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(AUCTIONEER SPEAKING IN CHINESE)
"As far as you're concerned, this pigeon may be one of those
cooing nuisances that blights city streets,
but to thousands of people all over the world, he's a lot more."
With pigeon racing,
you have this little bird that has a brain the size of a pea.
You take 600km away from home - how does a pigeon know where home is?
It's a mystery.
"It's the sport of kings and queens, millionaires and movie stars,
of presidents and peasants.
That's the real attraction and the secret of the sport's popularity.
It's classless."
(BIRDS WHISTLING)
Wayno.
You're in... Yeah, you're in for the rest of the week, pal. Yeah.
You're in for the rest of the week.
Sweet, sweet.
Right, I'm flat out, so...
I'll let you go and I'll see you in there tomorrow.
John O'Brien.
I work for a company and I do deliveries, collections.
Fix this, break that. Whatever they want, it gets done.
One day it's mad and the next day it's not.
I just go with the flow, you know what I mean.
I'm always looking for a flow state.
I have two kids!
And 60 pigeons.
(SCRAPING SOUNDS)
A shaman guy that I know said to me that they were going to
the Hill of Tara to do a few mushrooms. I was, like, "Let's go."
We took the DMT first.
That was... crazy.
Leonardo da Vinci came to me as the Vitruvian Man.
Once I started looking up and finding out that he had pigeons,
there were so many connections that I had with Leonardo da Vinci.
It was like... It was like he told me that I'm on the right path now.
There is no wrong path, it's just the path that you're on.
I'll show you Big Balls.
He's an absolute beast to go.
His feathers are all perfect.
This fella has a belly like a baby's arse.
It's a nice pigeon. Nice and soft.
Most big towns will have a racing pigeon club.
The old typical pigeon fancier in the UK in the early days
was a cloth cap guy.
You train your pigeons to your own loft.
You take them down the road - 5, 10, 15 miles.
Then at the weekend, you take them to the club
and the club will basket them.
(JOHN) They say it's an old man's sport.
I'm very young in pigeons.
And hopefully I can win this year.
Anything is possible. Everything is possible.
(STAN) They get picked up on the transporter,
taken to the liberation point.
"Get ready! Ready! Pull!"
(PAUL) 80 miles from Dublin here.
Probably an hour and 10, an hour and 15 minutes.
Birds were liberated at 10:45.
Birds are out, buddy. Birds are out.
So when the pigeons land right here, we're in.
When you're throwing a knee, block your face.
So they don't see the knee coming. Look at my hands.
See? You didn't even see the knee coming.
Yeah, but I can't do it because I'm in a dress.
-Hello! -Oh yeah, sorry.
What's happening, bud?
How's the hair style going?
It has a bit of an Elvis look about it there now. See that?
It's their first race. Are they good enough?
That top cock, Big Balls, he should come home.
But we'll see.
Come on.
Where are yis?
Could be any minute.
The feeling you get when a bird comes in, the excitement.
I'm on a buzz out there.
I'd love for everyone to be into it the way I'm into it.
My hearts racing.
There's so much research into how does a pigeon know where home is.
By geomagnetic forces, by the position of the sun,
by the sound of the wind going through the loft.
Come on the boys. (Rattles)
(MICHAEL) There are so many theories
but nobody can say this is why.
There's a batch right there, look. There's the first batch.
That's into Mick.
There's pigeons coming everywhere now. There's batches there.
We're well out lads.
(WHISTLES)
Big Balls' son.
The problem is pigeon racing is old, from the old school.
We lost our youth to technology.
Our average age for our sport is probably in their 40s, 50s.
Mostly older.
Hey everybody.
First place, D & C McGuirk!
(LOUD CHEER)
-Over the bridge again. -Get up outta that!
At the current time,
there isn't a lot of youngsters coming into the sport.
A lot of clubs have fallen by the wayside
because of loss of membership.
This is the trouble. If you've got no youth, you've got no future.
That's where one loft racing has picked up.
(CROWD MURMURING)
There's lots to eat and drink here, isn't there.
Pigeon fanciers are attracted to the shows they have
all over Europe, all over the world.
They come to see what everybody is doing.
They come to say, "Hey, if I come to your race next year,
how does it work, how can I get my birds to you?"
Yeah, exciting.
My name is Sara Blackshaw
and I'm the MD of the South African Million Dollar Pigeon Race.
I'm very pleased to be with you today to meet you all
and explain what we do down in Africa.
In 1996, a colleague of mine rang me and he said,
"I have a client who wants to look at setting up a world pigeon race."
He's the pigeon whisperer.
We had a lovely lunch. We had a few bottles of wine as well.
And the Million Dollar was born.
Real name is Alexander.
Zandy, they call him Zandy. Zandy Meyer.
An excellent, intelligent person. You can't believe.
Zandy was one of the most famous pigeon fanciers
throughout the world.
And this race was his vision.
Take pigeons from all over the world, bring them into one loft.
One loft racing is a beautiful thing.
All the birds come to one central spot.
One guy's place. One guy does the training. One guy does the feeding.
One loft racing - you send your pigeons to the race.
They manage the pigeons, they train the pigeons.
They're all fed the same, trained the same. It's equal.
Where in a club race, you might have five miles longer than me
or ten miles shorter.
