Frank Esposito Hosts “East Coast Challenge” One Loft
By Tom Smith
Spring Hill, Florida
The Event: The 2nd annual “East Coast Challenge” One Loft Race, Morganville, New Jersey. The Date: Monday October 3rd, 2005. The Convoy: 124 ybs, entered by some of America's finest fliers and breeders. Race point: Cadiz, Ohio, west course. Distance: 355 miles. Weather: sunny and clear with headwinds 5 to 10 mph. Liberation: 8 am.
And the wait began.... By 1 PM the year in front of the “East Coast Challenge” loft was overflowing with fliers awaiting the arrival of their entries, and enjoying sausage & peppers, heroes, stuffed shells, and a variety of delicious food served up by the organizer “Espo” Frank Esposito, his lovely wife Klare and their family.
Many were talking about last year's “East Coast Challenge 2004,” when two birds arrived together, after almost 7 hours on the wing, to win equal 1st and share over 40,000 points! There were 20 more birds clocked on that first day...but this year's weather conditions were different...and the race would reflect it.
My two longtime buddies, Dr. John Kasmierczak, one of the Central Jersey Combine's top fliers, and “Dynamic” Charlie Barbiere, America's premier auctioneer, along with another friend John Gallagher, who runs the Flamingo International race in Florida, and I arrived around 1 PM, mingled with the crowd, and then settled down in the backyard to watch for the birds. There were many top fliers from New York and New Jersey present, an interesting, friendly bunch.
Nervous anticipation was evident on everyone's face. There were vying for over 80,000 points, a cool 33,000 points for 1st!
Time passed by - 2 PM, 3 PM, 4 PM, eight hours on the wing; some expected birds by now. 4:30, 5 o'clock, nine hours on the wing; now everybody expected birds - but not a feather in sight! 5:15, 5:30, 5:45, 6 o'clock...
Ten hours on the wing! Eyes searched the sky in vain...still no birds! As the hours passed by, anticipation gave way to disillusionment.....but Espo still had faith. The birds had been thoroughly trained up to 200 miles, so he expected them to make it through.
As the setting sun began to disappear in the West, so did optimism for day birds... The birds were flying into darkness, and had been on the wing for over 10 hours! Youngbirds flying 355 tough miles against a head wind! That's tough... 6:15...still no birds!
Then suddenly at 6:20 PM something darted out of the sky- a bird! At full speed! “Bird! Bird!” bellowed through the air. Everyone in the yard jumped to his or her feet with eyes skyward. One of Espo's loft men, with “chico” in hand, rushed toward the loft, hesitating to toss the dropper....One hook. Chico tossed. The lone bird hit the board, ran for the trap, and was electronically clocked: 6:24:44... 1004.622 ypm!
Surprise! Relief! What a pigeon! What a performance! As darkness descended all hope of any more day birds was lost... I headed for the loft with camera in hand to photograph the winner, who looked in quite good condition considering the ordeal he had endured.
The valiant day bird was IF 05RBC370 BBH (now thought to be a cock), entered by the well known champion Joe Zack of New Jersey, but bred by another highly successful flier STEVIE WALSH, “ILA Loft” of Staten Island, New York. “370” is a medium sized bird, bred for the job: His parents are two ace pigeons. His dam won Stevie the big Viola yb race 350 miles, and his sire won Stevie another GIB race, the JBM yb futurity, also 350 miles! Both races netted Stevie a nice piece of change... Stevie has won the JBM race twice and bred the winner for another flier, making it three JBM winner bred in the ILA Loft!
Stevie was a longshoreman and named his loft after the “International Longshoremen's Association,” thus “ILA Loft.” He is 54 years of age, married, has one daughter, and has had pigeons almost all his life. As a young guy on Staten Island he had a family of flying Rollers that flew pin high for hours. He let them out in the morning and they flew all day until evening! Fanciers visited from all around to see Stevie's high flying Rollers. Seeing almost a hundred Rollers flying pin high, and rolling, was quite a sight. After a few years Stevie got interested in homers, so the rollers had to go. From then on he concentrated on racing and getting better stock.
The first pair to breed him a winner was a Van-Hove-Utterhoeven (B) Havenith hen mated to a 14 year old Francois Van Riel (B) HVR cock from Joe Salvatore. Francois is the son of the late, great Jeff Van Reil. Unfortunately this old pair only bred three birds for Stevie their first year breeding and one the second year, before going infertile A son of this pair beat 6000 birds in one race, and a son mated to his sister bred seven winners including a 1st prize Main Event winner!
Another son came home with its band cut off. Stevie was disgusted with the lack of sportsmanship, but it proved to be a “God-send,” because the cock was put to stock and bred a multitude of winners. The old Van Reil cock lived in Stevie's loft until twenty years of age, cooing till the end...
Today his loft houses a winning family of predominately Havenith pigeons, descended mainly from the imported Haveniths of legendary John Blade, Queens, NY via Eddy's FOX HILL Loft.
