Features

The first Wild Atlantic Way One Loft Race has just finished in Dublin Ireland. Having visited the Sean Hunt and the lofts in June I was immediately impressed by what he, his team and family had managed to achieve in the first year of this race. The setup and location of the loft is second to non, set on top of a hill over looking Dublin. The views are spectacular. 

Having met Sean for the first time I had already read a lot about his birds and the great success they have had with racing. The evolution of them deciding to stage this race in their home country made sense and is something that you will see became a great success.

1187 birds in total were entered from a variety of countries.

Despite a couple of tough training tosses and hot spot races there were 524 that made it to the final race. 

You can see the final birds being basketed below.

Wild Atlantic Way Basketing

The final race location was to be from Valentia. A distance of 210 miles. The weather for the race day turned out to be good at the loft location with some south east winds coming in. 

You can see the full coverage of the final race below.

Wild Atlantic Way Final Race Day

The race turned out to be a tough one. Will only 30 birds back on the day. The winning bird was bred by Seamus Kinsella. A little blue bar hen, but size counts in these races and she proved what an amazing bird she was when she dropped 17 minutes before any other bird. 

It was a great day, over 300 people were there for the race and everyone enjoyed themselves. 

The presentation night location was packed to the rafters. Seamus and his partners were awarded to the first prize together with a whopping cheque for €50,000.

See the footage from the presentation night below:

Presentation Night

The Ace pigeon of the race was bred bt Herbie Thorpe at Proudstown lofts. The Sire is The Rocket Man, Ace Pigeon, an Original Danchaert Ronnie, Regional Ace Champion 2015, 2016, 2017 and winner of 9 x 1st, and now sire to another Ace pigeon. The Dam: Queen of Hearts, dam to 6 x 1st, contains all the DVB lines of 003, De Jan, 992, 40000, De 008, 871, Blauwe Leo, L Vale.

The Hotspot races winners were:
1st, Sean Donnelly
2nd, Paul Hughes
3rd, Paddy Tidd

Below is a highlight of the top 7 birds in the auction from the race finalists.

Auction Of the First 30 Birds

The auction of 31 birds was on the 19th August 2019 at the Sarsfeild RPC in Dublin.

Our RPI reporter Arron Ennis was there to cover the auction and show our viewers some of the birds prior to the auction.

See the live coverage of the auction below:

As you can see the auction was a great success with some excellent birds on offer (some bargains were to be had too). 

The individual sales of birds were: 

• Lot 1 - €2000.  
• Lot 2 - €2200. 
• Lot 3 - €1400. 
• Lot 4 - €200. 
• Lot 5 - €380. 
• Lot 6 - €650. 
•  Lot 7 - €320. 
• Lot 8 - €200.  
• Lot 9 - €380. 
• Lot 10 - €200. 
• Lot 11 - €100. 
• Lot 12 - €100. 
• Lot 13 - €2800.
•  Lot 14 - €400. 
• Lot 15 - €200. 
• Lot 16 - €420. 
• Lot 17 - €200. 
• Lot 18 - €200. 
• Lot 19 - €800. 
• Lot 20 - €460. 
• Lot 21 - €2200. 
• Lot 22 - €220. 
• Lot 23 - €340. 
• Lot 24 - €340. 
• Lot 25 - €260. 
• Lot 26 - €50. 
• Lot 27 - €100. 
• Lot 28 - €260.
• Lot 29 - €160.
• Lot 30 - €300.
• Lot 31 - €1100

The total was €19,940 making an average price of €643 per bird.

(NOTE: All prices are believed to be correct at time) of writing.)

So there we have it. An amazing first year of a great race. Next year promises to be even bigger and better and based on this year I can see it being very popular with flyers wanting to get in on this great race. 

You can see the official site of the race at wildatlanticwayolr.ie

The official Facebook page of the race is here. (Be sure to like their page so you can keep up to date with all the latest updates for 2020.)

I'm looking forward to next years race already!

Keep Flying!

Mark Lyford