly wind. Terry and Sue were ‘knocking at the door’ on the previous weeks Federation result from Wincanton (1) recoding 4^th, 8^th, 9^th, 10^th and the partners hit the top spot on Wincanton (2) recording 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 12^th, 15^th Federation. The Wincanton Federation winner was a Ceulemans cross blue chequer hen from the best Frank and George Bristow bloodlines and she is now named, ‘Parkview Consistent’. This game hen has had other wins from inland race points. Terry and Sue Leonard’s wonderful performances in the Three Borders Federation in the 2023 season were: (Old Bird) 3^rd, 8^th, 9^th.10^th Federation Wincanton, 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 12^th, 15^th Federation Wincanton, 11^th, 14^th, 15^th Federation Honiton, 4^th, 7^th, 16^th Federation Okehampton, 22^nd Federation Yeovil, 4^th, 7^th, 8^th Federation Honiton, 4^th Federation Honiton, (Young Bird) 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th Federation Wincanton, 1^st Ashridge club Yeovil, 7^th, 13^th Federation Newton Abbot. Brilliant pigeon racing!

One fancier who had a good race from Wincanton was Nicolae Dragan of the Esher club. He is from Romania where he kept pigeons as pets all his life and moved to England eight years ago. Nicolae told me that pigeon racing is very big in Romania, with the most interest being in the long distance racing and some races out there attract birdage up 35,000 birds being entered. He decided to start up again and race his birds two years ago and joined the Esher & District RPC. I’m told he is a great worker for the club at the HQ in the West End Sports and Social Club on marking and clock checking nights. It has been a great year racing for the Dragan loft, with him breaking his ‘novice’ status and winning his first ever racer from the last and longest old bird race from Truro. His first ever winner was his good two year old ‘Romanian’ dark chequer cock, ‘The Truro Cock’ and he was sent to the race sitting ten day old eggs. Three weekends later the Three Borders Federation was at Wincanton for the first young bird race and Nicolae won again! His good natural blue hen, ‘Blue Storm’, won 1^st Esher club, 8^th Federation and was racing to the perch. On her build up to her win she had ten training tosses up to Southampton (43 miles) and was never put on the ‘dark’ system. Her sire was a gift stock cock from the Chris Slight and Mike Charlton partnership of Esher, which was very nice, as Mike Charlton passed away last year and is greatly missed at the Esher pigeon club.

Nicolae Dragan’s loft is 18ft x 6ft, self-built and has three sections for his ten pairs of old bird racers, his thirty young bird racers and his seven pairs of stock birds. All the birds are paired up in January and his racing system is 100% natural, with no widowhood or darkness practiced in the racing season. He is enjoying club racing, but says he really likes long distance racing and wants to concentrate on it solely one day soon. The favourite nest condition when sending to races is sitting ten day old eggs or feeding a four day old youngster. The old birds get two weeks of training up to 40 miles before the first race and then one toss mid-week once the fun begins. Nicolae says his system is very simple and the whole loft is fed on a good mixture of corn. When picking out new stock birds he is not interested in type or fancy pedigrees, but wants to see a history of outstanding racing performance. Nicolae told me, all he has learnt about racing his pigeons has come from listening to the wonderful fanciers at the Esher club. His stock team are mostly gift birds from the Esher club ‘aces’: Vic Emberson, Paul Arnold and Chris Slight and says he really enjoys the annual pigeon shows held at the Esher club in the winter months. Well done to Nicolae on his great performances this season!

That’s it for this week! Well done to Stuart Emans on his third Federation win of the 2024 season! If you win and want a write up in this space, contact me on telephone number: 07535 484584 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)