Muszkieta champion

Horsham Racing Pigeon Club’s third and final weekend of racing from Wodonga saw a Breeders Plate for one-year-old pigeons and an open race for older and one-year-old entrants.

Separate releases occurred 40 minutes apart on Sunday. The first release, at 7am, was for the Breeders Plate and at 7.40am the second batch of 346 old and young pigeons was released for the flight back to 14 club members’ back-yard lofts.

For the third consecutive weekend, the later mob comprised older, more experienced race pigeons that clearly out-flew the younger batch by 80 minutes, averaging 72 kilometres an hour for the five hour 31 minute flight.

They arrived in Horsham 40 minutes ahead of the leading pigeons in the Breeders Plate, which averaged 59kmh despite the 40-minute later release.

John Muszkieta once again rose to the occasion with his leading pigeon in the open race, 3 minutes 20 seconds ahead of the second placed pigeon.

Muszkieta has won eight of the 18 races in the 2020 aggregate season.

He has won the 2020 club championship from John Aisbett in second place. The Mcphee family was successful in the Breeders Plate race and was third overall in the club aggregate for 2020. Results: First, John Muszkieta, averaged 1210.2 metres a minute, MM, over 5 hours, 31 mins, 5 secs for the 401-kilometre flight, winning by 3 minutes 20 seconds from second placed Dennis Smith’s leading pigeon which averaged 1198.21 MM. Third was Brian Watts’ leading pigeon, 3 minutes 52 seconds later at 1184.65 MM. Breeders Plate: 1st, The Mcphee family in 6 hrs 51 min and 48 secs averaging 979.63 MM; 2nd, Dennis Smith, 1 min 25 secs later at 976.27 MM; and 3rd Rob Nelson, 7 seconds later at 976.02 MM.