Joel Sampang's blue check hen, AU 11 ARPU 6081, winner of the 2011 Lexington Futurity

When we began this series, it was the the Lexington Racing Pigeon Club’s desire to pit our birds against each other over a series of young bird races to see who ultimately would prove themselves to be a stand-out champion bird. We started this year with 79 birds from as far away as Texas, New Mexico and California and now, after four races and over 800 miles of racing, we know now who the truly outstanding birds are.

Congratulations goes out to Joel Sampang of Houston, Tx, and his bird AU 11 ARPU 6081 for winning the four-race average speed champion bird of the 2011 Lexington Futurity. This bird also won first place in the 200-mile race and first place in the 270-mile race. Truly something to be proud of.

Second place goes to Ron Pairan of Ohio, who placed third in average speed in our last year’s contest. His AU 11 LFO 540 silver cock proved to be a consistent flyer and always at the top of the sheet.

Third place was won by a John James bird, IF 11 LKY 1502 blue bar hen, who is a relative of the bird who won the whole series last year.

Fourth place was taken by newcomer Tony Horn and his grizzle bird IF 11 LKY 1727. This is Tony’s first year racing pigeons and his first futurity, so we are happy to see him do well.

A big thank you also goes out to Bob Zerkle and John James who have spent the past  8 months or so caring for and training the birds. It’s a thankless task and always ripe for criticism, but I’d like to personally thank them for all their hard work.

More information will follow regarding the auction of the birds, so check back in a week or so. You will be contacted by David or Bob regarding payouts if you are a due a prize.

If you cannot see the spreadsheet below, click here to download a pdf version.

Below you will see the final speeds. In blue are birds known to be home and in their loft. If more birds return, we will notify their breeders.

The wing of ARPU 6081

ARPU 6081 on her perch in John's loft

For the second week in a row, congratulations to Joel Sampang, this time for winning the 270-mile race. The ARPU 6081 blue check hen arrived at John’s loft 13 minutes ahead of Allen Strickland’s second place bird which arrived at Bob’s loft. Third place went to John Hays’ bird which arrived at John James loft nearly an hour after Sampang’s 6081 bird. Final Average Speed results can be seen here.

WinSpeed-1                 LEXINGTON RACING PIGEON CLUB          10/09/11-14:05
                                 Weekly Race Report                      Page 1
                            Open and Sportsman Category
Name: DECATUR A                    Young Bird Race            Flown: 10/08/2011
Release(A): 08:30  Birds: 15    Lofts: 2                  Station: DECATUR, ALA
Weather (Rel) clear, 0-3e, 60 degrees    (Arr) clear, 3-6ne, 79 degrees
 
POS NAME          BAND NUMBER        CLR  X ARRIVAL   MILES  TOWIN      YPM  PT
  1 JOEL SAMPA /7 6081   AU 11 ARPU  BC   C 15:12:26 280.880 00.00 1228.398 100
  2 ALLEN STRIC/8  413   AU 11 NDN   BC   C 14:56:02 260.125 13.20 1185.959  99
--------------------------------- Above are 10 percent ------------------------
  3 JOHN HAYS       34   AU 11 KY    B    C 16:07:25  2/  7  54.58 1080.740  98
--------------------------------- Above are 20 percent ------------------------
  4 JOHN JAMES    1502   AU 11 LKY   BB   H 16:09:29  2/  8  01:26  996.379  97
  5 RON PAIRAN     540   AU 11 LFO   SIL  C 16:09:30  3/  8  01:26  996.343  96
  6 TONY HORN     1727   AU 11 LKY   GR     16:25:57  4/  8  01:43  961.907  95
  7 CLIFF CORDAHL 1326   AU 11 LKY          16:29:05  5/  8  01:46  955.616  94
  8 BOB ZERKLE    1010   AU 11 LKY   BC   C 17:46:40  3/  7  02:34  888.051  93
  9 JOEL SAMPANG  6093   AU 11 ARPU  B      18:09:21  4/  7  02:56  853.281  92
 10 CLIFF CORDAHL 1336   AU 11 LKY   BC   C 19:37:54  5/  7  04:25  740.153  9

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Fifteen Futurity birds were released Saturday morning at 8:30 under clear skies with little to no winds out of the east. Weather was good all the way home with winds from the east and south along the way.

The fifteen birds that raced are the birds that clocked last week plus the five that returned the next day. No other birds returned from the 200-mile race. However, two birds that had been missing from previous tosses returned yesterday and they stayed home. They are a John James bird and a John Hays bird.