Unusual results

Horsham Homing Club members had unusual results in 468-kilometre races from Hillston on Saturday.

The first race was the north-east line derby for older and yearling race pigeons and featured 15 members entering 318 birds.

Birds took off at 6.50am in favourable weather conditions on a south-west flight path to Horsham.

An eight to 12-kilometre south-easterly breeze for the first half of the flight through NSW suggested the potential of a relatively fast race.

Hopes were dashed when of the 318 birds released, only four were in the lead bunch arriving into Horsham at 1.55pm after a seven-hour, five-minute flight. The leaders had averaged 67kmh.

Considering the weather, members expected a much larger mob to reach their home region together. Possible explanations included multiple peregrine falcon attacks and-or a clash with race pigeons from another region.

In a second race from Hillston, 30 minutes later, a smaller mob competed in an annual Breeders Plate Race for first-year race pigeons. This smaller batch of young birds took eight hours and 45 minutes for the leading mob to arrive back to their Horsham lofts. They had averaged 54kmh.