Kings Cup Success for Tommy Moorehouse

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Kings Cup Success for Tommy Moorehouse

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'House’ hold Name Wins INFC Kings Cup

For many, many years now the Fanciers in the North of Ireland have enjoyed unprecedented levels of publicity every week in both of the main pigeon related publications namely the BHW and Racing Pigeon with ardent scribes including Ronnie Johnston, Clifford Browne and of course my father Willie Reynolds not forgetting the many more who have lifted the pen over the years some lasting longer than others, without any doubt fanciers from the North have been well looked after with excellent levels of coverage. It is obviously through all of the sustained publicity that many of the weekly readers would have come across the excellent racing achievements of many of Northern Ireland’s Elite, something I am not going to do is name names as I am sure to offend someone not included, but I am sure you know the ones that I am talking about winning weekly, consistently, as well as scoring in the big National events, of course over these years many super records have been set in Northern Ireland by a selected band of ace fanciers who have accomplished probably records that will maybe never be matched or over-taken. For instance we have the incredible John Patterson (JP) of Ballylesson now into his 82nd year and still flying pigeons at the highest level, a winner of over 50 x 1st East Down Combine Opens and of course ‘The Rocket’ Ronnie Williamson a winner of over 50 x 1st NIPA Opens.

Following the winning of the INFC Kings Cup race from Plaudren by Tommy Moorehouse of Rathnew, I had the elected INFC Press Officer Willie Reynolds, set up a date for him and I to travel down to compile the following story and hopefully when you read it you will see the difference of an area starved of publicity and one that has enjoyed significant exposure for many years, of course the South of Ireland isn’t alone in this particular field, there are many through Scotland, England and Wales who equally don’t get the merit that their racing exploits deserve, unfortunately the number of committed and dedicated scribes are diminishing by the week, it takes hearty commitment and I for one would admit of sitting many a night knowing that deadlines had to be met and not in the mood for writing, it is these nights that in my eyes illustrate best the effort put in to writing by the scribes who never miss a publication week in week out, and my hat goes off to them.

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Tommy Moorehouse the 2009 INFC Kings Cup winner races in partnership with his son Tommy Jnr and future son-in-law John Paul Hayden. They together as a combined force race to an excellent set up just on the outskirts of Rathnew an area that is a hot bed for some of the top names connected to the sport of pigeon racing in Dublin and an endless list of achievement by fanciers from this area can be found in a number of the INFC Results over the last number of years.

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Tommy Moorehouse pictured with Tom Junior on the Left and John Paul on the right, what a partnership.

For me I had heard of the Moorehouse name before, but embarrassingly could not relate to the level of success you are now going to read about, exceptional to say the least. Tommy has been involved with pigeons now for many years with records dating back to 1977 when he raced in partnership with his father Pat as P & T Moorehouse. Prior to this young Tommy was always hanging about the pigeon lofts of family members from he was no height and the bug was instantly instilled in his mind. Over recent years the vast majority of the Moorehouse racing done by Tommy was flying into Bray, and what success Tommy enjoyed flying with the largest racing organization in the South of Ireland that being the Irish South Road Federation. An amazing 50 x 1st Federation Opens, yes you read RIGHT, now when you consider the racing exploits of Ronnie Williamson and John Patterson both over 50 x 1st Opens in their respective organisations, you hopefully get my theory in the difference of good consistent publicity and moderate to very little. Had Tommy raced in Northern Ireland and won that level of 1st’s remembering against birdage from 3,500 and 11,700 pigeons the Moorehouse name would be instilled in the minds of many of the regular readers. Outstanding success’s within those 50 x 1st Open’s include winning Rosscarbery twice, finishing 1st and 2nd Open one week and winning the Open by a clear by 8 minutes remembering that the Irish South Road Federation is a predominately Dublin based organisation with more weeks than not a trapping match, with the main hub of the pigeons arriving into Dublin together. In one of Tommy’s other Open’s success he topped the Open by a clear 14 minutes. He also has recorded 29 Federation cards within the Top 20 of the Federation in a combined three week period with over 10,000 pigeons competing each week. Then you have to mention 17 arrivals in the first 21 of the Federation result, eight arrivals in the first ten with over 10,000 pigeons competing. The amount of Club 1st’s surely run into hundreds. Success was also enjoyed in the Mid Week Specialist Club’s winning both three week on the trot accumulating in the partnership winning no les than three television sets.

