SCMDPR - 2012

2012 - SCMDPR Final Race - 164th Place - AU 11 NRPL 1127 - Kleine Moorsel

Here is the summary of the pigeons I sent in 2012 to the SCMDPR - NRPL 2012 SCMDPR Team!!

2/7/12 - Photos of Top 10 Birds

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2/3/12 - SCMDPR Update

There is that well know saying "If you can't measure it - you can't manage it." There is also the saying "Numbers Don't Lie." With that as a backdrop, I have to say that the United States didn't fare very well in the 2012 Sun City Million Dollar Race and we have to figure out how to do better. Specifically, here are the numbers I am talking about:

2012_SCMDPR_Country_Comparison_after_Final_Race

2012_SCMDPR_Country_Comparison_after_Final_Race

What this chart tells us is that the Germans and the Dutch absolutely killed everyone in the Final Race. To understand the chart, what I am trying to figure out is how a country did in comparison to the total number of pigeons they entered. So the important numbers on this chart are the Difference Numbers. The higher the positive numbers the better a country did and the lower the negative numbers the worse a country did. Think of it this way - if there were 1000 birds in the race and a country sent 100 birds that is 10% of the entry. All things being equal, you would expect that country to get 10 positions in the Top 100 positions - 10% of the positions. If, however, the country gets 12 pigeons in the Top 100 they had a 2% difference as they did better than their average. So above - Germany sent 22% of the Initial Entry and so they would be expected to get 22% of the Top 100 prizes - 22 positions. They, however, took 32 position and so they had an extra 10%, which is an AMAZING statistic and they should be recognized for their success!!!

As I said above, stats don't lie so we can all tell ourselves "Oh man, we did great!", but the United States did horrible any way you look at it. Now that we have this data, the question is what do we do with it? For one, I think we need to get better pigeons and change some of the things we did in our preperation process. I have reached out to a German friend of mine that is a country coordinator for Germany and am trying to get some information to help me in my preparation.

I still think it is as easy as this - the best pigeons win. Is it any wonder why most people are going to Germany, Holland and Belgium to buy pigeons? They truly do have the best in the world and it showed in Sun City this year. I always tell people the greatest competition creates the greatest pigeons and in Europe they are flying against 1,000's of pigeons every week in super competitive competition. In the US, we just can't compete with our 5-10 member clubs flying 100's of birds a week. Over generations of pigeons they have a right to have the best pigeons in the world as they are selecting from their breeders from the keenest competition.

Don't get me wrong, I think we can compete with the best in the world, but we have to obtain super pigeons, have them super healthy, do everything right when we ship them and get a bit lucky. I think it just takes us a bit more work than many other countries to be able to compete at a high level as we don't have the same day-to-day competition that the Europeans have during their race seasons.

Well...back to the drawing board for me!! I am very excited about next year. Sun City is truly an amazing race and it is the "Race of Truth" as to how well on a whole a country is doing in providing quality pigeons.

1/30/12 - SCMDPR Update

I again want to congratulate all the winner in the 2012 edition of the Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race. The Germans really handed it to all of us. They seem to have something figured out when it comes to Sun City. Our task next year is to figure it out!! I am already plotting my strategies on how to make this happen. I hope everyone else interested in Sun City is doing the same.

Yesterday (Sunday, the 29th), I did get the opportunity to help again with photographing the Top 10 birds. I also got to help handle and pull the wings on the Top 100 birds as the SCMDPR Race Director - Zandy Meyer wants to prove to the world that the gamesmanship about making sure your pigeon has a full wing is much ado about nothing. I was there when he was giving Leon Petzer, the photographer, the instructions and he specifically said, "The best birds are the best birds and they do not need a full wing to prove it. This *&$% about having a full wing has to end." I may not have it word for word, but it is close. They also wanted to provide the photographs to the animal rights critics who are now pushing to pull from the race any pigeon who doesn't have a full wing as they believe they do not have a chance to come home without a full wing.

Anyway, my point in talking about the above is to say that in the Top 10 and the Top 100 birds - I saw just about everything under the sun as to the wings. In fact, one pigeon (I think it was George Rankin's Top 100 bird) - only had 7 flights on 1 wing and 8 flights on the other. If I would have handled that bird at basketing - I would have said "No Chance" - then there it was performing super on the Final Race. I am still going to work hard to learn about how to help a pigeon have a full wing and manage to that as I think it can help, but I am not going to write off a pigeon they don't go to race with a full wing. In fact, here is a picture of my Kleine Moorsel - who was 164th in the race.