Allows everyone to sort of play fair.
It's easy to teach the birds if you know the way.
Each creature talks to you.
The birds that arrived here are a minimum, about a half year old.
We train them to land there on that ramp where the traps are.
And the first bird that runs in wins the race.
If you win here, or make it here, you can make it anywhere.
It sounds easy. You bring pigeons in, get them orientated,
train them and race them.
By training, you go out a little way
and then you let them go and they fly back to the loft.
(MAN CALLING OUT)
Treat them as athletes.
Race horses, greyhounds train every day.
That's how you build the muscle up on them.
So take a mile, two, three times.
And then five miles, and then you just keep going farther and farther
and they work their way out.
Pigeons, it has become my life.
We started on it in 1996. I was 20 years old at the time.
I am the race director.
You have clients right across the world.
You have to be available 18/19 hours a day.
Sara jokes of me that I send her emails at 3am
but that's what time I'm awake!
-You've got five in this one. -Yeah.
-You've got six in this one here. -Okay, mate.
I hope you've got a winner there.
Good, good, good. Come on.
I'm the UK race shipper and co-ordinator.
I've held that position from the first race way back 24 years ago.
I'm involved from the beginning.
Sara come here to my house and ask me if I want to do it.
I've known Sara basically since the race started.
A lot of people have a lot of respect for her.
She's a very shrewd business person, there's no doubt about it.
When you sit somebody down and say,
"We're gonna race for a million dollars", they go, "Are you stupid?"
There was nothing like it in the world.
The 1,000 dollars per pigeon, it's not cheap to enter.
When we set up the Million Dollar,
I don't think we made a penny for about 10 years.
But we got there.
Over 9,000 pigeons, 40 different countries.
It just grew and grew.
All this anticipation, there's this build up and build up and build up
and that atmosphere.
When that first pigeon is seen, you have 15,000 people go dead quiet.
You can hear people breathing.
#
(Cheering)
There's this eruption of euphoria.
They have won the greatest pigeon race in the world.
I thank God that we win the race.
It's incredible. To win a pigeon race is unbelievable.
Thank you. Thank you!
We're called the South African Million Dollar
but our prize money is well in excess of 1.5 million.
We don't want to change our name
to the 1.5 Million South African Dollar Race.
We'll just leave it at that.
We call it inflation!
That sense of accomplishment. We did it.
We changed the way pigeon racing works in the world.
(Cooing)
-This is my wife. -Hi.
Hi! Sara.
-Sara Blackshaw. -That's right yeah.
We're enjoying the race for 13 years now.
But we really do trust you. And you do a good job.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Zandy died in 2013, the middle of the race season.
A lot of people came to me and said, "Sara, what can we do?"
I said, "I was always the one that did everything
but look after the pigeons.
The pigeon side is really not me."
I'm your friend.
He was the one that everybody looked up to and respected.
We'd lost the leader.
She was thrown in the deep end with his passing
but she did pretty good.
I thought I was tall until I came to Holland!
-Thank you very much. -I don't participate.
That you very much indeed. See you soon now.
That's how we came forward from 2014 and over that hiccup,
that terrible hiccup of Zandy's death.
We have a great race. We're very proud of it.
I hope we don't come across as being arrogant.
We're still the number one race in the world.
Do you know anyone doing the Million Dollar Race?
-The Million Dollar? -Yeah.
I'm looking to get in on a syndicate or start one.
I don't know. Ask the members of the club and see.
-And we all jump on it? -Why not?
Can we put that put to the club?
Entering the club into the Million Dollar Race?
There's 47 members now?
41.
So between 40 people, you're looking at about 110 each.
It's a discussion anyway. See you later alright.
See you later.
They'll be boxing the head off each other next week over it!
But if you don't ask you don't get.
You definitely won't get if you don't ask
So, we'll see.
No pigeon club is sending pigeons to South Africa. Nobody.
We can be the first pigeon club, all of us coming together.
You look at the working-class people trying to keep pigeons.
It's very very hard for them to compete against
the rich pigeon men.
The thoughts of going to South Africa and having a team over there
with all the top lads, pigeon men from China and all over the world,
and just being a part of something like that.
You just don't know. Anything is possible.
A show of hands who's in favour of it.
Hello, Frank!
I'm thinking if you want to go for it,
take the four best pigeons between the lot of us.
This opportunity is not going to come along again.
We've just as much chance as anyone at the minute.
There's great pigeons in this club.
We can definitely find four solid pigeons
between all the fellas in here.
Racing against these Belgians, they're professionals.
Listen, I'll tell you there's professionals in this club.
There's great pigeons in this club.
Yeah but the pigeon men are shite! (Laughs)
Speak for yourself.
To tell you the truth, you haven't got a chance.
These are not amateurs like us playing around.
They're in a different league to us.
Ah yeah, they're having a moan. They're having a moan.
It is what it is. It's the way they are.
We're really against the odds.
It's like you getting into the ring with a professional boxer.
You might be a good old fighter
but he's going to knock the shit out of you.
12 years old, I asked my mom and dad
if I can start up with racing pigeons.
My father was totally against it. My mother she was all for it.
I'm always one of the fanciers that are on top of the list.
A lot of people know who we are.
