Run and won Sunday, 150 pigeons set off from Lascelles on a 320 kilometre race across the Little Desert, Grampians National Park and volcanic plains of Western Victoria to start landing back in their lofts, in and around Warrnambool, that afternoon.
First-place pigeon #113 (owned for the day by Collins Books Warrnambool and sponsored by Warrnambool’s Glenyss65) arrived in a time of 1,145.51 metres/minute. Second-place pigeon #137 was owned and sponsored by Melbourne’s Gemma McLeod and third-place pigeon #78 was owned by Bamstone and sponsored by Bamstone’s Sammy Sanchez. Remarkably, all these birds were from the one loft, of Hexham’s Lachie and Sophie Kelly.
These race results shocked even the longest-serving members of the Warrnambool Racing Pigeon Club that had put up the 150 pigeons for the event. The Kellys are the club’s newest members and only joined a year ago. Not only did they take out 1st, 2nd and 3rd… 97 pigeons later, they took out the special 100th prize marking the club’s centenary.
An hour’s wrap-up of the race was streamed by South West Local News from the pigeon clubrooms on the night. Our SWH prostate cancer specialist nurse Bridget Hill was interviewed live about her role, our alarming local prostate cancer statistics, and what can be done to improve them. She was a fantastic speaker and did us proud. Then, four massive donations were made which led to the $115,000 appeal target being hit. Our Warrnambool and Woolsthorpe Auxiliaries each donated $10,000, Peter’s Project Foundation donated $30,000 and the Warrnambool Racing Pigeon Club donated the proceeds of the race: $25,650.
Thank you to all the SWH staff who sponsored and named pigeons (there were a lot of you J) and the businesses, clubs, individuals, families and media that also got behind this unique fundraiser. A special thanks to the event’s gold partner Beyond Bank, the Warrnambool Racing Pigeon Club and South West Local News.