Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present...
DOM & CLAIRE McCOY
OF GLADIATOR LOFTS IN ASHFORD
For me to start this article by saying that Dom & Claire McCoy’s ‘Gladiator Lofts’ had a good year racing in 2010 would be an under statement and as the season progressed the performances got even better and better. Dom’s young birds finished the season in fantastic style by winning 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Three Borders Federation (1,422 birds) Wincanton, 1st Three Borders Federation (836 birds) Exeter. Brilliant pigeon racing in one of the strongest Federations in the South of England! The two ‘Gladiator Lofts’ young bird Federation winners, which were both blue cocks, won other races in 2010 including ‘Gladiator Prince’, 1st Three Borders Federation Wincanton, plus 1st club Kingsdown and ‘Gladiator No Surprise’ 1st Three Borders Federation Exeter, plus 1st club Kingsdown. I recently spent a most enjoyable couple of hours in the company of Dom and Claire at their loft in Ashford and Dom showed me a string of premier performers, which included a young blue cock that I thought was outstanding, and he was ‘Gladiator Destroyer’, winner of 14th open L&SECC Guernsey (1,092 birds), 4th Three Borders Federation Wincanton (1,422 birds), 1st club Exeter. A really outstanding youngster!
Dom has nice smart, spacious lofts, which are guarded by several very un-friendly dogs. The main racing loft is 40ft long, set out in several sections with a corridor and all trapping is ETS. The most outstanding feature of the McCoy set up for me was the stock sections, which fill the back end of the garden and are set out with one family in each section. The breeding sections and the nest boxes were very big and well ventilated, and the inmates looked in ‘mint’ condition. The section housing the Van Loon pigeons, which were nearly all blue pigeons, was a sight to behold! I handled several of Dom’s top breeders including his champion mealy cock, ‘Gladiator Del Pierro’, which is the sire and grand sire of countless winner, and winner of 17 firsts racing him self. A fantastic pigeon! The young birds race to a 10ft loft, with ETS trapping.
When I asked Dom how he started up in the sport, he told me, ‘My life with pigeons began in 1965 when my father, Tommy, was racing at the time in partnership with my uncle flying as, G. Olive & T. McCoy and they were very successful flying both north and south road. I began by cleaning out the lofts and waiting for birds to come back from training. I won my first race at the grand age of 13 years old from Dorchester (110 miles), flying at our local club the ‘City Arms’ in Hammersmith, which was a member club of the West Middlesex Federation. Later on when I was in my teenage years pigeons took second place too me going out and having holidays and I never raced or kept pigeons myself after 1970, until my restart in 2005. My family, including my brothers and uncles have all raced pigeons all through the years and the McCoy family are all very heavy in to pigeons. In 2005 my wife, Claire, decided that I needed a hobby and my brother, Billy, who flies in the Richmond Flying Club as T. McCoy & Son, suggested I should get restarted with the pigeons. So there it was settled, Pigeons from that day have became my resurrected love’.
Dom purchased a new loft at the BHW Blackpool and some premier quality pigeons were obtained from his good friend Tom Roden of Hyde in Cheshire. These pigeons were Van Loon and the first batch of youngsters bred from these birds won for Dom and Claire the first year of racing. In 2006 they decided to move from their home in Chertsey and in 2007 they found their new property in Ashford, Middlesex, with the lofts being erected straight away, but racing took second place as the house needed total renovation. Around that time Dom had the good fortune to meet up with another great pigeon man, Mr. Colin Fleming of Southport, near Liverpool, and obtained some Jan Huybregts pigeons and again these birds did not disappoint, winning for ‘Gladiator Lofts’ straight away. Dom had a great new start with two new families of birds both producing winners. Between 2006 and 2010 they only raced a few races, but they were always in the results. In 2009, with the house almost finished, it was now the time to get going with the pigeons and give them their full concentration. This was when the new era ‘Gladiator lofts’ was formed and Dom told me, ‘the name ‘Gladiator’ reminded me of the Roman Gladiators fighting for their lives and what great warriors they were, just like my birds fighting to get home on the racing day!’
In 2009, having raced two thirds of the race programme they amassed numerous positions and Dom says ‘The Bug’ had returned, and it felt great racing the pigeons each week. The Van Loons from Tom Roden were winning pure and the Jan Huybregts from Colin Fleming were also winning pure, so that’s when Dominic decided to cross the two successful families. They won for him and almost everyone he gifted them too won out of turn, including: T. McCoy & Son, Martin Penfold & Son of Hersham, Mr. & Mrs. Mansell and even as far away as Scotland with Dom’s late friend, Mr. Jimmy Mullen, winning with them. Dom says all of these fanciers have won races and bred winners from pigeons that he has gifted to them. The year 2009 saw Dom read an article on the Van Loon pigeons and featured the fantastic partnership of Bolton & Williams of Bridlington who were having an entire clearance sale of their brilliant Van Loon pigeons. Dom was lucky enough to be one of the principle buyers at both of Bolton & Williams sales and after their first sale, he befriended Brian Bolton. At that time Brian Bolton told Dom that with the birds he had purchased he had a fantastic base stock of their Van Loon pigeons, but that did not stop him from buying more birds at the second sale in Blackpool. All of these Bolton & Williamson pigeons originated back to the Planet Brothers’ birds, the same bloodlines as Tom Roden’s birds, and at that time Dom had around 40 pairs of Van Loons at stock, 10 pairs of Jan Huybregts and around 20 pairs of a new family of sprint birds called Karel & Daniel Boeckx. These new birds were hand selected by Dominic and his good friend Martin Penfold from Karel’s loft and after waiting nearly two years for these birds, ‘Gladiator Lofts’ purchased a complete round of these fantastic, winning sprinters.
In 2010 season, racing for the first time all races, young bird and old bird, including racing in the Classic Club, Dom and Claire won approximately 12 times 1st, 14 times 2nd, 14 times 3rd, plus many other positions in the clubs and Federation. Dom told me that the highlight of the season for him and Claire was winning 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Federation from Wincanton in an east south east wind. That day there was 1,422 birds competing and they had eleven youngsters drop together and only clocked four to take the first four positions. Great pigeon flying! The next week Dom and Claire sent the same four birds to the London & South East Classic Club Guernsey race and recorded 14th open with ‘Gladiator Destroyer’. That same week end the remaining youngsters were sent with the Three Borders Federation Exeter race, when ‘Gladiator No Surprise’ won 1st Federation (836 birds). Dom tells me that his ace blue cock ‘No Surprise’ was in the batch of eleven youngsters that dropped in the garden from Wincanton when he took the first four in the Federation result! In the first London & South East Classic Club young bird race ‘Gladiator Lofts’ recorded 32nd open, with 1,455 birds taking part.
Dom told me none of his racing achievements could be obtained without the help and support of my good friends and family, including his wife, Claire the trainer, and his daughter, Lucy the spotter. He also says, thanks must also go to Tom Roden and Colin Fleming for letting him have some of their great birds.
That’s our ‘ON THE ROAD’ article for this week! Thanks to Dom and Claire for a really enjoyable loft visit there set up and pigeons were a credit to them.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.