She was a nice pigeon and I very proud of Kleine Moorsel, but my point is that you can see she was moulting 2 flights - her 1st and her 5th. When I handled Princess Fiona (503rd) - she had her 5th Flight 3/4 of the way out so she had a full wing. When I handled Wentworth (1254th) - he had his 3rd Flight 1/2 way out and I would consider that a full wing. So I guess you can see between Rankin's pigeon and my pigeons we had wings across the board. I will say that all my pigeons had completed their body moults. A couple Southern Hemisphere pigeons, however, hadn't completed their body moults all the way. I think that is likely a disadvantage as well.

Many may wonder how I was able to handle Kleine Moorsel as she was not a Top 100 pigeon. Let's just say "pure luck!" I was helping take pictures with Leon and the auditors brought in a basket of the Top 300 birds as they go through every money winning pigeon and reconfirm the chip, reconfirm the band number and reconfirm the stamp on the wing. I was standing there looking at the birds while we were waiting for the Top 3 birds to be released from the auditors and vets as they were drawing blood and taking dropping samples from them and I looked into the basket and "That's Kleine Moorsel - my pigeon." The guys laughed and I said to pull it out and audit it and lets see. Kleine Moorsel's head is exactly like her mother's and I thought I had a chance - so I got a bit lucky. It was pretty cool.

I do want to say from my opinion - the race was superb. I have been having an email exchange with some folks in the US who are saying "Only 10% made it on the day!! Smash race!!!" I guess I look at it differently - yes, when you look at it in comparison to your own club races it was a smash. However, when you look at it in comparison to other Sun City races. Super race! When I was at the loft Sunday morning the organizers and trainers were thrilled with the race. Winning birds took 9 hours, good returns and pigeons were pouring from the sky the next morning. I talked to the Vet and he said the health and condition was such that he would expect "most" of the birds to return in good time. He was right...I think they did a great job and the birds were pouring home.

The auction prices were down, but still good. They are still having the export/import problems and the birds from last year are still sitting in South Africa. I had no intention in buying birds until I knew the birds were going to be exported. Having worked as a private sector contractor to governments for several years in my career - I have learned my lesson. I sure hope the birds get exported soon as I want my bird from last year and I want to see the Americans who spent big bucks this year (Ganus, Easley, etc.) to get their Champions home quickly.

Finally, in closing - I just want to say my greatest thrill from this year was spending the week with my wife. It was about a perfect week for us in an African Paradise. It was very enjoyable. I am planning on my bringing my oldest son next year with me as he will be preparing to leave for 2 years for his LDS (Mormon) mission. It will be a great trip for us. My next greatest thrill was to get to know some Americans and Canadians who also made the trip. I have heard so much about so many of them through rumors and speculation that it was great to meet them and form my own opinions. I got to spend the most time with Mike & Debbie Ganus, Frank & Robin McLaughlin, Joe Dallao (American living in Korea), Bill Milestone and Tim Perry as we sat at their table while waiting for race birds. I think we laughed more than anything...it was a lot of fun. It was also great to meet my South African friends from the South African Pigeon Mailing List again and make more friends (and Simba from Angola). Their hospitality is truly amazing...my wife and I commented so many times on how kind, friendly and courteous they all were. Thank you all again!

Of course...I do need to say thank you to Kleine Moorsel for finishing 164th in the race. Very proud of her and excited that I am 3 for 3 in Sun City in taking money out of the race. I have entered 3 years and have won money back for 3 years. My birds are certainly making this clueless guy look like I know what I am doing.

1/28/12 - SCMDPR Update

Well, another one in the books. I must say it was an interesting day and the Americans didn't do very well. I was very pleased to put bird in the money 164th. I was also very pleased for several folks at our table (Frank, Mike Ganus, etc.) putting birds(s) in the money. It was great to meet everyone over here today and get to know them better (or get to know them at all actually!). Unfortunately, I am very tired and will have to write more later, but i just want to say congrats to the winners!

1/27/12 - SCMDPR Update

Not much to report today as today was a day that my wife and I took our self-driving Safari through Pilanesburg Game Reserve. What a super fun day...saw lots of animals and some a little closer than we wanted. For example, we took a quick side road off a main road and after going for a bit we turned a corner and there were 3 White Rhinos laying under a tree about 50 feet from us. I knew they were big and scary looking - but when you are a in little red car you quickly realize they are bigger than the car and they could do some serious damage if they wanted to! Anyway, it was very exciting and fun to drive all over the park enjoying all of God's creatures in such splendid habitat.

