Have to agree Andy it cant all be BOP everytime although they do play a part. I trained my birds out and even missed the first race so they had more training under their wing but still dropped birds yesterday although a good few have worked in today. As for healthy mine will fly around the house for hours on end therefore have to have a certain element of good health and fitness or they would come down early. we can all speculate on different reasons but from what i hear it has got worse over the last 5 years or so and yes their has to be a reason as they are not ALL bad pigeons. Good topic mate. Scotty M