Last weekend was the final race of the 2017 Golden Algarve One Loft Race in Portugal. The birds were liberated from Braganca a distance of around 500 km to the loft. Liberation was delayed until 11.50 am due to fog and visibility at the race point , so with the late start, the heat and the distance a tough race was predicted.
This proved to be the case with only 54 birds arriving on the day of liberation from 2625 entries. The final winner was ‘Doc Holliday’ a German entry that returned a speed of a little over 1200 mpm with the following birds returning at a steady pace for the remaining 1 and a half hours of daylight. It must be said the birds were in fantastic condition upon return and in fact a number of entries returned throughout the early hours of the morning in pitch darkness.

Rui Emidio with Peter and Carys Fox…
We was very pleased indeed to see the arrival of our entry ‘Blue and Lonesome’ to win 32 prize in the final but more importantly she won the Ace Bird Award over the entire five Ace Bird Races winning 1st by almost one and a half hours. The initial entry for this award was 5097 pigeons entered by over 1700 fanciers Worldwide with 2625 birds making it to the 500 km final race.

1st Ace Pigeon winner of the Ford Fiesta Car Prize..
Our Ace Winner was in absolute top condition upon arrival. She is bred in the ‘Purple’ being a blend of our legendary Drum bloodline on the Fathers side and the very best of Rik and Jan Hermans multiple performing National winning bloodlines on the Mothers side. She is part of our breeding strategy to cross more unrelated winning bloodlines into our original bloodlines to improve vitality and add to the winning gene pool.
”Blue and Lonesome’ 1st Ace Pigeon Golden Algarve Race 2017…

Bred in the ‘Purple’ from the best bloodlines available today to win these races…
Well that’s this year’s Christmas present sorted for Carys, no wonder you are smiling Peter.
Well done once more, an amazing outcome in the Algarve, what a good pigeon you bred.
Congratulations to all concerned.
Best Regards Ken Ambler