2008 AU Convention Race “The Big Race” in Minnesota
The 2008 AU Convention Race was hosted by the Heartland Racing Pigeon Federation in October and held in St Paul, Minnesota. The Au Convention Race is one of the biggest races In the USA and is sometimes called the “Super Bowl” of racing in our sport.
A total of 1658 birds were shipped in for the convention race representing 358 breeders from all parts of the USA, Germany, and China. These breeders sent in their champions with high hopes to win or place in the money.
The handlers put their birds through the paces to get them in shape For the big race. On shipping night there is electricity in the air. All the breeders handling their champions to see how they want to pool their birds. A total of 788 birds were sent to the race.
This year’s AU race was one of the toughest. Northwest head winds 5-10. The wind was on their nose from the start of the race. It was a good old-fashion pigeon race where the quality breeding would come out. The birds were blown east to Wisconsin. They came in all broken up 1 and 2 at a time. Approximately 126 birds the 1st day. It took 2 days to clock off for all the prizes.
I was at Dick Althoff’s loft along with Jim Mitchell, Ron Hornstein, and Jim Braun waiting for the AU birds. When the birds are late like this you start to clock everything that flies. So far we clocked 3 crows, 2 sparrows, and a sea gull but no birds. Ron and I went out to the street to see if we could get a better view of the birds coming in. When we walked back to the loft, Dick said he just clocked a bird. It came in like a rocket, didn’t even circle, and beat the dropper in.
After about 5 or 10 minutes Dick got a couple more birds and one of them was mine. ARPU 21252 a blue check pied. Dick’s 1st bird was Don Miner’s bird ESTE 048. We started calling around to see if Dick had a good time and so far Dick was in the lead. That’s was a very tense time.
Jim Mitchell was there and he’s very good at figuring out the time. I called Rocky Elton to find out if any birds had been clocked because he’s on the short end. I got the idea when I was talking to Rocky on my cell phone. After he hung up I still had the phone to my ear and I started to make-up times to see if I could get Dick & Jim rattled. I said 2:30 and Jim did his figuring with one eye twitching and said “we got that guy beat” . So I kept on lowering the times and Jim kept saying we beat him. Finally I said 1:30 and their eyes big as saucers and Dick said “Who’s the guy that got the bird at 1:30”. Jim’s eye started twitching uncontrollably. I closed my cell phone and said “ I’m only kidding” Well did you ever have a rhino charge you and want to kill you? That was Dick Althoff.
Because of the northwest winds it took 2 days to clock off for all the prizes. Waiting to find out who won the race was nerve wracking. Then we got the call the clock off was at 1 PM. As we waited everyone was trying to figure out who had the best time. Finally the race results were posted. Dick Althoff from Break-A-Way lofts had won the race by 12 seconds. If that bird didn’t beat the dropper in it would have been a whole different story. Way to go Dick. Your hard work paid off.
Congratulations to all the winners.
| Handler | Breeder | Bird | |
| 1st Place | D. Althoff | D. Miner | ESTE 0048 |
| 2nd Place | T. Roach | S. Kojiro | HUI 1114 |
| 3rd Place | Drenckhahn | Bob Barnes | SMCC 1755 |
| 4th Place | C.Sandstrom | McKenna& Layton | SRI 0010 |
| 5th Place | V. Xiong | Pat Aston | VLY 0619 |
| 6th Place | S. Bennis | J. Olszewski | SFA 0030 |
| 7th Place | S. Bennis | R. Horton | HRS 4048 |
| 8th Place | N. Yang | D. Thao | WULG 8017 |
| 9th Place | N. Yang | V. Xiong | APC 0322 |
| 10th Place | B. Badzinski | Z. Guzik | FL 0348 |
| 11th Place | D. Althoff | W. Sessink | SMCC 0124 |
| 12th Place | C. Sandstrom | Rich Ross | ARPU 21330 |
| 13th Place | P. Yang | B. Reusch | BISO 0446 |
| 14th Place | C. Sandstrom | B. Yu | UPI 0134 |
| 15th Place | B. Badzinski | T. Laduke | TWOT 9023 |
| 16th Place | P. Yang | A. Porter | RRR 1533 |
| 17th Place | B. Badzinski | J. Shiroma | KOMN 0006 |
| 18th Place | C. Sandstrom | L. Rueber | HHH 0420 |
| 19th Place | D. Althoff | Rich Ross | ARPU 21252 |
| 20th Place | D. Althoff | F. Robinson | POLK 0227 |
| 21th Place | J.Sawicki | C. Ubbels | FLAM 0955 |
| 22th Place | D. Althoff | B. Reusch | BISO 0440 |
| 23th Place | C. Hetland | D. McNeilus | RRP 9439 |
| 24th Place | D. Brotzler | Bourgoin | STP 0035 |
| 25th Place | D. Brotzler | Rich Ross | ARPU 21331 |
| 26th Place | G. Hegner | B. Gray | VIK 0094 |
| 27th Place | G. Hegner | J. Gomes | LOK 0607 |
| 28th Place | G. Hegner | B. Long | CSH 0546 |
| 29th Place | P. Yang | B. Nelson | NFL 0801 |
| 30th Place | C. Hetland | N. Lewellen | NIC 8287 |
Dick is no stranger to the winner’s circle. He’s also won the Midwest convention race. He works very hard with the birds. If you are lucky enough to place birds in his loft and they don’t place or win, it’s not Dick. Special thanks to the Heartland Racing Pigeon Federation for a job well done, Jerry Vernon for one of the best websites, The Asian Connection, and the guys that did an excellent job handling my birds in a very tough race, Dick Althoff, Chad Sandstrom, Dave Brotzler, Gary Hegner, and Rocky Elton. God Bless.
Yours in the Sport,
Rich Ross
