Broken Hill to Horsham

The speed of leading pigeons flying from Broken Hill to Horsham on Saturday exceeded the expectations of most of the 16 Horsham Homing Club members involved in the race.

A prevailing west-north-west wind ranged from five to 24 kilometres-an-hour, along the airline distance flight path of 534 kilometres. The wind helped the leading mob.

Twelve club members had pigeons in this leading batch, from the 262 pigeons released.

Birds in the lead group had flown together, averaging about 1430 metres a minute, or 86 kilometres-an-hour, during the six-hour flight.

Kevin King had the leading pigeon, clocking in close to three minutes ahead of the next pigeon home.

This weekend, the club will race from Hillston, NSW, and from Currie on King Island. Broken Hill results: 1: Kevin King, in a flying time of sixhours, three minutes and three seconds at a velocity of 1449.87 metres a minute; 2: John Muszkieta, 6.05.59 or 1439.19; 3: Paul and Jayden Mcphee, 6.06.31 or 1436.21; 4: Mcphee family, 6.07.06 or 1,435.76.