2010 WESTERN OPEN
BY BRUCE NYKAMP
The inaugural Western Open took place on May 30, 2010 from Winnemucca, Nevada. 812 birds from 80 lofts were released at 6:50 a.m. Dusan Smetana was the driving force behind the Western Open. He started putting the race together a couple of years ago. It took a lot of effort by many people to make the race a success. It is our hope it will continue with more participants in the future and become the major event all pigeon flyers in the Western United States look forward to each old birds race season. It is a given that differing weather conditions, wind, varying distances and geography will play a big part in who wins in any given year. Such is pigeon racing. Congratulations to all section winners.
The overall winner of the 2010 Western Open is AU 07 LW 7116 , a blue pencil pied hen. She was bred and raced by Larry Whitney of Ammon, Idaho. She was on 12-14 day old eggs and flew 342 miles at 1675 ypm. Larry was attending church when she arrived. We did not expect the pigeons to arrive quite so early! Mother Nature provided a perfect race day for south- eastern Idaho. The bird raced under cool temps and a nice tail wind. 7116 had been racing very well all year. The week previous she placed 2nd from 370 miles 4 weeks earlier she was 2nd from 250 miles, both times arriving with the race winners. She is a Van Loon down from Campbell Strange’s champions. Her father was a double grandson of “Verona” and “Louisa” and her dam was bred by Ken Christopher off a son of National Ace “Senna” and a full sister to “Senna”. Larry has had several top flyers from this pair.
Now for a little background on Larry. He was raised in and was born pigeon-crazy. In fact, he kept a calendar he got from the local drug store in his school books and would pull it out during class and count down the days until spring, day dreaming about all the racing champions he would raise during the upcoming breeding season! I presume he did mostly did his day dreaming during his English/Grammar classes and now the author ended up writing this article! In the 50's and 60's many the local kids raised various types of animals. As luck would have it there was another pigeon-crazy kid living across the street named Ellis Pendleton. A few other kids around the area also kept pigeons, Dennis Watson, Holland Dredge and Kent Missledine. This group of friends all went on to be life-long pigeon racers. They had a great time catching barnies and selling them to local Chinese restaurants for 30 cents apiece and then purchasing their future key breeders for $2.50. Ellis, who has since passed, was a successful businessman and top competitor in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dennis Watson ended up in Oregon and has since retired and has continued racing competitively in Oregon. Holland is also a die-hard fancier and has been a great asset to the sport locally. Kent has retired and is very tough on race day as well. Raising and racing pigeons is a good activity for our youth. It builds friendships, teaches responsibility and keeps kids active and out of trouble. We need to get more youngsters involved in the sport.
Larry races old birds to the nest. He wants to fly widowhood in the future and is building a new loft for that program. He breeds in individual breeding pens to insure parentage. His favorite strain are the Van Loons. Especially the Campbell line from Kenny Christopher. He believes the ration for success is 60% loft position/handler and 40% pigeon/genetics. He enjoys the long distance races the most. He also believes we as pigeon fanciers get so competitive that we don’t help each other out. He also suggests every fancier rereads Steve Lawler’s article in the spring 2010 AU Update.. He thinks that Steve really had some great advice for all fanciers and address’ some of the problems hurting the sport. In closing Larry said “The most satisfying thing about the sport is helping others and then seeing them to succeed.”
The second place overall winner was Bruce Holmes of Ammon, Idaho. He is Larry’s neighbor, and good friend. Their lofts are very close and they watch for birds from a pickup on race day, they help each other out with training and care of the birds. Bruce’s 2nd place bird is AU 08 DM 8225 a blue check cock. He was bred by Bruce Nykamp and flown by Bruce Holmes. The sire of 8225 is an AU Registered champion bred by Jeff Sherwood of Utah, via Larry Christensen. He is Janssen-Hofkens based and has produced several race winners. The mother of 8225 is inbred to Ganus’ Nat. Ace “Hollywood” via Cajun lofts of Louisana. Bruce Holmes is fairly new to the sport but has proven to be a very good flyer.
The third place bird is AU 08 DM 8064 a blue bar cock.. He was bred and raced by Bruce Nykamp of Milo, Idaho. 8064 had been flying well, winning 1st from 370 miles a couple of weeks earlier. He and his mate were on 10-14 day old eggs. The sire to 8064 is a Vanhoutte cock from John Sampson and his mother is a Van Loon/Janssen down from Ken Christopher’s “Campbell” cock. Southeastern Idaho had perfect weather conditions, and as they say,“every dog has its day” and I guess it was our day! Keep ‘em flying!