We go to the race now and, not bragging, but it's like celebrities.
"There's Ganus!"
I feel like I'm the target.
We met in high school, our junior year.
It was in a business typing class.
He was the only boy in a class of probably 30 girls.
We started dating. "There's something you should know about me."
I'm thinking, "Is there a killer in the family a serial killer or what?"
And then he introduced me to the racing pigeons.
And as I walked down the aisle, the first thing out of my mouth was
"I just won the 400-mile combine" because we had a race this same day.
I've won hundreds of races. It's the greatest feeling in the world.
Brother!
Thank you! Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Everything I ever did in my life, I wanted to be the best.
There's nothing wrong with it. It's just something I was born with.
Winning the Million Dollar Race,
that definitely put the icing on the cake.
2016 South African Million Dollar Race First Place Winner.
One loft racing is the route for the future.
If there was no one loft racing I think the sport would dive.
This is the winner of the Million Dollar Race,
the most expensive bird that ever left Africa.
This one cost me 119,000.
For out of the last 9 years with the South African Million Dollar Race
I've bought eight of the winners out of nine.
That's how you stay on top.
You have to put the best with the best.
And the best are always winners.
This is Marvel. He won the Victoria Falls Final Race by 54 minutes.
One pigeon that everybody in the world are after are his children.
Not bragging, because I don't like to brag, but the prices I get
for babies are probably in the top 10 people in the world.
There's a lot of jealousy.
Jealousy is one of the biggest evils in the pigeon sport.
That's only a part of my trophies.
If I left them all here, the whole room would be full up.
If you race well, all the pigeon fanciers around are jealous.
When it's their time, they'll put the knife in your back.
That's the real truth.
It's a problem in our sport.
They're all sound until they start winning.
There's a lot of ego with men.
Don't start. Don't fucking start!
One minute they all love each other
and the next minute they're all killing each other.
We had a very big club.
I think I had about four years where I dominated.
In the end, the fanciers got so fed up, they signed a petition
to get me out of the club.
My own father and my brother-in-law also signed the petition
for me to get kicked out.
Today is a very important day.
300 people coming to my hunting property.
I've 80 pigeons for sale.
People are coming from around the world.
There are people from every state.
I am looking at couple of pigeons here.
But I also have my wife looking at one that she likes.
She just picked it because of the name.
But to be honest, she has as good a chance as anybody.
Everybody in this room thinks they know, but they don't know.
Because if they all knew, they would all be number 1.
5,400 dollar bid.
(AUCTIONEER TALKS QUICKLY)
600. 76-7.
8.
9,000 dollars. 9-9.
10,000!
11,000!
11-1-2.
11-4.
5! 5! 11-5!
11-4, in the room. 11-4.
I'm gonna sell that bird right here 11,400 dollars.
On buyer number 167.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Lot 5! Lot 5!
Last year I bred about 900 babies.
325 went to races and the rest of them I sold.
13-1, 13-1.
Sold right. 13,100 dollars.
Lot number 13. 13, this beauty. Sexy.
If I didn't have a wife, I'd but her.
If you were in the sport and tried to make a living winning races,
you probably wouldn't be successful.
Seller's in the room. 18,800 dollars.
You're big money is in breeding.
38,060 dollars.
I want 38-5.
Oh we're doing good. Give me a kiss.
Oh God.
Good auction today. I think we're going to push 350
which will be the highest auction ever in this country.
I can get top dollar for the birds that I sell but the reason for that
is because of my race results.
This is my pick to win the race.
It's got a good shot.
If you're serious in winning a race like the Million Dollar Race,
you have to go with an army.
A thousand dollars a pigeon, these birds have to fly
from 350 miles in 90-degreee weather.
Too many things can happen where that pigeon is not going to make it.
Yeah, this is good.
Yeah, I'll send 50 or 100 pigeons.
That's my idea - go with an army or stay home.
When somebody can say "I'm gonna send three pigeons to this race
and I'm gonna win it", they're just dreaming.
I've always thought that you come to a one loft race and you think you're
going to win it, you're going to get a nasty shock.
Work, pigeons, work, pigeons.
All his money goes on that.
I'd say, "Would you not get yourself a new pair of runners?
Or a new top?" "No, I have to get this for the pigeon."
Just leave him to it.
No one is actually coming up to me and saying, "It's fucking stupid."
Well, one or two have but the rest of them
are just talking under their breath about it.
There's enough lads in there that can spare 100 quid in a week.
Don't go to the pub tonight. Keep your money and put it into this.
Until them 20 spaces are filled, you won't get a smile on my face.
I need 20, minimum.
There needs to be a decision made.
-"Hello?" -Hello, Alan?
Hello, Mick? Joseph?
Frankie? Vincent McCann?
"How ya, what's the story?"
How ya getting on?
How are we for the Million Dollar? Are you in or what?
Have you any interest?
-I'll think about it. -Think about it.
-Eamonn? -I just don't wanna go into it.
I've Friday to get up as much money as I can.
If I don't get 20, it's not going ahead.
How about yourself? What do you think?
-No! -No, you're alright, yeah?
It definitely won't work if we don't try.
That's how it's definitely not gonna happen. If you don't do anything.
If you don't change, nothing changes.
What do you think, Paddy?
