Good day from Carnival Lofts,
Herewith the results for Bloemfontein race 3 that were flown on Friday 07 August 2020. This race turned out to be one if not the most difficult race we had in many years here at the lofts, the weekend ended up as being one of the hardest weekends for racing across the country as well!
The pigeons were liberated on the rugby field of Laerskool Bloemfontein and as usual they cleared liberation point quickly and headed home, as we drove out of Bloemfontein there was little to no wind but the predictions was for winds up to 40kmh east north east and by the time we stopped at the toll gate the wind have started picking up. At Winburg the wind was close to 40kmh east already and it would just get windier as we got closer to the Gauteng.
We knew it will be tough but I did not expect the race to turn out so hard, to the winners I have to take off my hat to or mask these days to you on a well flown race! The pigeon that dropped down first and won the race also ended up being the ace short distance pigeon for 2020.
The top 20 from Bloemfontein were:
| Rank | Fancier | Pigeon | Speed [m/min] |
| 1 | Danie Scholtz Pigeons | ZA NKHP 2020 5565 | 1073.5853 |
| 2 | Lamprecht Hokke | ZA KPF 2019 27 | 1073.2546 |
| 3 | Quentin-Brett de Beer | ZA 2019 176507 | 1054.5382 |
| 4 | PH | ZA 2019 233311 | 1054.4815 |
| 5 | GVR Hokke | ZA OERF 2019 2466 | 1038.5764 |
| 6 | Quentin-Brett de Beer | ZA 2019 176504 | 1038.5115 |
| 7 | GVR Hokke | ZA OERF 2019 2480 | 1038.2369 |
| 8 | Johnston Hokke | ZA 2019 185400 | 1035.3704 |
| 9 | Pigeon Power Team 2 | ZA LTX 2020 317 | 1027.9106 |
| 10 | Antonio Sampiao | ZA SRF 2019 2565 | 1027.9008 |
| 11 | Goldsmith Lofts | ZA SSPO 2019 12274 | 1027.7394 |
| 12 | Prada’s Pride | ZA Cyrl 2019 3230 | 1026.0795 |
| 13 | Pietersen Family Lofts | ZA OOA 2019 177 | 1019.4402 |
| 14 | Wilcon | ZA NJ 2019 4568 | 1019.2285 |
| 15 | Johnston Hokke | ZA KPK 2019 5104 | 1019.0554 |
| 16 | Tsunami Lofts | ZA BPF D 2019 4671 | 1013.8893 |
| 17 | Danie & Natie | ZA 2019 163684 | 1013.0287 |
| 18 | Lamprecht Hokke | ZA OPK 2019 165 | 1012.9194 |
| 19 | JJJ van der Linde | ZA PP 2019 262 | 1006.2706 |
| 20 | Johnston Hokke | ZA KPK 2019 5835 | 1004.0394 |
Well done to Danie Scholtz Pigeons as well as Lamprecht Hokke on the top performance of these two pigeons that arrived first at the loft! It
The Bloemfontein race was the final short distance race and the single bird averages as well as all bird averages was won by “Prada’s Pride” the name used by Marianne Kruger yes you read correctly a lady!! Baie geluk Marianne jy het tops gedoen op die eerste 3 vlugte vanjaar! Let us have a look at the single bird averages:
| Position | Fancier | Wins | Top Ten | Positions | Points | Short |
| 1 | Prada’s Pride | 2 | 2 | 18 | 289 | 289 |
| 2 | Johnston Hokke | 0 | 2 | 15 | 273 | 273 |
| 3 | Danie Scholtz Pigeons | 1 | 2 | 4 | 257 | 257 |
| 4 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller 2 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 243 | 243 |
| 5 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller | 0 | 2 | 17 | 238 | 238 |
| 6 | Stoyanovs Loft | 0 | 0 | 8 | 234 | 234 |
| 7 | JJJ van der Linde | 0 | 0 | 12 | 233 | 233 |
| 8 | PH | 0 | 1 | 8 | 231 | 231 |
| 9 | Quentin-Brett de Beer | 0 | 2 | 12 | 226 | 226 |
| 10 | GVR HOKKE | 0 | 2 | 14 | 224 | 224 |
Well done to the top 10 on the single bird averages, the top 10 on the all bird averages were:
| Position | Fancier | Wins | Top Ten | Positions | Points | Short |
| 1 | Prada’s Pride | 2 | 2 | 18 | 933 | 933 |
| 2 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller | 0 | 2 | 17 | 898 | 898 |
| 3 | Johnston Hokke | 0 | 2 | 15 | 866 | 866 |
| 4 | GVR HOKKE | 0 | 2 | 14 | 689 | 689 |
| 5 | Quentin-Brett de Beer | 0 | 2 | 12 | 653 | 653 |
| 6 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller 2 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 636 | 636 |
| 7 | Tsunami Lofts | 0 | 0 | 10 | 540 | 540 |
| 8 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 531 | 531 |
| 9 | JJJ van der Linde | 0 | 0 | 12 | 501 | 501 |
| 10 | PH | 0 | 1 | 8 | 467 | 467 |
The ace pigeons on the 3 short distance races were:
| Position | Fancier | Pigeon | Wins | Top Ten | Positions | Points |
| 1 | Danie Scholtz Pigeons | ZA NKHP 2020 5565 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 257 |
| 2 | Quentin-Brett de Beer | ZA 2019 176507 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 217 |
| 3 | GVR HOKKE | ZA OERF 2019 2480 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 189 |
| 4 | Johnston Hokke | ZA KPK 2019 5131 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 180 |
| 5 | Tsunami Lofts | ZA BPF D 2019 4671 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 178 |
| 6 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller | ZA PPL 2019 1628 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 172 |
| 7 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller 3 | ZA PPL 2019 1558 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 169 |
| 8 | Johnston Hokke | ZA 2019 185400 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 168 |
| 9 | Gilbert + Bruin | ZA HHC 2019 3689 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 167 |
| 10 | Prada’s Pride | ZA MID 2019 6814 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 162 |
Well done to all the fanciers who flew well on the 3 short distance races for the 2020 season.
