I agree with Hycinth I can always find a place for any bird I bred somewhere in my planning I don't believe in killing pigeons no matter how they turn out. I bred a young cock in 2003, and during racing as a y.b. he would never return on the day of the race, always coming home on the tuesday or wednesday after liberation. Last year he had every inland race before going to the channel as I was determined to either break his heart and lose him rather than kill him. Unfortunately he had other ideas and was never out of the clock. This year he had only 2 races, his first was from Talbenny in Wales (247mls) and he finished 2nd Club, 5th fed and then I sent him to Penzance, our furthest race point before the nationals from france. I clocked him after 10 hours on the wing to take 1st club, 2nd fed only 5 birds in the fed result. Just goes to show if given time we will be rewarded by the faith we have in our birds.