-Fair play if you want to go in. -Do you want to jump on it?
It depends on how many you get.
I need names so...
"I don't give a fuck. I'm just in it for the craic!"
Good man, exactly.
We're guaranteed one fella. Tick.
Name and number.
It'd be just great if a pigeon did come in.
All the naysayers would be silenced straight away.
Good man.
-Denis? -No. No. -You're going to abstain, yeah?
But you're in 100%?
"Yeah, yeah, I'm in 100%."
What's your issues, like? What would get you in?
Do you know what? You're a fucking legend.
That's the best decision. Don't be putting yourself out.
This is actually going better than I thought it was going to go.
I rang the right people you see!
Ray is in as well, aren't you, Ray?
This is what's called a gamble.
Yeah? Do you wanna gamble your money?
You can have 100 euro and spend it and get whatever you want with it.
-Alright, Eamo. -Are you going in?
Yeah, I'm in it?
When I win, I'll get the money.
If we win!
When we win I get the money.
Yeah, you're in it. Go on.
I need that on Friday, okay?
We're gonna pick out four birds between the lads.
There will be four birds found. Four good birds found.
Definitely.
Pull four of them out, Ray.
R & J Nolan.
Your pigeon Paddy Dandy.
Third pigeon - Jason Waldron.
Denis Desmond.
If you're putting in a youngster that you only got in the nest now,
you're wasting your time.
Have we got the bird? Let us see the bird.
It needs to be about eight weeks at the moment at least.
The Germans will have them five months old
before they go down there.
They're not known for giving their money away easily. The Germans.
They're going in three weeks.
So, the plot thickens major here.
Now.
In my club I'd be one of the better fliers.
But I wouldn't class myself as a top flier just yet.
But I'm getting there.
It's funny, when you're an average flier, everybody likes you.
When you become a good flier,
you're about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit.
Where are these special ones?
They're inside there.
I've picked the half Szegedin and the three quarters Szegedin.
I think we might have the luck of the Irish.
If we get into the final, there will be
a lot of last-minute tickets going to South Africa!
-They're pretty calm aren't they? -We're in with a shout.
-Alright. -Good man. -Cheers, John. Thank you. See you later.
How's Paddy anyway?
I'm alright, man, yeah.
This is the loft anyway.
-One of the lofts. -One of them. Nice and clean.
It's just the way things is. Some people spend their time in the pub.
I'd spend time out in the lofts.
The mother of this, three times top ten out of 30,000 pigeons.
We're giving ourselves the best of chances I think now.
Just as much chance as anybody.
Next time we see her, she'll be coming across the finish line.
First place. Good luck! Thanks.
I wasn't getting excited about winning.
Or coming anywhere.
The only thing I was getting excited about was being a part of it.
Now, after seeing them two, that's making me excited.
When the birds come to us, it's summer in Europe.
We train them from babies up to fully fledged warriors
to do a final race at the end of January of 600km.
(Loud fluttering)
There's no other race in the world that can compete with us.
It costs a lot of money but you can also win a lot of money.
So the pigeon fanciers all over the world want to win that race.
It was a little easier years ago.
But people see that the prize money is going up.
The last three or four years, it seems like everybody wants a winner.
Belgium is the Mecca of the pigeon sport.
People all over the world come here to buy pigeons because they believe
that the best pigeons in the world are in Belgium.
There's one of my favourite pigeons.
He and his sister won the first and the second prize on the day
that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle married.
So we call them Prince and Meghan.
We believe that he will become a super breeder.
He already has some children that performed very well.
This is a very special place.
This house is two parts.
One is a house where we lived.
The other part was where the pigeons lived.
-That is the prize winner? -Yeah.
Barcelona is the most important race at that time.
It was crazy. My grandfather won like the Olympic Games
and I was watching it from the first row.
The telephone didn't stop ringing.
People wanted to buy the pigeon.
From then on my interest in pigeons became more intense.
PIPA originally is founded in 2000 as a news website
about the pigeon sport.
Then I asked my father if he had a pigeon
that I could auction on internet.
I took a picture, put it on the website for a fixed price.
It was sold very quickly.
We did four pigeons, ten pigeons and that's how it started.
We were like the pioneers on the internet.
And there were big pigeon racers that said "don't sell with PIPA".
So, like, we really had to fight our way.
Every weekend we have auctions.
They see the picture of the eye and we describe how it handles.
They just trust that it's a beautiful pigeon.
"In 2009, Ludo Claessens was the Lionel Messi or Ronaldo
of the pigeon sport and he sold his entire colony.
It's like an artist and all his paintings would be sold.
Very rich and wealthy people at that moment in China
started buying pigeons on our website.
The Ludo Claessens auction, 900,000 euro for the whole colony.
That's crazy.
(AUCTIONEER IN CHINESE)
Nearly all the top pigeons now go to China.
China is crazy.
(AUCTIONEER IN CHINESE)
People see the success you can have. It's really fierce.
I think I bid up to 118,000 on a pigeon.
There was a Chinese guy that never put his card down. He just held it.
He just held it.
I figured he ain't gonna quit.
So I might as well get out.
People started to pay 300,000 and 400,000 and it's insane.
Then Armando came.
VOICEOVER: "Armando is Belgium's greatest long-distance bird ever."
