History :
Pigeon racing ,if we call this game a sport, came to Thailand some 60 years ago after the Japanese occupation during the second World War. Some messenger pigeons used during the war were retired and reached the hand of a few fanciers, mostly Chinese descendants, who kept them as pets. Since them a tiny racing community had it begining. Some years after a person whom we may call father of the Thai pigeon racing sport, the late Mr.Prateep payakaporn, imported the first lot of racing pigeons from England. Notably from the loft of the Osman. These pigeons and their offspring were distributed to many Chinese fanciers who by then became more serious in racing even though in the primitive style. Many pigeons were also imported from a pet shop in Antwerp in the late 50's. Then in the early 60's pigeons from a very famous Belgian fancie in that era by the the name of Joseph Vendenbrucke were imported. The strain were strong influence in the make up the Thai racing pigeon breed for more than two decades. Mechanicel clocks also come to the country around the time . After that,several thousands of sky thoroughbreds were imported from famous lofts around the world particularly from Belgiam and Holland.Imports of live pigeons into the country were relatively easy during the past decades until the recent outbreak of avian flu in SE-Asia. So Thailand rich in game pool for racing pigeons.
Members and Organizations:
Despite its relatively long history,the number of active racing fanciers were neveer peaked beyond a thousand or so , althoug some people might be tempted to inflate this figure a little bit for commercial reason. Appoximately 70% of active fanciers reside in the capital city of Bangkok and the rest spead out in five majors provinces , i.e. , the eastern coastal towns of Chonburi and Rayong , Samutprakarn (adjacent to the east of Bangkok) Nakornprathom and Supanburi (50-60 km west of Bangkok). No official statistics is available because there is really no central body that manage the sport like NPO in Holland , AU in the United States , and thr KBDB in Belgiam. Fanciers can participate in any race without having to be official members of any association or federation as long as they are their lofts registered and air distances measured. Therefore , the same names may appear in all the clubs' tallies and the summation of these figures will be totally misleading let alone te fact that large number of fanciers have already left the sport or passed away but their names are still in the books. Some association might have started its membership number from 1000 instead of 1 or made itself appears bigger than life by accumulating licenses of a few defunct associations with no member and manage them by the same group of people under the same roof.
There are four active associations registered in Bangkok including a new federation recently established by a group of most accomplished fanciers and businessmen with immediate success and the sport is looking forward to a new level of transparency and good governance in pigeon club management. In the provinces pigeon fanciers race under a llose club arrangement and they can now join the new federation as institutional members and adopt the same rules and regulations. The names "association" and "federation" are the same legal status by Thai law even though the later implies a more encompassing scope of activities and authority by English translation. No association legally or officially represents Thailand in racing pigeon sport. Memberships are not sought after by the associations so that just a few individuals can total control on management and thus the lack of good governance and transparency. Running a club or association is not an easy task either because, unlike in the United States, members here do not expect themselves to pay any membership fee or to help the club in any respect be it fanancial or man hour. Therefore all te clubs have to compete for entires form the same small group of fanciers. This may have forced some clubs to offer someting tey could not affort and came up with some imaginative thinking to get the money back.
Admittedly, most clubs are too much involved in promoting pools and no priority is given to upgrade the image of this sport or to entice new comers to join the hobby. Gone were the days when fanciers would look forward to the honor of winning just the trophies and friendly admirations from their peers like in Japan where the sport is still very honorable. This explains why this sport does not grown over the years . Like in many other countries, keeping pigeons become too expensive especially in capital city where real estates are precious and people have alternatives to spend their spare times. Most seriously, professional fanciers and big loftsare migrating to the west side of the city to take geographical advantages and small lofts are forced to quit.
Racing activities :
Races are organized almost all year round but the major ones are from the nort route during the period from mid September to January. Pigeons fly with cool northeasterly tail wind from 140 km up to 750 km distance and the full program contains 15-16 races. Race from the north-east direction cover the period from March until May and this time againts the wind ans severe heat. Fanciers in the northeast cornor now have the advantage. The last leg is along the costal line from the south in the monsoon season from June-early August. As the air distance is measured directly from the race points, pigeon are assumed to cut across the gulf straight to Bangkok. In reality they cannot and they have to fly along the coast line until they are close enough to the caapital and ten break over the water for a short distance homeward. Again, the advantages of the west side because the coastal line is west of Bangkok. Te situation could be improved if racing solfware with a break point feature is used as pratised in South Africa. Average total entry in a good race is around 1500-2000 pigeons while there could be more than 2500 birds entered for some early races and only around 500-600 birds for two long distance stations. In some clubs, the number can be infatet by a few hundreds if the organizers so wis. Total number clocks set in a race is around 120 which meams less than 120 fanciers participate in a race because some big lofcs employ more than one clock each. Popular models are the mechanical Benzing and Junior ; the later is becoming less popular because it needs factory services after a period of time. Benzing Express is the only e-clock system that used for a number of yaers. Despite the small number of participants in a race the pool amount can be quite large if included free entrie from the organizers. Trophies and negligible amount of money prizes are given to the first three prize winners in each race. Terefore , fanciers try their lucks in pools and derby rings where clubs get a cut from total stake. Some clubs may offer guarenteed total purses but at the same time fanciers may have to ace againts unlimited number of the organizers' birds of which pay nothing for the derby rings. A great number of the King, Queen, and Princess cups are given out by association every year , a nimber far greater than they are authorized to do.
One-loft races are stage in Thailand for many years by several parties and most are lucrative undertakings since no omport tax was paid for pigeons hand-carried into the country by so called "bird-runners". Some races cound be just private business ventures using the association credentials and names of innocent public figures to establish creditability while a few were organized by groups of people genuinely wish to promote te country and sport. Like in some countries where big money prizes are promised, participants must be aware that the organizers are better odds because they can enter unlimited number of their the own pigeons. Because of the very warm and humid condition foreign pigeons which pay higher entry fees, have less chance to win especially in long distance race unless they are locally raised as youngsters. Likewise , buyers of foreign pigeons after the races must see to it that the birds were bred from their country of origin, not locally bred birds that wear improved foreign rings.
