Gareth Watkins'
MARATHON SERIES
FEATURING NICK HARVEY'S MUSGROVE ADDICTION
11th & 46th Open BBC Barcelona at 710 miles
This top class long distance racer was bred and raced by Nick Harvey of Taunton. Bred in 2010, she won 1st club Salisbury 57 miles as a young bird showing that she has a full set of gears and is not a one paced slogger by any means.
As a yearling she was put over the channel four times with races from Carentan, Messac, Poitiers and Marmande [474 miles]. The two year old stage of her racing career saw Addiction entered in three preparatory races from Carentan, Messac and Niort before having her first tilt at Barcelona at 710 miles where she homed fourth bird to the loft to take 9th section 46th Open BBC.
The 2013 season saw Addiction, now a well experienced three year old, winning 1st club in her first outing of the season in a race of just 31 miles. She was then given a second club race at 57 miles before crossing the channel with the BBC for a race from Messac and then on to Niort, again with the BBC. This proved to be a stern test for the entrants with many failing to return on the day of liberation. Addiction didn't home until the fifth day after liberation but didn't seem to have suffered any ill effects and so was packed off to the Catalan capital sitting two day old eggs, for her second tilt at Barcelona. She arrived home on a swelteringly hot Sunday afternoon to take 2nd section 11th Open and so maintained her record of being placed on the result in both her attempts at Barcelona - no mean feat.
Nick holding his blue cock, 2nd sect Barcelona 2012.
THE BREEDING OF A LONG DISTANCE PIGEON
The pedigree of this exceptional hen shows a very strong influence of the 800 mile strain developed by Jim Emerton of Holtby, near York. This family was a combination of bloodlines from Descamps Van Hasten [Stichelbaut] and Emiel Denys with a soupcon of Jim Donaldson's Scottish long distance family thrown into the melting pot for good measure.
SIRE OF MUSGROVE ADDICTION
GB 09 N 44454 bred for stock and purchased from Sid Barkel. His Sire was GB 03 N 06304 bred by Jim Emerton which was a son of Barcelona Dream, 13th Open Barcelona 879 miles [longest flying pigeon in the International race of 20,536 birds] and GB 99 N 01708 Grizzle Hen bred from Dark Enchantment [9th & 30th Sect K Pau 735 miles and flown Barcelona 879 miles] and a son of Jim Donaldson's foundation stock cock Circus Boy when he was paired to 1st Open SNFC Sartilly 605 miles. Dam of GB 09N44454 was Red Hen GB 99 N 01727 a daughter of Dark Enchantment when mated to another son of Circus Boy. This son of Circus Boy was bred from Circus Boy when he was mated to a daughter of the famous Dall Cock [bred by Dennis Dall] and Rennes Lass one of Jim Donaldson's top long distance racers.
So as you can see from the above, the sire of Musgrove Addiction is inbred to key Barcelona pigeons of Jim Emerton [at 879 miles] and Jim Donaldson's key marathon birds.
Circus Boy, sire of the Jim Donaldson loft. See text for his influence in the breeding of Musgrove Addiction.
Jim Donaldson's Rennes Lass, dam of 7 x 1st section winners and in the breeding of Musgrove Addiction
Jim Emerton's Barcelona Dream - see text
DAM OF MUSGROVE ADDICTION
GB 06 N 76993 Bred by Steve Wain from his No.1 stock pair which are pure Emertons. She is dam and grand dam of winners from 31 miles through to 710 miles. She is also a direct daughter of 1st sect NFC Nantes and 3 times Tarbes at 671 miles and contains all the very best of the original Emerton foundation pigeons such as Diabolos, Dark Expected, Mystical Queen etc.
It's clear from the above that Musgrove Addiction is absolutely "saturated" in the bloodlines and genes of a long line of top class long distance performers, so it would have been amazing if she herself didn't become a top class long distance racer.
Jim Emerton's long distance team
MANAGEMENT
The birds enjoy an open loft every day when racing with the cocks and hens having an open loft on alternate days to come and go as they please during the winter months. The birds have access to hoppers filled with Gem G10 pellets 365 days of the year and are fed in to appetite each evening on a commercial mixture marketed by Versele Laga. This varies with the seasons and during the early part of the old bird racing season they have Gerry Plus with additional Hormoform and peanuts. As the distance races approach this is replaced by Superstar Plus again with the addition of peanuts and Hormoform. During the moult they are fed in the same manner on Mutine Plus until the moult is complete and then a large proportion of barley is added to the evening “top up” feed.
The race birds are usually mated around 15th April and enjoy the obligatory open loft. Once sitting their first round of eggs, as they have been exercising well throughout the winter months, the race team are put straight into a 60-mile trainer followed by one inland race with the Combine and should then be ready for three short channel races. That's it - no further racing just a couple of 50-mile trainers and then off to Barcelona to race the 700 miles home to Taunton being liberated with 25,000+ birds entered from all over Western Europe.
Nick has learned that there is only one way to test a bird’s racing ability and that is to send it to the hardest races you can think of. Fanciers should have confidence in the fact that, if they have done their job in preparing the birds properly, and if the birds are of the right quality and bred for the job in hand, then you will get something. In 2011, Nick sent 18 yearlings to Marmande 474 miles, which was every yearling in his loft. Result: 10 on the day with 17 home in race time.
YOUNGSTERS
Nick classes every race from the first short inland race to the National races with the BICC and BBC as trainers for “the main event” Barcelona. He doesn’t take the shorter races - maybe 100 miles maximum - too seriously, although he always has a clock set. As yearlings they are usually sent to Marmande with the South Road Combine. However in 2012 he decided to send his complete team of yearlings to the Agen International with the BICC. The result showed that Nick clocked four of these relatively inexperienced yearlings to take 58th Open 12th West Section, 90th Open 13th Sec, 112th Open 16th Sec and 147th Open 27th Sec. Next stop for these yearlings in 2013 yes you’ve guessed it Barcelona all being well.
BLOODLINES
During a recent visit I handled a number of Nick’s stock and race birds and they were all without exception in excellent trim. The pick of the bunch for me was a dark chequer hen bred by Steve Wain from original Emerton stock. This hen has already produced prizewinners in International races with a number of different cocks including two yearlings on the result in the Agen International and two, two year olds on the result from Barcelona.
THE LOFTS
The lofts are set in an L-shape with the young bird loft forming the foot of the “L” and the stock and racing lofts forming the body of the “L”. All lofts have a deep litter of elephant grass which is dry and absorbent with no smell of pigeons noticeable. Nick is obviously not a cleanliness fanatic with the perches and boxes only being cleaned occasionally and the litter left untouched for months on end.
Nick has two aviaries. The first houses the Emerton stock birds some of which originate in the stock lofts of Booth & Shipley of York plus a pair sent over from Ireland bred from original Emerton stock. The second stock loft houses birds obtained from various other long distance sources such as Mick Parish, Des Coulter, British Barcelona Stud and a couple of cock birds from Paul Addicott’s top birds, including a cracking blue cock which is sure to breed top class long distance racers.
Nick Harvey's lofts
From the above, it should be clear yet again, that if you want to gain success at the extreme distance you must have the "tools for the job" i.e. pigeons bred from generations of pigeons that have survived the "acid test" of marathon races of over 650 miles.
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