"Have you ever seen a pigeon worth more than a million dollars?
Well, you're going to."
"The high price was as a result of a bidding war.
The most expensive bird ever sold."
"Why on earth would someone pay 1.4 million dollars for a pigeon?"
"It's been described as the Lewis Hamilton of the skies.
I love the description."
You couldn't predict that this would happen.
From Armando on, newspapers like the Wall Street Journal,
they started to approach us.
Then you really think, "Wow, it's for real."
Never so many new registrations on our website.
The sport is getting more and more professional
and more and more worldwide.
In the Hoosier Classic, this year I believe we have over 700 breeders.
(Whistle)
The prizes are gonna keep going higher.
The first place prize is 250,000. The second place is 100,000.
No, I got it.
You didn't do anything wrong.
Everybody, in America you can laugh at the fat guy.
Big pay outs. Prize money brings in younger people to the sport.
You're getting richer people.
People that say, "Hey, this is now getting interesting."
I had a young guy here that wanted to become
a professional pigeon racer.
I want to also breed my own Armando.
In the pigeon world, things are going mad.
Sometimes things are getting so crazy
that people don't believe it anymore.
It's horrendous, it's crazy how the market is going.
It's that 1% that can afford that kind of money.
You've got to remember, we're only working men.
We're not millionaires.
The think, what is the best that could happen
with these kind of sales?
It brings us small pigeon fanciers.
Otherwise the sport is dying.
Too much money orientated.
I think that's not the way pigeon sport was meant to be.
The prices were actually crazy.
Crazy prices.
It's like the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
I can imagine that some people have their own opinion.
But that's not my opinion.
From England a message.
They send me always many messages from sick pigeons.
Young birds maybe from the one loft.
And there we see the problems.
There's the eyes.
So now I need to find out what is the problem.
That's my job.
Sometimes when you are travelling a lot and sitting in planes
and they say, "What are you doing?" I say "I'm a vet."
"What kind of field?" "Racing pigeons."
Then they look at you and they say "Poor boy",
that you more or less don't succeed.
I said, "Well, we treat pigeons from 200,000, 300,000, half a million."
It's very nice. Really very nice.
But you know the problem. These pigeons are sick.
You need to give the birds three times 10ml.
Yes.
This one has a tumour.
The owner call me and says "Can you save my best bird?"
We try to save his life.
Night and day, I'm with pigeons.
People call me from all over the world.
There's a guy from Israel.
With problems with pigeons.
My father, within ten questions,
he knows what the problem with a pigeon is.
What he loves to do is making pigeons better.
This one had...
Sorry, sorry.
I started my career in 1972.
Especially in the last ten years, we grew tremendously.
Especially in the new countries like China.
No, no, no, no. This is the only way to save the pigeon.
Listen to me. Vaccinate, vaccinate.
If you don't vaccinate then you lose them all.
All the money in the pigeon sport,
I could never have imagined this ten years ago.
Good girl.
Recover well. Take care.
Be good.
For normal people who are outside the sport, they say
"Everybody is crazy. How can you pay so much money for an animal
that can drop dead at anytime and can get sick at anytime.
How is that possible?"
I think that is a very normal perspective.
A one loft race, people go there
and they think they're going to get rich.
They want to get away from life.
But they're gonna to lose more than they're going to win.
At the end of the day,
it's basically just going to the casino and rolling the dice.
Right lads, I have a bit of an announcement
about the South African Million Dollar.
This is the email that I sent them.
Hi my name is John O'Brien.
Could you please tell me how many pigeons you received from us
into the loft in South Africa?
This is what he sent back.
"According to my records, we received four pigeons,
three of which died in quarantine."
It's just shocking that three of them are dead.
I haven't got any information off them,
only the fact that there's one left.
And I don't know if this is true, but what I heard was that over
3,000 of the 6,000 birds that were in it altogether are gone.
There's something going on with them.
We weren't told. Nobody rang us.
Never, ever heard of that in my life. So many pigeons dying.
So that's our race you might as well say over.
-When did they die? -A couple of weeks ago.
It'd put you off racing.
Them races anyway.
I almost wish we never went into the fucking thing.
But I tell you what, it doesn't bode well for them.
Welcome everybody.
Thank you for coming
to the 2020 South African Million Dollar Pigeon Race. Cheers!
I'm not sure that everybody knows the difficulties in pigeon racing.
First off, thank you that you are coming to help us.
We will start with two lines first.
The problem with any one loft race is disease
because you're getting pigeons from 40 different countries.
We aim to get the birds to the race
who are able to do the race distance.
What's the problem?
People don't take the time to vaccinate them
and do the proper things.
So you get all these pigeons.
It's like when you went to school.
Thierry's got the chicken pox, the other one's got the mumps.
Kids got snotty noses.
You have ten birds. Two to three will be perfect
and the rest forget about it.
They're just not capable of doing this kind of thing.
We lost about 1,400 birds from about 6,500.
You're gonna lose some, but to lose over a thousand pigeons
is an unfortunate situation.
It should never have gone that far.
They really made a misjudgement in my opinion.
They should have called me.
The disease is paramyxo.
Pigeon paramyxovirus number one.
If you find out you got it, immediately you revaccinate.