Was able to get my YouTube videos uploaded - http://www.youtube.com/user/Magnm4orce?feature=watch

The race will be 578 km (359 miles)...that puts that discussion to bed!!!

Just for the record, here are the pigeons I hope come home in the money (at last 1 comes home in the money!!):

-Donovan (NRPL bird)
-Wentworth (NRPL bird)
-Triple Threat (NRPL bird)
-Kleine Moorsel (NRPL bird)
-Manning (NRPL bird)
-Smarty Jones (Partnership bird with Florian Hendriks from Holland)
-Princess Fiona (NRPL bird on SAPML Team)
-Breaker 2 (I am part of the SAPML Syndicate)
-Lauren (I am part of the SAPML Syndicate)
-Jaycay (I am part of the SAPML Syndicate)
-Brands Hatch (I am part of the SAPML Syndicate)

Finally, I have a lot of friends from all over the world that have some top birds in the race and I wish them all good luck! Specifically, watch our for John Shore's - Another Fine Blend from Australia. Watch out for Flojo's Team of birds from Florian Hendriks & Jos Goessen - all four of their birds have been very competitive!! Watch out for Marco Kleine Falckenborg's entry with his Australian partners - Team Winners 1 Australia. These guys all have top notch birds that may very well be there on race day. Again...good luck to all of them!!! Still hoping for a win for the USA, but wouldn't be devastated if some of the guys took the Top Spot!

1/26/12 - SCMDPR Update (2nd Daily Blog)

Hello folks. Good news and bad news from basketing today. The good news 1st - I thought the birds handled very well. It took us 4 hours today to get them all basketed and it was a long day. I handled many super pigeons today. It is a thrill to handle Dutch, German, Belgium, Australian, South African, etc. birds that just handle superb. On the feathering front - most of the birds handled very well. The birds were in all stages of the moult as might be expected. There were many birds that had perfect wings and had gone through a full body moult. You have to give those birds a higher chance of succeeding on race day. Again, I would say the birds handled almost as well as last year in my opinion as to their overall condition. Many other folks thought the birds handled better than last year - so maybe my memory is just wrong. Anyway, I hope people understand that the overall condition was very positive.

A couple other notes - it was also a thrill to be able to meet with my South African friends, make new friends and meet many of the US pigeon flyers who are here. There is a very large contingent from the US and there are certaily high hopes for the Americans.

The weather "buzz" around Sun City for the race is that it will be a warm day with variable winds - mostly slight tailwinds - along the course. There was speculation that they might push the birds farther if the winds are prevailing tail winds. The goal is to a 9 hour race and so they will adjust the distance accordingly.

I did get to handle two of my pigeons - Wentworth (NRPL 1161) and Princess Fiona (NRPL 1125 - SAPML Syndicate bird). They both handled very well. I was very pleased with their overall condition and their wing positions. It was a thrill to handle them and to dream of the possibilities for them on Saturday. I sure wished I would have been lucky enough to handle more of my birds, but it was not meant to be.

The bad news...I am having problems uploading my videos. Sorry, but there will be no videos tonight. I will hope to have the issue solved tomorrow.

1/26/12 - SCMDPR Update (1st Daily Blog)

Well, my wife and I are in Sun City after a long flight. Very excited to be here to spend time with my wife as well as to enjoy the Greatest Pigeon Race in the World. Just like last year, I will be doing daily blogging of the events and my thoughts here in Sun City. I am hoping it is informative to many of you - last year the traffic on my site was crazy during Sun City so I am hoping it will do the same this year. I have already had several friends from around the world ask me to do the same thing I did last year this year so maybe there will be even more interest - who knows, but it is fun for me.

I have had several emails from people asking about the weather prediction. Saturday looks like a very nice day for a pigeon race. The temperatures appear to be a bit cooler than most years. The projected winds are going to be light and variable throughout the course.  Again, it looks like a nice day. I like the cooler temperatures, but would like to see a little bit of a wind on their noses to break them up and let the champion pigeons get a chance to shine.

Anyway, all the planning and dreams for all the entrants are going to be realized or dashed here in a few days. As I said to someone recently - I would be thrilled to just put a bird in the money (Top 300). Top 100 would be unbelieveable!! Top 50 would be almost insance. Top 10 - I can't even comprehend. To win the race - impossible. This race is just that tough that anyone who truly believes they are going to win or place very high doesn't understand how competitive this race really is. I have too much respect for the competition and the race to truly believe I have a shot at doing very well. I am living on hope and dreams in this race - not reality.

Good luck to all!!

1/10/12 - SCMDPR Update

I apologize for being a little bit lax in not updating the website the last few weeks. Been very busy with work and family.

