same here andrew paired an out and out sprint bird to my old distance breed, was 25 national,,, had an out and out sprint bird top the combine both 505 miles, but found for the 600odd miles needs a special kind of bird, sir colin was 2 national flying 608 miles 1st bird flying over 600 miles in a hard north east wind, i doubt whether these first two birds would have got home,,, theres as many differant types of races than there is differant types of pigeons, so its horses for courses p.s a yb bred from sir colin topped the fed from penrith, about eighty odd miles.