We tested pigeons here. Some of them recovered completely.
Why you don't give phone call and ask. I've done it many times.
You can save lots and lots of pigeons.
You know what I'm seeing - big prize money, big names.
I'm not getting a millionaire's number one athlete.
The fanciers need to have the right pigeons. It's difficult.
Now you have five multi-million dollar one loft races
around the world.
We have been there for 25 years.
None of the others have.
Copying is the greatest form of flattery at the end of the day.
This is the major problem.
If they don't win in the Million Dollar,
I'll have a go in the one in Thailand.
It's like the mouse and the cheese.
You're constantly thinking how to reinvent yourself.
To those of you who are our loyal guests, welcome back.
You're now going to experience race day 2020. Come on over to the boss!
The race programme showed it as 535k.
That's usually a good steady race.
This year has been special, bringing our pigeons up to a top condition.
Measure it quickly. Measure. Let me have a look quickly.
I'll measure distance.
We've had six weeks longer for the training programme which is why
we're going back to our old distances that we used to do.
600k's.
Tomorrow morning, I'll take the truck and then liberate the birds.
Perfect.
The Tuesday before the race,
I got a SMS to say we're changing the distance.
I did not agree with it.
We had words about it and was told it's not my decision.
One of the initial objects of the Million Dollar was that it was
the best race in the world and the longest race in the world.
You used to race 600k.
They were only getting, like, four pigeons on the day.
The prize presentation would go in and there were no winners there.
You need to have a pigeon home somewhere
between 2:30 and four o'clock.
Our rule is the birds have to fly eight to nine hours.
That's what we want to have.
I brought it down to 535k, which is absolutely ideal.
I would suggest we would put a distance of 550, not 600.
If we don't get pigeons in, the race can't continue.
You can agree not to agree, you can agree to disagree.
But we are the most difficult race in the world.
It should be challenging.
We've already got problem with the animal rights people anyway.
We're just playing into their hands.
They're looking for more and more excuses to close this race down.
Because it's the biggest and if they can close you down,
they can close them all down.
With it gotten a bit longer now,
what is the time on wing that they will usually spend?
Probably seven, eight hours. Six hours maybe.
It's gonna be an absolutely amazing time.
Here's to the birds. I think it's going to be very exciting tomorrow
to see what happens.
The pigeons were up at 6:05. Head wind nearly all the way.
Getting up to up to 34 degrees.
I think it's going to be a very testing day.
Now we can only wait and see.
Once again, the South African Million Dollar Pigeon Race
is entering another year in its 24 year history.
So far so good. It's a great day for racing, no cause for concern.
And long may that continue.
We're looking forward to it.
All of a sudden, out of the blue sky a bird comes.
That's it.
That little bird finds a way
and wins against thousands of other birds.
That's something that makes me very excited all the time.
And if I lost that feeling, I'd stop it.
Until now I got it.
I'm very sure that the birds make it today.
There's a lot of controversy at the moment about the extra distance.
There's cause for a bit of concern.
We can't step back is someone says,
"Oh it's too tough for me and my bird."
People at the lofts are confident that the pigeons will come.
So I believe in them.
Hic Rhodes, hic salta.
Here you have to dance.
Otherwise you can talk, talk, talk. You must bring birds in.
Then we see.
"It's the first of February 2020, and you're with us here
at the Olympic Games in the pigeon world.
But what's the weather like?
We're currently 32 degrees at the Loft here
and it's quite hot for 12:22 in the day.
32 degrees Celsius.
Worse still, it's 34.5 inside.
This is worrying to me.
200k's away and it's showing 39 degrees Celsius.
So, I'm hoping it's somebody who hasn't calibrated
their weather station properly.
We always have guys who think we are brilliant
and people who think we are idiots.
Everybody liking you is just as bad as everybody hating you.
But this year there's a nice balance.
Four o'clock in the afternoon, and I expect the birds in one hour.
We liberated the birds at six o'clock.
There's a fair chance they arrive here on the day.
The pigeons are flying now ten hours.
It's hard for any pigeon to keep going. It's getting tough now.
The heat, the wind, the mileage, all against them.
Forecasting weather, they try and make it out to be an exact science.
Over the Free State, it changes hourly.
There are thunder storms on the way.
Obviously everybody is tense.
They're will probably be only 20 birds in tonight.
They reckon we'll get a pigeon today.
Not gonna happen.
You find it in pigeon fanciers, always.
Too short, too long.
Too early, too late.
If we get a pigeon today, it's a flipping good pigeon.
"And as you can see, look at that. We have got the first bird home.
And the winner for 2020.
Stuck that one.
Let's see if there's anymore going to be coming through.
Congratulations."
It's very disappointing it is. It's really a shame.
You can feel the atmosphere in the hall dropping.
I think the pigeons probably weren't ready to fly 600km.
They'll come home eventually but they've already gone down.
There's no pigeons that have been flying for 12 and a half hours.
It would be nice to hear what the loft managers would say now.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
It's dark.
Congratulations to the three gallant pigeons.
We've got three pigeons home so we've got a first, second and third.
-It's been a tough race. -Really hard race.
Yeah.
The birds are blocked by a thunderstorm over there.
That's pigeon racing.
What can you do?
There's a chance that they sit and come tomorrow morning.