Here are the sheets:

-SCMDPR Country Comparison
-NRPL SCMDPR Tracking Sheet
-SCMDPR Individual Loft Tracking Sheet

As you can see on the sheets, I am only tracking the Hot Spots and Final from here on out.

NRPL Analysis
After the last two Car Races 4 & 5 - the numbers are still pretty good. Car Race 5 was certainly a tough one. The Americans had a super Car Race 4. The Dutch had a super Car Race 5. Who will do well on the Final? Maybe it is the Belgium's or German's turn??

As far as the country comparison goes, here is what it looks like as to the percent of birds remaining:

     1. Poland - 56%
     2. Belgium - 51%
     3. Denmark - 50%
     4. South Africa - 47%
     5. Germany - 46%
     6. Czech Republic - 45%
     7. The Netherlands - 45%
     8. Australia - 42%
     9. United Kingdom - 41%
    10. Kuwait - 38%
    11. United States - 37%
    12. Canada - 30%

Lots of shuffling in the country losses over Car Race 4 & 5. Poland continues to do well. Australia fell like a rock. The US moved down a slot - Darn! Belgium and South Africa are holding strong.

NRPL's Birds

I am really not sure what to think so far. There has been a lot of discussion on message boards about the last 5 winning birds and here are how the performed up until the Final Race:

2008 - Abraham (Norbert & Filip Norman)
2009 - East of Eden (Mr. & Mrs. Clayburn)
2010 - Ali (Karel Klemens)
2011 - Victor (Kitchenbrand/Klaas)

If you look are the records of all these birds there is nothing standing out as "remarkable." In fact, if you look at all the Top 10 birds from each of those years there is nothing remarkable. As I told Frank McLaughlin the other day "The Final is like the playoffs. Your previous record essentially means nothing and if you have a bird in the Final you have a real chance of winning." The Final is such a different animal than all the other training tosses/races that a whole different type of bird is required to do well. They will have to fly 8-10+ hours on the Final in heat and with head winds. I think that is why it is so hard to predict which birds will be there on the Final based upon how they have performed up until that point.

As far as my birds, I think Wentworth may do well. She is out the Aarden Hen and a 1/2 sister to Alfie. That stuff just seems to do better and better the longer and tougher the races get. I am also still hopeful for Donovan. After being lost for a few days, he has steadily improved and that family is again my tougher family of birds that can come on the longer tougher races. Who knows...so hard to say! I just know I am excited to get on a plan exactly two weeks from today and fly to Sun City with my wife and enjoy the many friends I have made at the race. I am also excited to make many more friends this year. Most importantly, however, I am very excited to spend time with my wife.

I should make a note that Smarty Jones is a Nemelka-Hendriks entry and it was bred by my good friend Florian Hendriks from Holland. We were both so thrilled to see Smarty Jones come in 36th on Car Race 5. More importantly, Florian just told me today that they won the Two Pigeon Challenge. Florian flies under the name Flojo from Holland. They had a SUPER race - check out their positions on Car Race 5!!

While I am thinking about it, Jef Vanwinkel just informed me today that he was 1st Place in the Final Race in Nanjing race in China. Congrats to Jef!! I am not surprised he has super pigeons.

Ok, one more congrats to Marco Klein Falckenberg of Holland. I bought Lady Demily from Marco and he is a super flier and great - one of the 1st to congratulate me last year after Alfie's performance in Sun City. After moving he is now back racing and did super in 2011 - he was also 1st International Pigeon in Eijerkamp's China Race this past year - 6th Overall.   Guess what pigeons Marco is flying - he is flying a lot of pigeons from the Hendriks!! Small world for sure!

Individual Lofts

Ganus has come back down to earth in the averages, but I wouldn't be too quick to count him out. We will see how the Final treats the Ganus pigeons. Lots of lofts have lost a lot of pigeons. I am still going to bet on Gaby Vandenabeele to have a super Final Race. He always does and so whatever he does works - he also has some super pigeons. I also think that you will see a good performance from Lion Gate Lofts and Americas Dream Loft - sure they send a lot of birds, but they still do very well as a percentage every year and why should it be any different this year. I really think Karel Klemens will also be very tough. If he does as well this year as he has the past few years - he will truly become 'Mr. Sun City' and own the race. Over the past few years no one has a record anywhere near as successful when looking at the overall results based upon number of birds sent as Karel Klemens.

