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The dam of this history maker for being the 1st Million Dollar UK winning bird was what Brian describes as his best ever racing pigeon, named ‘Rachel’ after his daughter. One look at her racing CV, its easy to see why the Clayburn’s rate her so highly. As a young bird she injured herself in training, so had no racing but only trained up to 30 or so miles, but Brian wanted to keep only proven birds, so with no Inland racing she was sent to Picauville. Which Brian admitted was really unfair but she shot home to win 2nd Federation against 677 birds with a velocity of 1685ypm. Proving herself worthy of a perch. As a yearling racing with the Midlands National FC, she won 21st Section, 345th Open against 8,786 birds at 332 miles from Falaise and then won 36th Section, 119th Open from Le Ferte Bernard beating over 6,500 birds.
When she was two years old, she won 75th Open MNFC from Falaise and the following year won 1st Section, 12th Open from 789 birds, then 8th Section, 22nd Open against 730 pigeons. The following year, ‘Rachel’ as a four year old was prepared for the National Flying Club’s 367 miles race flown from Fourges when she didn’t disappoint, winning 1st Lancashire & Yorkshire 4Bird, 167 birds, 1st 700 Mile Club, 298 birds and 2nd Section, 7th Open NFC from a field of 6,726 birds. In her racing career ‘Rachel’ won nearly £5,000, a real champion racing pigeon. ‘Rachel’s’ breeding is Soontjen x Van Loon. While ‘King William’, he mate and sire of ‘East of Eden’ is of predominately Soontjen bloodlines also.
My next question to Brian was how do you select your entries for the Sun City Million Dollar race, bearing in mind that Brian and Mavis have previously been successful in other Sun City Hot Spot races also. With candid honesty, Brian said, “Yes in 2008, we flew very well in the Hot Spot races, but we were disappointed in the final 332 mile race. So for 2009 we sent birds which we felt would be capable of succeeding at the final event because that was the race we wanted to win – the big one”. I pressed Brian a little further and he explained, “We sent only pigeons off birds which are capable of winning races at low velocities as we noticed that most Sun City final races are won with a 1000-1400ypm velocity.” Mavis added, “If it had been a blow home we would not have been any good. It had to be a hard race for our birds”. How right they were when ‘East of Eden’ their game blue cock won 1st Sun City and $209,000.
Pieter Oberholster, who is a UK agent for the race, asked Brian a few questions relating to the Sun City race and who better to interview than the winner. Pieter asked when was ‘East of Eden’ bred? and Brian’s answer was early February, three months before shipping. Brian explained, we selected three pairs on their pedigree and racing criteria, ie ability to win at low velocities as previously explained. The resulting youngsters were then kept in an aviary until the shipping date.
Pieter enquired, “Did you fly these birds out during this period as many people seem to do?” “No they never went out of the aviary” was Brian’s reply. “They were given a weekly bath and vaccinated against paramyxo and that was it,” continued Brian. “How were they fed?” Piet asked, “The same mixture that I have used for years which is two parts peas, two parts red dari, one part wheat and one part P40 pellets, which are expensive but I like and as they grow I put a pot in the box to which I put peas so the birds learn to eat peas early in life as I don’t like them picking only the little seeds as they don’t develop properly this way” was Brian’s reply. “I also use three products with this mix which are from Norban. These products are added to the corn which has been moistened with either Greek natural yogurt for five days per week or virgin olive oil for the other two days.”
I found out from Norban that the products which Brian calls the brown and white powders and the herb mix were Bio-mate which is a probiotic product and the brown powder is called bio-enhance, which is a prebiotic and that the herb mix is a product which Norban call ‘awesome’. This I was told is an excellent health giving additive which also contains herbs which have anti canker and coccidiosis properties. Brian confided that these are excellent products which he has used since they were first made available to him. I believe that Brian is one of Norban’s ‘test teams’, that's why Brian refers to them only as the white and brown powders.
I asked Brian how many birds do the partners race and was told 27 Widowhood cocks and 18 pairs of Roundabout pigeons. This is considered necessary to cope with the long distance programmes of several big organisations including the Midlands National Flying Club and the NFC.
I was very interested to be told that the Sun City race win was not the couples first taste of victory in International one loft racing as in 2007 one of their birds won 1st UK, 3rd Open in a race organised by the FCI in Belgium which, if I could read the writing on the trophy correctly, was 13th time that this race had taken place. So in view of the fact that Brian and Mavis had won the 13th Sun City Million Dollar race, that 13 is a very lucky number for the partners, although I know that they will be going flat out for victory in the 14th holding of these prestigious races as places have been booked for both events for 2010.
The FCI winner was in fact of very similar breeding to their Sun City champion. Being from a chequer cock called ‘My Mate’ and a blue pied hen named ‘Sheba’. ‘My Mate’ is a very prolific producer.
It was a real delight for me to visit Brian & Mavis Clayburn along with Pieter and his father in-law, Nev Proctor, who is also a previous winner of a Sun City Gold Medal for finishing in 9th place a couple of years ago. When I went to the 2009 race in Sun City, little did I ever imagine that later I would be visiting Ackworth in West Yorkshire to visit the owners and breeders of the winning bird. This victory has since showered Brian and Mavis in fame and glory along with their National and International successes.
Mike Lakin’s Sun City write up PART 3