You will see.
Yeah.
I'm not disappointed. Why?
Let's wait for tomorrow.
For the good ones.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
I don't have ten minutes. I have to be out there.
I've been waiting 15 minutes to get served.
So we're gonna go.
We're gonna go but let it be known that you screwed up.
Well, it's been a hot day. Everyone cooled down a little bit?
Good evening to you, ladies and gentlemen,
and welcome to tonight's celebration dinner.
As usual, we always then go on to the awards for this evening,
and report backs to you.
And we call on the boss herself.
Good evening everybody.
Em, obviously today was not what we would have wanted
in a perfect world.
Em, that having been said I think we need to give you an explanation
as to why we did what we did.
Anyway, em,...
I think I'm gonna have a glass of water.
So, to create this wonderful race, we used the, the, the, the...
the, em, we've em...
I've got such a bad voice.
In order to prove we were better than the rest,
we went to long distances.
It was me that took the decision, in consultation with my trainers,
in consultation with people I respect
within the South African pigeon community,
obviously Michael who is my race director, an amazing guy.
Yeah, it is what it is.
In third place, Gerard Koopman, Netherlands.
I'm not sure we've got any of the entrants here.
Does anybody want to come up or shall I just ship it to him?
Then in second place, the Beko Loft from the USA.
And first place from Slovenia, Team Barbara.
(Scattered applause)
Do I need to say anything else or can we disappear?
Okay?
(WHISTLES BLOWING)
Yeah, we got them. They came pretty fast today.
The birds were conditioned and really cool weather.
Today the first day they had to fly in the heat.
They had to bust their ass today.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
I beat him again.
That's the news.
That's the news!
That's old news, but it's news.
We needed that Million Dollar Race.
We've sent to it pretty much every year.
It was kind of a prestigious kind of a race for the whole world.
It's a shame that what's happened happened.
You're trusting people not only with your birds, but with your money.
You know how people are about their money.
They're pretty touchy about that stuff. Yeah!
The Million Dollar Race for 24 years was the biggest in the world.
But it's not turned out like we thought it would.
Alright buddy.
They've not answered any of the questions
about the prize money and the bill money.
How are you? Where's the beard gone?
You hear about that, didn't you?
So the race went ahead and the winners got nothing.
Sean Hunt - 42 grand he's owed still.
I was talking to him last week. He still didn't get it.
We're owed 65,000 dollars. Yeah. It's very sad.
I don't know where the funds are at, that everybody paid her.
A thousand pound a pigeon, 4,000 pigeons, four million pound.
They have a nice chunk of change of my money,
whatever has been done with, I don't know.
Why they didn't pay out, I don't know.
I know I'm one of the people that didn't get paid.
I don't think there's been a report gone on the Million Dollar website
for three months now.
They have speculations where they think she's at
and what was happening. I don't know.
I don't even know if there's going to be another race
judging from what's going on.
She'll meet a pigeon fancier again some day.
They're all gangsters in pigeons.
Especially the ones that go into that.
Where's all the money?
Where has it gone?
She's the only one that knows
and that's the only place that we'll hear anything.
At the end of the day it's only money but it was our money.
I'd never enter it again. Lesson learned.
That's pigeons though.
It's the whole sport, there's so much mad shit.
I just think it's hilarious. It's the best thing ever.
It's all meant to be - all the good and the bad.
All just comes together.
Now I'm going to Thailand.
(WHISTLING)
No offence to anyone in South Africa, but fuck South Africa!
I'm going to Thailand.
The Thailand dream is much better and the fact that its women only
working in the loft, that's brilliant.
A little bit sexist, but eh...
It is a little bit sexist though.
What do you mean they handle the pigeons better?
Because I'll be moving out of this house,
I have to get rid of the pigeons. They have to go.
To keep your pigeons in your gaff, you kind of have to own the house.
I own this house but because of relationship breakdown or whatever,
I don't wanna go too far into it, but they just can't stay here
because I'm not gonna be here. Simple as that.
Robyn, when you're ready, babe, yeah?
Robyn is my pigeon protégée.
So, we have to pick five pigeons out for Thailand.
Which one do you like the look of the most?
It's so hard to choose and there's no mistakes really. Just pick one.
I haven't had enough time with them
but there's as good as they're gonna get and they're going.
If my pigeon came first, sort the family out, have me kids paid
through whatever school they need to be paid through.
That's the five.
Come on.
Pay me debts off. Just a clean sheet.
Dad! What are you doing?
This is my pride and joy.
As you can see, her name is Mona Lisa.
I have many children of her still in the loft.
Probably won 300-400 first prizes off her children and grandchildren.
It's remarkable.
The whole world knows of this hen.
It's like losing a family member.
It was one of the hardest days of our life. I think of her all time.
She was so special that I had her fully mounted.
And she'll be here for the rest of my life.
The downfall of the Million Dollar
has been beneficial to other one loft races.
This whole loft here are going to Pattaya, Thailand.
It's a tough race but one you have to try to win.
The Pattaya One Loft Race is maybe the biggest one loft race
in the world one day.
It's still too early to say.
(UPBEAT SONG IN THAI)
Let's do dough!
Come on the fucking pigeons!
Every fucking gram of it.
I buzz off dough.