Finally - I really want to see McLaughlin Loft have a banner year. No one works harder at understanding the in-n-outs of Sun City than Frank. He is also a true friend who I am really hoping comes through with a big year. Next to my own birds that I have an interest in, I am pulling for Frank to do well!!

12/16/11 - SCMDPR Update

First of all, I got several emails from people asking me "How old was Donovan when you sent him?"; "Did you vaccinate him?"; "When did you ship Donovan to Sun City?" I have posted all that information in earlier Updates, but I people are obviously missing that. So I am now posting it above all my updates so people can get that information.

So here is where we are on the sheets:

-SCMDPR Country Comparison
-NRPL SCMDPR Tracking Sheet
-SCMDPR Individual Loft Tracking Sheet

NRPL Analysis:
Again, losses have really leveled off and the birds are coming really good. This has been the best year I have ever seen in Sun City since I started participating - again, kudos to the Sun City team!

As far as the country comparison goes, here is what it looks like as to the percent of birds remaining:

     1. Poland - 68% (Again, truly amazing!)
     2. Australia - 58%
     3. Belgium - 57%
     4. South Africa - 56%
     5. Germany - 55%
     6. Denmark - 55%
     7. Czech Republic - 55%
     8. The Netherlands - 50%
     9. United Kingdom - 50%
    10. United States - 45%
    11. Kuwait - 44%
    12. Canada - 39%

Again, Poland...wow. They are a solid 10% ahead of the next country. They also have the #1 pigeon in the Overall Averages - maybe they are the true "hot bed" of pigeon racing in Europe! If they keep this up, don't be surprised to see more and more Polish pigeons being sold on pigeon auction sites. Again, amazing. The US and Canada are still stinkin' it up as far as losses go, but see below - PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!!!

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NRPL's Birds

I continue overall to be happy with NRPL's birds peformances in Sun City. I am obviously disappointed to be tracking below all the averages on losses, but - again - I attribute a lot of that to the disastrous last shipment where I lost 5 out of 6 birds right off the bat! Specifically, I am very proud of the consistency a couple of birds are showing especially on the car races.

     1. Donovan (9th Overall Averages (3rd US); 164th Car Averages (16th US)) - Kleine Champion x Josephine
        -He is now bouncing around the Top 10 birds in the Overall Averages. Big race this Sunday - can he keep it up!!
     2. Golden Gaby - (694th Car Averages) - Gold Strike x Gaby Gourmet
        -Still doing very well and one of my most consistent. This pair has been solid for me every year - hoping Golden Gaby has what it takes!
     3. Bad Romance - (66th Car Averages (6th US)) - Brother Miss Wonderful x Lady Demily
        -This bird is solid...very excited about this bird!!
     4. Kleine Moorsel - (165th Car Averages (17th US)) - G'son Kleine Figo x Super Moorsel
        -Not quite sure what to think of this bird yet - Dam is one of my VERY BEST EVER!
     5. Manning - (406th Car Averages) - Brother Miss Wonderful x Lady Demily
        -Very inconsistent, but showing some promise - Sunday will be interesting!

I did lose two of my better performing birds on the last Car Race - Alydar and Zero. Alydar has always been a bit suspect to me based upon the breeding as I didn't have any siblings do very well this year, but Zero - that was a huge blow to see him not come back. Full sibling to Donovan and out my favorite 2012 pair. Dang! Hopefully Zero will get home, get rested and be ready to race in the Final.

Again, very proud of having Donovan hanging tough in the Overall Averages and then I am also the only loft from the US to have 3 birds in the Top 165 birds in the Car Averages. That can all change very quickly so hang on to your hats for this Sunday's Car Race #3!! I could have every one of my birds fall quickly to the bottom!!

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Individual Lofts

I will like to say it again that I am amazed at Ganus Family Loft's performance to date. I have never bought a pigeon from Mike Ganus, I have never spoken to Mike Ganus and I don't believe there is a pigeon in my loft with Ganus blood in it - I guess what I am saying is I am not here to promote Ganus. With that disclosure, to see Mike Ganus have four (YES 4) birds in the Top 28 Overall Averages AMAZES me!!! Yea, I have already heard the story that Mike sent 60 birds or so birds to Sun City, but folks you are missing the true beauty of Sun City if you say that. If Mike sent 60 birds that is only .76% of the birds send to Sun City - less than 1%!!!! Here is some more perspective - Belgium sent 491 birds and The Netherlands sent 404 birds - and between the 895 birds they sent they have ZERO - yes '0' - birds in the Top 28 birds. Belgium's first bird is at 38th and The Netherlands comes in at 65th!! So I say it again - amazing performance so far for Ganus Family Loft. As I said, all it takes is one race to change everything so don't hold your breath, but so far a truly amazing performance.