Race 4 of the winter 2020 series was flown from Tierpoort dam on Monday 17 August 2020, we liberated the pigeons at 07h05 and for the first time this season they did not clear the liberation point immediately but turned a few times as if they knew that another tough day out was lying ahead for them, at liberation there was little to no wind but the predictions was for a strong north westerly wind on the route back changing to a very strong westerly wind. The predictions was a bit wrong as by the time I reached the toll gate I could see that the wind was had a lot of east in and as the old proverb goes “When the wind is in the east, ‘Tis neither good for man nor beast”.
From Winburg the wind was reasonably strong north east and this would again split up the packs and some will be left behind! This season of 2020 has not been kind to the young birds as race 3 and race 4 would see them battle very strong headwind conditions to get back to the lofts. We arrived back at the lofts and I knew it will be about a 30min wait before the first pigeons would arrive. Again two pigeons arrived together this time 2nd placed on the very hard Bloemfontein race Lamprecht Hokke’s pigeon would walk over the ets first from Edenburg, well done oom John! The race again turned out to be a very tough one and many pigeons did not make it back on day one but most of them returned on day 2. The top 20 positions on race 4 were:
| Rank | Fancier | Pigeon | Speed [m/min] |
| 1 | Lamprecht Hokke | W0144 ZA OPK 2019 179 | 1185.4707 |
| 2 | Wilcon | W0552 ZA NJ 2019 4733 | 1185.2054 |
| 3 | Johnston Hokke | W0129 ZA KPK 2019 5131 | 1175.7778 |
| 4 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller 2 | W0183 ZA PPL 2019 1572 | 1175.67 |
| 5 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller | W0231 ZA PPL 2019 1601 | 1175.6189 |
| 6 | Droogtehulp | W0773 ZA RF 2019 195 | 1175.5849 |
| 7 | Johnston Hokke | W0018 ZA KPK 2019 5104 | 1175.5792 |
| 8 | Lamprecht Hokke | W0143 ZA OPK 2019 189 | 1175.4374 |
| 9 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller | W0563 ZA PPL 2019 1665 | 1171.6552 |
| 10 | JJJ van der Linde 2 | W0736 ZA PP 2019 219 | 1171.6101 |
| 11 | Lynx | W1032 ZA LYNX 2020 5 | 1171.4185 |
| 12 | Willie Munnik | W0802 ZA SRPV 2019 1798 | 1171.4016 |
| 13 | Pigeon Power Team 2 | W0979 ZA LTX 2020 317 | 1171.2439 |
| 14 | JJJ van der Linde 2 | W0746 ZA BPF 2020 612 | 1171.2045 |
| 15 | Chloes Lofts | W0718 ZA GPU 2019 6938 | 1171.1989 |
| 16 | H&F | W0873 ZA 2019 232882 | 1171.1933 |
| 17 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller 3 | W0571 ZA PPL 2019 1651 | 1171.1651 |
| 18 | Desert Queen | W0402 ZA NOVP 2019 2877 | 1171.1538 |
| 19 | JJJ van der Linde | W0787 ZA PP 2019 240 | 1171.137 |
| 20 | H&F | W0885 ZA 2019 233369 | 1171.0919 |
Congratulations to all the winners so far this season we still have 5 races to go for the 2020 season so it is time to buckle up and get ready as the last few might just be very hard races as the temperatures will rise as well.