One lofters.

2014 GHC Classic Race Ends in Infamy

The Gulf Coast Classic (GHC) shipped 2,614 pigeons from 107 lofts and were released without incident on Friday December 5 from Thomson, Georgia. Birds were released at 8am into overcast skies, 56 degrees with a Northeast wind at 2 mph. 2014 is the 25th consecutive year that the Gulf Coast Classic has been flown.

Fanciers back in the GHC were anxiously waiting the return of the birds when Oscar Betancourt (Oscar Loft) saw to his amazement his blue check hen, AU-14-JEDDS-5297 drop from the sky and clocked in at 14:40:43. ‘5297’ flew a distance of 335.601 miles in 6 hours and 40 minutes surely a winning speed! The next bird to hit was at Yoel Martinez’s loft (Black Hills) at 14:42:08. His bird, a blue bar hen, AU-14-GHC-86, bred by Oscar Betancourt flew a distance of 335.601 for a speed of 1471.795 ypm, a good one to be sure!

The excitement was electrifying as word got out that two birds were in town and clocked. That excitement turned to nervous anxiety to frustration and then to worry as no more birds were reported. This is unusual for the GHC, especially when you consider the level of competition that is concentrated in such a small area.

Bam! At 4:33, Randy Berkey clocked in with a blue check hen, AU-14-NB-25, at 16:33:26 flying a distance of 347.023 miles. He was one hour and twenty-nine minutes behind Oscar Loft and Black Hills, but still in the money! Both Oscar and Yeol fly 10 miles short of Randy’s loft. Then the birds started to pour in. The next loft to clock in in fourth place was De La Fe Loft at 16:20:32 with their blue bar hen, AU-14-SCHE-229, flying a distance of 335.950 with a speed of 1181.260 ypm.

As abruptly as the birds arrived they stopped. 51 birds were clocked on the first day out of 2,614 making this one of the toughest GHC Classic races in memory. Weather upon return was reported as 77 degrees, cloudy with varying wind conditions. That night, Champagne was being uncorked all across the club.

The next morning, Saturday December 6, Randall Berkey went into his loft early in the morning and to his horror discovered that his loft had been broken into and birds were missing. It became apparent that whoever broke in stole not only his number three GHC clock bird AU-14-NB-25, they also got away with many of his breeders. He called the police. (As of this post, none of the stolen birds have been found or recovered.)

Oscar and Yoel also discovered that they too had been victims of a break in. However the thief only took their GHC Classic clocked bird leaving their other race birds and breeders untouched. Its unclear if the police were called because of conflicting reports. But I’d have to assume that they were because two birds that had just won thousands were missing.

The Classic race committee was notified of the break-ins and theft and an emergency meeting was called to order. The GHC reserves the right to drug test any bird in the top 20 positions and usually tosses the first 5 birds clocked from 5 miles once the race officially is closed. It was decided that based upon the rules, that if a handler could not present his clocked birds for drug testing or tossing that they would be disqualified. This meant that Oscar, Yoel and Randall were disqualified and the fourth place bird flown by De La Fe would be declared the winner taking home $40,000 for 1st place.

Oh Dear this doesn't reflect very well on O.L.R doe it? foul play could be called on both cases here, it could be a staged break in to not get them tested, or an attempt to promote lower placed birds to win instead of the right full winners, either way bad.

Well, here's another.

To all the participants of the 2014 World Ace Challenge One Loft Race:

We are of the opinion that every participant in the World Ace Challenge Race (WAC) has been wronged by the race organizers. On the night of November 16th 2014 private investigators followed and never lost sight of the WAC pigeon trailer from the Thackerville, Oklahoma loft location, across the state line to Texas, until the release the next morning. It was represented that the 200 mile race would be released at the Texas Boundary at 7am CST. The private investigators have photos, video and other evidence that the WAC race birds were released in McKinney, Texas at Third Monday trade days approximately 38 miles from the Thackerville, OK loft and less than four miles from the organizers permanent residence. The video evidence shows the race birds being released in four (4) separate groups approximately ten (10) minutes apart starting at around 10:45am CST. This is just one example, with indisputable proof, that in our opinion the WAC race has miscommunicated, deceived and committed fraud.

With the factual information we have gathered we feel obligated to share this information with the sport. The FBI has been made aware of this situation and hopefully in the coming days we will know the direction they chose to pursue. We have been advised of our options and we will not offer legal advice and will not suggest a course action to any of the 2014 participants in the WAC race. We do intend to demand 100% of our entry money, shipping cost and perch fees returned for every bird we entered in the 2014 WAC race. We are, and will be, acting under the advice of our attorneys throughout this process. When advised by our legal counsel, we will release the information to the other 2014 WAC participants upon written request so they might choose their own path of recourse against the WAC organizers.

More information will follow.

Yours in the sport,

Danny Hutchins, Philip Robertson, Butch Shoop, C. L. Gage, Joe Nemelka and friends

Rudderfett wrote:

Oh Dear this doesn't reflect very well on O.L.R doe it? foul play could be called on both cases here, it could be a staged break in to not get them tested, or an attempt to promote lower placed birds to win instead of the right full winners, either way bad.

I don't think     ??? it reflect's very well on the sport in general Rudd Sad for the sport I would say & I suspect I'm if Hal hadn't told these sad tales, we more than likely would have still been in the dark .