I am also very impressed with Fahy Robinson & Andre Carelsen for not having lost a bird yet. Andre Carelsen is an amazing pigeon fancier from South Africa that is recognized as one of the best in that country so that is not surprising. Fahy Robinson is also a well known master of breeding and so I am also not surprised there, but need to give Kudos to them.

Finally, I am not tracking Thorsten Daum on the sheet, but he is also putting a lot of pigeons near the top of the Overall Averages. Thorsten Daum is the FCI World Champion, which is an award given to the Top Loft when combining the results of several Top One Loft Races throughout the world - so again, not surprising to see that name on top!

12/01/11 - SCMDPR Update

It has been awhile since I have updated this page - interestingly enough I have heard some complaints! Sorry about that, but I have been very busy lately with some work projects. I do appreciate knowing people are looking at this page. As usual, my web stats for the NRPL website have gone up significantly due to people from around the world following the Sun City race. Again, thanks to all for your interest!!

So here is where we are at on the sheets:

-SCMDPR Country Comparison
-NRPL SCMDPR Tracking Sheet
-SCMDPR Individual Loft Tracking Sheet

NRPL Analysis:
I should say that interestingly things have really leveled off and the losses have dimished. I will also say that I have been very impressed with the quality of the returns - the birds aren't straggling in over days like I have seen them in the past. They seem to get 85% of the birds home within an hour or less. That is impressive - congrats to the SCMDPR management! Whatever they are doing different seems to be helping.

As far as the country comparison goes, here is what it looks like as to the percent of birds remaining:

      1. Poland - 71% (STILL at 71% - WOW!!)
      2. Australia - 61%
      3. Denmark - 60%
      4. Czech Republic - 60%
      5. Belgium - 60%
      6. South Africa - 59%
      7. Germany - 58%
      8. The Netherlands - 53%
      9. United Kingdom - 53%
    10. United States - 49%
    11. Kuwait - 47%
    12. Canada - 42%

All I can say is that I am truly in AWE at what Poland is doing in Sun City this year. Whatever they have done is truly amazing. For comparison, the United States currently has 594 pigeons left in the competition. If we were pulling the same numbers as Poland we would have 855 pigeons...260 more pigeons would be there!!

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NRPL's Birds

Regarding NRPL's birds, I am pretty happy. I haven't lost any more in quite awhile so that is always nice. If not for that last shipment where I lost 5 of the 6 birds, I would be hanging tough in the losses department. Again, I will learn my lesson and not ship late birds to Sun City. I also have a couple birds that seem to be really distinguishing themselves thus far in the competition:

     1. Donovan (7th Overall Averages - 2nd American bird) - Kleine Champion x Josephine
          -I sure hope this bird can keep it up. Very fun to have a bird staying high in the averages.
     2. Golden Gaby - Consistent bird - Gold Strike x Gaby Gourmet
          -Missed one clocking so not in overall averages, but very consistent bird.
          -1st NRPL bird home on Car Race #1
     3. Alydar - Consistent trapping bird - NL10-712 x UCA 477
          -Also missed one clocking, but has several high trapping positions.
     4. Zero - Kleine Champion x Josephine
         -Full sibling to Donovan. If not for one bad toss would be right up there with Donovan, but that is Sun City.
     5. Bad Romance - Brother Miss Wonderful x Lady Demily
         -Two bad tosses doomed this bird in the Overall Averages, but super results other than those tosses. Very consistent!

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Individual Loft Comparison

I would simply say it is amazing to see certain lofts keep a high percentage of birds every year. For example, Andre Carelsen of South Africa always seems to keep his birds and puts several in the money on the Final. Very impressive performance year after year!! Also, several top lofts have lost a high percentage of birds, but you know with their numbers and quality they are going to be there come the Final Race. Also, Mike Ganus has proven to be very impressive in the Overall Averages. Mike has 4 pigeons in the Top 79 birds!! That is very impressive and a tough feat. For comparison, Koopman has 0 birds (yes, zero) and he sent 2 times as many birds as Mike. Also, Kitchenbrand and Klaas both don't have any birds in the Top 100. Again, very impressive results for Ganus Family Loft thus far.