I love dough. I love it.
I enjoy going to work every day.
They go, "I need you to make four batches!"
I'm like "So there's nothing else but dough getting made?"
"Yeah." I'm like "Yes!"
And you can fuck it up. That's what I love about this.
You can fuck it up easy.
If it's not exact, down to the gram. That will do ya.
I make dough making dough.
There's never enough dough. Or dough!
I'm going for the win. I'm not going for second place.
I get so nervous the day of the final race.
I mean, second place, it ain't like first.
#(Drum beats)
The Thais are mad, aren't they?
#
Nerve-wracking.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. No!
Just a bird flying past the camera!
There's other birds in Thailand as well. Fuck!
Me nerves are gone, man!
Hold on a minute!
That looks like an Irish pigeon.
Who is it? Who is it?
Brockamp. A German pigeon won it. A European pigeon won it.
Come on!
They pay to 256th place.
It's not about the money.
But it is. Because I'm broke.
Shit! Dough!
Look at that dough though. Look at the fucking ripples in that.
Come on. What do you want?
Here's a big group of them now.
Come on!
Mike Ganus, 56th place. First Ganus pigeon there now.
Come on, get some more.
He sent about 100 pigeons.
Thought you were the best.
This drives you crazy.
They're dropping in now quickly, fairly sharpish.
Come on Team Warrior!
But you know what - what's meant to be will be?
If I get one back, I get one back.
Pigeons are dropping in now, bro.
That's it. Done and dusted. 256 and we're out of the money.
I didn't win anything anyway, but it was good to be a part of.
That's that over and done with.
It was a great buzz, man, wasn't it? Good craic.
Okay, em, em, em. The yeast.
Where am I? 598th! That will do.
And it was my pigeon that I bred!
Get up!
Lovely! Even though it's fucking 600th place, 598th!
I'm happy out.
Considering being on a budget, being a common man,
working me fucking arse off, you know.
Delighted with that now. Lovely.
"Covid-19 has posed some challenges to the equity partners
in the South African Million Dollar Pigeon Race.
And they are committed to finding a solution."
We are in the months afterwards now
and everybody is still waiting for their payments to come through.
We were told there's a financial issue
but there's a new partner coming on board.
There won't be any problems so carry on as normal.
All the information I got, it was all lies.
And it was becoming more obvious that the investor
was not coming on board.
The phone was off and the email address was also off.
We tried. There have been several lawsuits.
No one has been able to achieve anything out of it.
Those that ran the race didn't run the money.
What the entrants need to realise is that we didn't get paid either.
We didn't have money for the diesel.
We had to pay out of our pocket the diesel
because we had to train the birds. It was a disaster.
We used to pay the local accounts that had to be paid
for the pigeon race and get paid back.
During that time, I invested basically
20 years of savings into the event.
I got told there's been a freeze on payments.
We lost everything.
The staff, when you work with them for 20 odd years,
they become your family.
The loft workers, that money was being paid to them to feed families.
I can't afford to pay you anymore.
(Voice breaks) I couldn't do it anymore.
For a good two-thirds of my life,
this is what I've done. This is who I am.
You wake up and the race isn't there anymore.
It was death.
The only thing that counts are the results.
There is a lot of pressure on you.
Everybody expects us to do well.
For us not to do well, it wouldn't look too good.
People look at that sheet and if your name ain't on top
and you're supposed to do good, they get you. They're kind of ruthless.
They'll make fun of you. They'll do all kinds of things.
I guarantee you I'm coming back a lot harder and stronger next year.
Let's hope for the best.
It never stops.
At the minute, my long-term relationship is breaking down.
It is what it is. I have to accept it and move forward.
I love the club.
It's actually a little bit... I don't want to get too emotional
because I'm going to have to step away for a few years.
Here's one of my first wins on the wall.
There we are there - O'Brien and Meredith.
Look at the big beard on me. Look at the chin on that thing.
Pigeon did three hours and 37 minutes from Penzance.
I got that for it.
There's a lot of good pigeons in this club.
I love this club. It's a great club.
But because of the circumstances,
I have to do the right thing and get out of it for a while.
It's sad but I'll get there. I'll be back.
It was hard letting them go but it had to be done. I had to do it.
There's no point in holding on.
It's all meant to be.
I'm not gonna sit here and go "Poor me, my poor pigeons."
This is where I'm at.
Let's move forward.
I had great fun with the pigeons the last two years.
But I need to set my life up again.
As soon as I get settled and I have somewhere to live,
you'll have two houses you can stay in whenever you want.
You know, I'll have a pigeon loft there as well, probably.
Just try and stay positive and believe in change
and believe in progress.
That's what we do. Same with the pigeons.
We got better and better every single year.
-Can I have a hug, buddy, off you. -Yeah.
Good lad.
VOICEOVER: "Though this story got our attention.
Check out this particularly special pigeon at auction.
Meet New Kim. The two-million dollar bird."
I wanted to win, like everybody.
I'd be lying if I didn't say I got sucked into that as well.
"Two bidders in China battled over the bird
and drove up the final price..." (Cheering and applause)
"The final bid left the previous record Armando well behind."
That's just ridiculous carry on.
There's people starving in the world.
Two million for a pigeon. Relax mate. It's a pigeon.