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The fantastic view just yards from the fly in to the Moorehouse Loft sited in Rathnew, Co.Dublin.

Since moving to Rathnew in 1998 he joined the East Coast Federation and has set about setting up the loft and more specifically the race team to compete at the highest level once again, when we say at the highest level meaning consistently week in week out, Tommy admits himself that he had lost the hunger for pigeon racing over the last number of years, but is looking forward to the forth coming seasons, and I can only send out a Beware Warning to his competitors.

Now in relation to winning the Kings Cup this year the first time it has been flown since 2006 won that year by R & S Malcolmson of Newtownbreda in Northern Ireland. Since then the Kings Cup pigeons have been to France twice, in 2007 they had to return to Ireland after the outbreak of Bird Flu, in 2008 due to impossible weather conditions the pigeons were once again returned to Ireland, and then we come to 2009, this only the second time that Tommy Moorehouse has entered what is described the biggest race on the Irish Pigeon Racing Calendar namely the Kings Cup, the only other time that the Moorehouse loft sent to the race was in fact the last time the race was flown that being in 2006 from Vannes that year Tommy could very well have won the race, for after falling asleep after working all the previous night he awoke to find his pigeon on the roof of the loft, he had dozed off for no more than 15 minutes but long enough to miss the arrival, he was duly clocked and finished 3rd South Section and 5th Open recording a velocity of 1222 for the 396 mile fly winning a nice sum of money which included the Car Nom Pool in total lifting £4,031 and the McCloud Cup, awarded for the first fancier to time a Yearling in the race, this pigeon in 2006 contained all the top lines from the current INFC Chairman Syd Collins who has the best of the Kellens strain, where could he have finished had he not have fallen asleep?

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The racing loft of Tommy Moorehouse which houses both Y/Birds and O/Birds which are mixed togeather.

In 2009 Tommy timed yet again a Yearling Cheq cock now named “Champion Tommy Boy” following a liberation on Friday 3rd of July at 6.15am in a Lt Westerly wind which was to turn fresh SW en-route, a fast race was expected. A band of high pressure cleared the route, everything fell into place and as most know now it was one of the most successful Kings Cup races ever flown with day birds exceeding 400. Tommy Moorehouse timed his ‘Champion Tommy Boy’ at 2.18pm flying 388 miles to Rathnew area of Dublin recording a Kings Cup winning velocity of 1416ypm winning the most sought after Cup in Ireland that being the King George V Challenge Cup, and a cool £1,547 in pools and prize money.

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The stock lofts belonging to the Kings Cup winning loft of Tommy Moorehouse, Rathnew.

The young cock in question is Janssen based and was sent to the race sitting 14 day old eggs; he is an excellent example of the Janssen family and was bred from pigeons sourced from the continent in 2008, a place Tommy travels to regularly. ‘Champion Tommy Boy’ is a G/Son of the famous “De Super 015” owned by Huub Hermans who was 2nd Middle Distance Champion and 4th General Champion in 2008. Tommy Moorehouse is very proud to own two direct from this amazing pigeon.

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"De Super 15" G/Sire of the 2009 Kings Cup winner for Tommy Moorehouse of Dublin.