11/07/11 - SCMDPR Update

There have now been several tosses and as you would guess - there is some good and some bad. Here are the three sheets that I am using to track the information:

-SCMDPR Country Camparison
-NRPL SCMDPR Tracking Sheet
-SCMDPR Individual Loft Tracking Sheet

NRPL Analysis:
Country Comparison - The USA continues to drag behind the rest. Here are the numbers - again these are only countries with more than 100 birds and the number is the % of birds they have remaining:

     1. Poland - 71%
     2. Denmark - 67%
     3. Czech Republic - 66%
     4. Belgium - 64%
     5. Australia - 64%
     6. South Africa - 63%
     7. Germany - 61%
     8. The Netherlands - 57%
     9. United Kingdom - 56%
    10. United States - 53%
    11. Kuwait - 51%
    12. Canada - 50%

NRPL's Birds - I am fairly happy with the results so far. It has been interesting to see that I have really not had a bird stand out in front of the rest...they have all done OK at times and not so OK at times. Here are how my top 4 birds are doing and what they are out of:

     1. Bad Romance (217) - Full Brother Miss Wonderful x Lady Demily
     2. Donovan (258) - Kleine Champion x Josephine
     3. Zero (551) - Kleine Champion x Josephine
     4. Princess Fiona (SAPML) (907) - The Inbred Moorsel x Miss Beautiful

I am probably jinxing them, but I have told several people that I really think my best Sun City pair this year will Kleine Champion x Josephine. Again, too early in the training series to mean much, but Sun City is still Sun City and we all love to track the birds and look for any signal to show us what kind of birds we sent to the race.

Individual Loft Tracking Sheet -

10/24/11 - SCMDPR Update

We had the 1st Training Toss a few days ago and I have updated my personal sheet with the results and I have also updated the country comparison. Finally, I have created a sheet to track many of the top lofts around the world and some lofts I am personally interested in. Here are the sheets:

-SCMDPR Country Comparison
-NRPL SCMDPR Tracking Sheet
-SCMDPR Individual Loft Tracking Sheet

NRPL Analysis:
Country Comparison - The USA continues to drag around 10%(+)(-) behind the other countries with large entries. There has to be something we can do to remedy this as that just doesn't make sense.

NRPL's Birds - Nothing to report yet. Glad they all came home on the 1st Toss and it was fun to see one of my birds in the Top 10, but as everyone knows there were probably 2,000 birds on the drop and this toss means absolutely nothing in evaluating the quality of or future success of the birds. Well, I should say "just about everyone" as I still get a good chuckle out of people that tout the quality of their pigeons on short training tosses.

Individual Loft Tracking Sheet - Gaby Vandenabeele is always so impressive in this race and he is someone I will watch closely. Also, interesting to see some tops lofts from past years dropping quite a few birds. At this stage - all we can say is it is interesting. No conclusions to be drawn so far and all it takes is 1 bird to change everything - win a Car or place high in the Finals and all other issues with the SCMDPR are forgotten!!

10/14/11 - SCMDPR Update

GAME ON!! The Initial Inventory is finally posted and so the 2012 edition of the SCMDPR is finally a reality and I am very excited. There is truly nothing like this race anywhere in the world. So here we go....

Country Statistics - the SCMDPR Team hasn't published totals this year on each countries entries so I had to use a little ingenuity to extrapolate the numbers. My guess is that the numbers I am publishing here are off by a bit, but probably not much. So the total intake for the Sun City race is - hope you are sitting down -- 7871 birds!! Amazing!! I honestly cannot believe the size and scope of the SCMDPR. 35 countries and almost 8000 pigeons! As usual, here is my 2012 SCMDPR Initial Country Inventory. Here are the countries that have done the best through the initial settling period with at least 100 birds entered:

     1. Poland - 91%
     2. Denmark - 86%
     3. Australia - 85%
     4. Belgium - 85%
     5. Czech Republic - 84%
     6. Germany -78%
     7. United Kingdom - 77%
     8. South Africa - 76%
     9. The Netherlands - 71%
    10. Kuwait - 70%
    11. United States - 68%
    12. Canada - 61%

The United States and Canada pull up the rear again - what are we doing wrong here folks? We are losing almost 20% more than most other countries with large entries...interesting. Darn...that isn't a good start for the US.

As far as NRPL's entries, here is my sheet tracking the birds I have entered in the SCMDPR. I am going to use this sheet to update all my birds throughout the race series. I must say that I am still very nervous as last year I lost 50% of my entry on the first 4 or 5 training tosses...as did most of the US lofts. Until we get 5+ tosses under our belts, we should still be very nervous. Here is my commentary on what I am seeing so far with the NRPL birds:

     *Don't send birds in June. I lost 4 of the 6 birds I sent in June. I have talked to 2 or 3 other guys who shipped in June and they are also scratching there head on the June shipment. Maybe we are outliers here, but I would guess that almost everyone had similar losses. I know some lofts has done well with birds in the later shipment, but the facts on paper for me tell me to stick with the numbers and stay away from June.

