Race 5 for the winter 2020 series was supposed to be flown from Trompsburg but due to 100% cloud cover and a light drizzle early on Wednesday morning I decided to drive back to Edenburg and see if the conditions was better. At Edenburg it was still overcast but a bit clearer and you could see the yellow rays of the sun breaking through the clouds I waited about 20 minutes and decided to liberate the pigeons as I did not think it would clear up and I have liberated pigeons in the summer races in similar conditions. The 3km’s back towards the highway and that first 2 or 3kms on the way back on the highway I knew there were trouble as the pigeons circled and did not take fly towards Gauteng as they usually do, once liberated unfortunately nothing can done but get home and wait for them to arrive.
The wind as has been the case on most of the races so far was again a north easterly of between 15 to 30kmh all the way till about Rooiwal (130km from the lofts) here the wind changed to a very strong westerly wind blowing dust and veld fire smoke all over the highway. I knew I would beat the pigeon’s home but did not think by almost an hour, the bets were in between the few fanciers waiting at the loft for the arrivals and I think we were mostly wrong as we predicted an earlier arrival. Just before 2pm at 13h56 a little BC pied hen appeared over the mountain and dropped down on the landing board, she walked in over the Benzing ets system to register the win for PH or then Petrus Harmzen (he has been crying in my ears for a tough race and he definitely received it yesterday), he has won the summer race in the past as well as quite a number of the harder longer races here at Carnival. 1st position was not enough for him on this race as the 2nd and 3rd pigeons to clock was also entered by him, truly a top performance from Petrus. 4th and 5th position goes to Brothers Daniel en Hendrik Moller who also scores high up every race! 6th position was won by Chloe’s Loft well done to Fabio Tavares and his daughter Chloe!! 7th position was taken by Pigeon Power (Arnold Kuys), then again the bro’s Daniel en Hendrik in 8th and to finish of the top 10 in 9th and 10th position Petrus Harmzen. The top 20 were:
| Rank | Fancier | Pigeon | Speed [m/min] |
| 1 | PH | W0823 ZA 2019 232755 | 1051.6042 |
| 2 | PH | W0840 ZA 2019 233341 | 1037.6411 |
| 3 | Pasella Lofts | W0892 ZA 2019 232747 | 1037.369 |
| 4 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller 3 | W0587 ZA PPL 2019 1650 | 1037.1991 |
| 5 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller 3 | W0568 ZA PPL 2019 1636 | 1036.4009 |
| 6 | Chloes Lofts | W0718 ZA GPU 2019 6938 | 1036.3627 |
| 7 | Pigeon Power | W0620 ZA KRPS 2019 1723 | 1023.6548 |
| 8 | Hendrik en Daniel Moller | W0215 ZA PPL 2019 1593 | 1023.5969 |
| 9 | PH | W0832 ZA 2019 232887 | 1023.5597 |
| 10 | H&F | W0862 ZA 2019 232800 | 1023.5431 |
| 11 | Droogtehulp | W0764 ZA WPUD 2020 271 | 1023.3859 |
| 12 | Merce Des Lofts | W0470 ZA SOT 2019 4919 | 1017.2801 |
| 13 | Chloes Lofts | W0717 ZA Cyrl 2019 6380 | 1012.5043 |
| 14 | Palm Ridge ODRA | W0437 ZA ODRA 2020 1604 | 1010.9641 |
| 15 | GVR Hokke | W1071 ZA OERF 2020 528 | 1009.9036 |
| 16 | Jagters | W0533 ZA VPU 2019 667 | 1009.8794 |
| 17 | Desert Queen | W0385 ZA NOVP 2019 2838 | 1009.8633 |
| 18 | GVR Hokke B | W0697 ZA OERF 2019 2450 | 1009.8432 |
| 19 | JJJ van der Linde | W0739 ZA PP 2019 227 | 1009.7828 |
| 20 | Dinokeng Lofts | W0963 ZA 2019 PRPC 9275 | 1001.7685 |
It turned out to be another slaughter of a race, well done to the top performers on the race and for that matter anyone who had pigeons back in the top 100! This year seems to be a dismal year for me as trainer and yesterday afternoon I hung up my cowboy hat in trying to get the most out of the pigeons sent to Carnival Lofts, I have by being so hard on the pigeons the last few years here in the “club series” lost customers and some friends whose pigeons could not make it till the final races and I was warned by a few that the fanciers want to see their pigeons go to the final race. I have raced double if not more than double the amount of kilometers per season than the other one lofts and I still believe that is why pigeons purchased from Carnival is breeding not only club, organization as well as olr winners for the fanciers who purchased them. The 2020 season will be the last year that the ‘club series’ will be flown, I will finish this season of 9 races but after this season we will revert back to a 6 race series flown every 14days in the winter races from 2021.
Race 6 scheduled for next week Wednesday will not be flown as the pigeons needs at least a week or so off to recover and get them ready for the final stretch, once I am happy with their recovery and progress I will schedule race 6 which might then be a long distance race as we can come-back for the last middle distance race later the season. I will keep you all up to date as to when the next race will be and from which race point it will be flown.