Tommy is without any doubt a great judge and an even better manager of pigeons I was shown to the Section to which ‘Tommy Boy’ flies to and was shown which nest he was in expecting to turn around to have a chat with Tommy I discovered the sliding door closed and left to sort myself out, never have I witnessed pigeons so tame you literally could lift any one you wanted without movement from any of the others within the section, magical, tame would be an understatement. The Kings Cup winner had a stiff preparation Tommy renowned for looking after the pigeons well, but on the other side of the coin he is a powerful hard task master look at this for prep he had an unbelievable five channel races this year, flying Talbenny (94 miles) twice, Bude (163 miles), INFC Yearling National Sennen Cove (202 miles), before going to Plaudren (388 miles) for the King's Cup. Now, that was some flying! It was eight and a half hours on the wing for that INFC Yearling National race, and then went on to fly the King's Cup in seven hours, forty-eight minutes! When you then add on top of this the tossing this can be anything from 2 – 4 tosses per week from a distance of 25 – 35 miles with more times than not them being released in singles.

Tommy has met many outstanding fanciers during his time in pigeons and was very complimentary to many of them when in his company, none more so than former Kings Cup winner Jackie Patience who Tommy has met more times than he cares to remember racing many of Jackie’s pigeons over the years and winning with them from distances as short as 66 miles, Jackie is a man that Tommy admires immensely. Also Tommy extends his high praise for a number of others including Gerald Delaney who has supplied him with a number of very good pigeons over the years, Paddy Lue of Downpatrick and good friend Johnny Birch from Birmingham, who all have made a difference to Tommy over the years with their excellent pigeons and friendships.

Tommy currently has around 60 stock pigeons which have been sourced from a number of different areas including a large number from the continent, with the vast majority of pigeons in the stock loft being a mixture of Janssen based pigeons including Van Loons.

While on the subject of compliments, Tommy and the family would like to thank everyone who has phoned or called to the house to congratulate them on their success, Tommy would also like to congratulate their good flying neighbours namely the Gregory Bros, for yet another excellent year’s racing and of course extended congrats to all the members of Tommy’s club who have enjoyed a good season to date. Also Tommy would like to mention his good friend Sean McGovern of the Greenhills Club for some very good and consistent performances over the last couple of years. He has put up some great performances in the South Road Federation, and some fantastic results in the Open Races. Extended congratulations to Philip O’Neill and Billy Hunter who have also had great success throughout the last number of years with the Moorehouse pigeons, and finally to finish the compliments Tommy would like to mention his friend and neighbour Paddy Snell on winning two Penzance Races, and timing three day birds in the Kings Cup race this year – great flying.

The Moorehouse men assisted with racing partner John Paul Hayden, fly the old birds which number around the 20 mark on the Natural system as are the Y/Birds which number around the 70 mark. The feeding is the same for Old and Y/Birds which is a mixture which they put together themselves based upon Verse-Laga Super Widowhood with added Beans, Peas and Tares, Tommy was giving nothing away, with regards the feeding as he reckons this is the most important part of any successful loft, John Paul told me he doesn’t even know about the feeding as Tommy sorts this out himself and never misses feeding time spending the whole duration with the pigeons. Peanuts with Red Band are given to the pigeons every second or third day and another thing I took from my chat with them is that a Vitamin B12 Supplement is added to the water twice per week, sometimes 3 times per week pending on condition of the pigeons, Grit and pick stones are readily available around the lofts but no minerals, Tommy explaining that the feeding has enough of this. The O/Birds as explained earlier go 2 – 3 times per week at a distance of 25 – 35 miles. The Y/Bird training starts around 3 weeks before the first race and they will start from a distance of 8 – 10 miles rising to 35 miles and amazingly they will get this twice per day, up to the day of basketing when they are neither tossed or fed prior to departure, the vast majority of the feeding is done prior to this with Tommy admitting that they are fed hard and trained hard.

I will pen off by firstly congratulating Tommy Senior, Tommy Junior and of course John Paul Hayden on winning the 2009 Kings Cup, also many thanks to them for their hospitality during our visit even though they had just suffered a house fire a number of weeks before our visit which totally destroyed the family kitchen. The best of luck for 2010 season, the World is watching now!

Adie McCormick
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Ireland’s Own Pigeon Auctions
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