     *Inconclusive so far on whether loft flying, vaccination, clipping flights, age, etc. makes any difference. With the 4 of 6 birds in June skewing much of the data, I am going to wait until we get further into training/racing before I draw conclusions.

7/26/11 - SCMDPR Update

On the SCMDPR website yesterday they showed a picture of a bird with what appears to be the last 3 flights clipped. I was a bit shocked to see that and I got to thinking (and actually there was a discussion the SAPML I am am member of regarding this) and I couldn't think of any rational reason to do this. Someone obviously sent some inquiries to the management of Sun City regarding this pigeon with the clipped wings and here was their response:

Clipped Flights - Sun City Response

Just as I suspected and hoped - whoever did this to their bird was not very smart and I will predict that this specific pigeon will be lost very quickly. I am not sure I agree with the comments by Sun City regarding the importance of the moult as I think it is very important for a pigeon to be in a suitable body moult and wing moult to perform in Sun City. Yes, I did see many pigeons in the Top 100 who were in various stages of the moult, but I think the overwhelming majority of the top pigeons had good wings and suitable body moults. I do, however, agree with their comment that most of the pigeons at the time of the Final Race are in a suitable moult to be able to compete.

6/21/11 - SCMDPR Update

I am like the boy who cried wolf - nobody will believe me anymore. This will be my last update until the Sun City inventory is posted as I can't send any more birds. Here is my updated list of birds sent to Sun City including the last 3 birds on Team 7!

6/15/11 - SCMDPR Update

OK, I lied - I am doing one more update before the inventory is posted. I decided to send another Team of 3 birds to Sun City in the June 28th Shipment. My good friend Doug Swingley put pressure on me, Frank told me it was a good idea and I folded! So here is my updated list of birds I sent to Sun City including the last 3 birds on Team 6!

5/10/11 - SCMDPR Update

Well, my final shipment of birds to Frank McLaughlin is going out tomorrow (5/11) - 3 birds - the Final 3 birds I will be sending to the SCMDPR. All of the planning, preparation, dreaming, money, care, etc. for my 2012 team is over and I have turned it over to the Sun City Team. I will say that I think in total, this group is a much better group of "Sun City type" birds than last year - I hope I am learning something! I did want to clip more of the 9th and 10th flights than I ended up doing, but when I shipped the birds on Monday (5/09) I totally forgot to clip their wings and when I remembered the birds were in the box and I was sitting in business meetings and didn't have time to pull the birds out and do it before I dropped them off at the post office. I did get the last 3 birds wings clipped - so we will see what happens.

Here is the SCMDPR 2012 NRPL Team of Birds!! The waiting begins and I will probably not do an update from here on out until the first inventory is posted.

4-27-11 - SCMDPR Update

I often get asked what birds I send to one loft races and why. I will shortly be posting the parentage of every bird I sent to a one loft race in 2011. Why do I do that? I have nothing to hide -- I still laugh when I think of the fancier a few years back that posted all pedigrees of the birds he sent to the SCMDPR with some pretty bragadocious statements about how this family of birds had dominated one loft racing in North America was now going to dominate the Greatest Race in the world - the SCMDPR. As the training and Hot Spots (now Car Races) progressed the fancier was not doing well at all and pulled down all the pedigrees for his birds and took down the bragadocious statement. Anyway, I do respect what that loft (and others with his birds) has accomplished in the US in One Loft Races, but the SCMDPR has the opportunity to humble everyone a bit - the competition is that keen and that tough. As I said, I have nothing to hide and here is the page on my site (will be shortly anyway) with a list of birds that I sent to One Loft Races in 2011 and their parents. I also give an explanation of how and why I pick my one loft race birds on this page. Any pigeon guy that has been in the sport over many years knows that every bird out of a specific pair will not be a good one.  If anyone starts referencing how some of the birds out of a certain pair didn't perform well in a certain race as opposed to focusing on the birds out of a certain pair that DID perform well they are truly missing the boat.  Whenever someone starts talking about "every" or "all" youngsters out of a certain pair doing this and that -- they are full of BS and are only seeking to sell pigeons. Anway, off my soapbox and onto my pigeons!

As to my SCMDPR birds for the 2012 race, here is a document with the birds I have already shipped to Frank McLaughlin with information on each bird that may be interesting to some of you. I will keep updating this list as I ship more birds to Frank. 2012 NRPL SCMDPR Entries!!