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

__________________________________________

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.

The 28 futurity birds were released under clear skies at 7:40 a.m. from Chattanooga, Tn. There were clear, sunny skies along the whole route, but 5-10 mph NNW headwinds (with 15 mph gusts) slowed the birds down and spread them out.

Ten birds clocked on the day Sunday, but five more returned on Monday. Check the leaderboard to see if your bird has arrived. I will update the leaderboard as I get reports from Bob or John about late returning birds.

Joel Sampang’s winning bird, ARPU 6081, came to John’s loft by itself and far ahead of any other bird. Congratulations to him and his tough bird. Congratulations to Ron Pairan as well, whose LFO 540 bird has been consistently at the top all three races. It appears he is the bird to beat going into the last race!

The top three finishers in this 200-mile race will be receiving a cash prize of $100, $50, and $25.

 
 WinSpeed-1                 LEXINGTON RACING PIGEON CLUB          10/03/11-19:25
                                 Weekly Race Report                      Page 1
                            Open and Sportsman Category
Name: CHATTANOOGA A                Young Bird Race            Flown: 10/02/2011
Release(A): 07:40  Birds: 29    Lofts: 2             Station: CHATTANOOGA, TENN
Weather (Rel) clear, n4, 46 degrees      (Arr) clear, 5-10nw, 54 degrees
 
POS NAME          BAND NUMBER        CLR  X ARRIVAL   MILES  TOWIN      YPM  PT
  1 JOEL SAMPANG  6081   AU 11 ARPU  BC   C 13:58:47 215.454 00.00 1001.097 100
  2 DAVID STEPHEN 1061   AU 11 LKY   BB   C 14:32:57 205.602 51.29  876.277  99
  3 RON PAIRAN     540   AU 11 LFO   SIL  C 14:32:59  2/ 18  51.31  876.207  98
--------------------------------- Above are 10 percent ------------------------
  4 JOE PENN       657   AU 11 BLG   BC   C 15:00:31  2/ 11  01:01  860.805  97
  5 CLIFF CORDAHL 1308   AU 11 LKY   BB   H 14:54:41  3/ 18  01:13  832.465  96
  6 ALLEN STRICKL  413   AU 11 NDN   BC   C 17:05:52  4/ 18  03:24  639.477  95
--------------------------------- Above are 20 percent ------------------------
  7 CLIFF CORDAHL 1336   AU 11 LKY   BC   C 17:58:53  3/ 11  04:00  612.715  94
  8 CLIFF CORDAHL 1325   AU 11 LKY   DC     17:34:39  5/ 18  03:53  608.524  93
  9 JOHN JAMES    1502   AU 11 LKY   BB   H 18:23:02  6/ 18  04:41  562.737  92
 10 TONY HORN     1727   AU 11 LKY   GR     18:28:44  7/ 18  04:47  557.793  91

We released the 32 futurity birds on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. from Crossville, Tn. under partly sunny skies.

Birds that have not yet arrived home as of Sunday night are LKY 1304, LKY 1530, LKY 1725, JEDDS 18444. Four birds arrived home late and did not clock and are not represented on the report.

One other bird, LKY 1549, has arrived at John’s loft two weeks after the smash toss and will likely race next weekend.

WinSpeed-1                 LEXINGTON RACING PIGEON CLUB          09/25/11-20:32
                                 Weekly Race Report                      Page 1
                            Open and Sportsman Category
Name: CROSSVILLE A                 Young Bird Race            Flown: 09/24/2011
Release(A): 09:00  Birds: 32    Lofts: 2              Station: CROSSVILLE, TENN
Weather (Rel) part cloud, 03se, 48 degrees  (Arr) mostly sun, 5-20se, 66 degrees
 
POS NAME          BAND NUMBER        CLR  X ARRIVAL   MILES  TOWIN      YPM  PT
  1 TONY HORN     1728   AU 11 LKY   GR     12:17:21 138.203 00.00 1232.518 100
  2 TONY HORN     1727   AU 11 LKY   GR     12:17:23  2/ 22  00.02 1232.310  99
  3 CLIFF CORDAHL 1325   AU 11 LKY   DC     12:17:34  3/ 22  00.12 1231.166  98
  4 JOHN JAMES    1505   AU 11 LKY          12:17:36  4/ 22  00.15 1230.959  97
--------------------------------- Above are 10 percent ------------------------
  5 RON PAIRAN     540   AU 11 LFO   SIL  C 12:17:49  5/ 22  00.28 1229.610  96
  6 BRIAN LORD     859   AU 11 OCALA GR   C 12:17:53  6/ 22  00.31 1229.196  95
  7 JOHN JAMES    1502   AU 11 LKY   BB   H 12:18:22  7/ 22  01.01 1226.201  94
--------------------------------- Above are 20 percent ------------------------
  8 JOE PENN       657   AU 11 BLG   BC   C 13:05:53 148.878 33.17 1065.652  93
  9 BOB ZERKLE    1010   AU 11 LKY   BC   C 13:05:56  2/ 10  33.20 1065.435  92
 10 BOB ZERKLE    1009   AU 11 LKY   BC   C 13:05:58  3/ 10  33.22 1065.291  91
 11 CLIFF CORDAHL 1336   AU 11 LKY   BC   C 13:06:10  4/ 10  33.34 1064.425  90
 12 JOEL SAMPANG  6081   AU 11 ARPU  BC   C 13:06:25  5/ 10  33.49 1063.346  89
 13 CLIFF CORDAHL 1326   AU 11 LKY          13:54:32  8/ 22  01:37  825.840  88
 14 JUSTWINGINIT  7678   AU 11 VKING BB   C 14:03:14  9/ 22  01:45  802.146  87
 15 DAVID STEPHEN 1061   AU 11 LKY   BB   C 14:11:58 10/ 22  01:54  779.690  86
 16 ALBERTO RAMIR  435   AU 11 BLG   BC   H 14:13:34 11/ 22  01:56  775.712  85
 17 STEVE SLATES  1109   AU 11 LKY   SIL  H 14:47:18 12/ 22  02:29  700.367  84
 18 STEVE SLATES  1108   AU 11 LKY   BWF    14:47:36 13/ 22  02:30  699.762  83
 19 ALLEN STRICKL  413   AU 11 NDN   BC   C 14:50:06 14/ 22  02:32  694.766  82
 20 JOHN HAYES      34   AU 11 KY    B    C 15:49:24  6/ 10  03:16  640.025  81
 21 JOEL SAMPANG  6093   AU 11 ARPU  B      15:53:06  7/ 10  03:20  634.292  80
 22 CLIFF CORDAHL 1319   AU 11 LKY   BC     15:52:31 15/ 22  03:35  589.643  79
 23 JOHN HAYES      73   AU 11 KY           18:15:15  8/ 10  05:42  471.906  78
 24 CLIFF CORDAHL 1308   AU 11 LKY          17:44:19 16/ 22  05:26  463.913  77