The DAM of “370,” the “East Coast Challenge” winner, is the “VIOLA WINNER,” Stevie's winner of the big NY/NJ 350 mile VIOLA race in 2004. She is a pure FOX HILL Loft Havenith. Stevie says there is nothing better than these old line “Bladie Haveniths.”
The late, great John Blade imported them direct from Evard Havenith of Hoboken, Belgium in the late 1940's and early 1950's. They have been kept pure by the master breeder FOX HILL, not only pure, but racing and winning!
The “VIOLA WINNER” was almost culled at a few months of age when she arrived home from a training toss all bloody, with two broken legs, but Stevie loves his pigeons and decided to set her legs. He and his daughter kept her in a cage in his garage for almost six weeks while she recuperated. Then he put her back in the yb loft, but Stevie was worried because she was now “bow legged.”
He let her loft fly for several days, gave her a few short tosses, the a few long tosses. She came into condition, looked well - bow legs and all, and she was a sister of several winners, so Stevie entered her in the big VIOLA race. The results are now history: 1st VIOLA 350 miles, out in front, winning by 3 minutes 54 seconds! And she won Stevie a small fortune.
The SIRE of “370” is the “JBM winner,” a son of the “BOND RACE COCK,” so named because the first winner he bred was a “$100 Bond Race” winner. Stevie bought the “BOND COCK” at an auction for $75! It came from a loft in California and is suppose to be a Silvere Toye (B) strain pigeon, but Stevie just like the way the bird handled. Crossed on the ILA birds, he bred an astounding 21 first prizewinners, including a dozen 1st Combine winners, a 350 mile JBM futurity winner, and a 300 mile Eddy Martin Futurity winner! The “BOND RACE COCK” was mated on a pure FOX HILL Havenith hen most of the time.
On Tuesday morning, the second day, “Espo,” was up at the break of dawn to hopefully clock more “East Coast Challenge” birds. It was a long wait because the weather had worsened; there was fog, dark clouds, rain and a strong head wind. At 8:26:06 am Espo clocked the first bird on the second day, AU05APU6219 BCH entered by “Quest Syndicate, winning 8,000 points for 2nd prize! Six minutes later IF05VIOC2257 BCWfC was clocked, taking 4,000 points for 3rd prize. The well-known Brooklyn champ, Roofer Loft, bred it. Fourteen minutes after that the fourth place bird, AU05BMC 5345 BC, was clocked, taking 2,500 points for the duo McCarthy & Glover. As the day went on 15 more brave birds were clocked, the last in near darkness at 6:49:30 PM in the evening! Then on the third day four more gallant birds were clocked, making the total 23 birds in race time. Amazing... And all won big points.
Here are the official results:
Only Day Bird!
1. JOE ZACK IF 05 RBC 370 BBH
Day 2!
2. QUEST SYNDICATE AU 05 ARPU 6219 BCH
3. ROOFER LOFT IF 05 VIOC 2257 BCWFC
4. MCCARTY/GLOVER AU 05 BMC 5345 BCC
5. NICKIE READ & DANTONIO IF 05 RBC 386 BCH
6. GENE WILLIAMS AU 05 RBF 5437 BBH
7. MCCARTY/GLOVER AU 05 BMC 5339 BCH
8. LOU ARCURI IF 05 WMC 302 SIL C
9. ANTHONY SORRENTINO AU 05 ARPU 11818 DCC
10. FLORENCE LOFT IF 05 RBC 265 BBC
11. LOU ARCURI IF 05 WMC 303 BBC
12. JOE & BUTCH GENTILE AU 05 GHC 3729 BCC
13. ANDY & TINA LI AU 05 BON 2844 DCC
14. J&M LOFT IF 05 PAF 6297 DCH
15. GANUS FAMILY LOFT AU 05 GFL 807 BBH
16. LEWIS BURNS IF 05 YORK 461 BBC
17. GREAT WHITE LOFTS IF 05 SCHOLAR 2801 BCWFC
18. LOU COLLETTA AU 05 BBL 464 BBH
19. CLAUSING & COMPANY AU 05 CLAUSING 377 BCH
Frank believes if it wasn't for his regime of thorough road training before the race, there wouldn't have been any day-birds clocked, considering the conditions they flew through. But he also says “if one bird made it, there should have been other birds on the day.” Undoubtedly his excellent care of the birds was another contributing factor to the birds overcoming those conditions.
Espo houses the birds in immaculate, dust free lofts that he designed and built himself. It took him six months of “sitting on the bowl and sipping coffee, thinking about loft designs” to come up with the design of his lofts today. When he had it right he tore down and cut up the four lofts in his backyard and began building his new lofts! He believes in “open air” lofts, thus the fronts are covered from floor to ceiling with wire mesh. The 48-foot long racing loft has a four-foot wide hallway in front with wooden gratings where the birds take baths. It allows droppings and dust to fall through. To the rear of the hallway, sliding doors lead to seven-foot deep sections with box perches. These sections have solid plywood floors so Espo can check the birds' droppings. They are scraped out daily. Behind the racing loft are several small breeding and flying lofts, all immaculate.
Next to the “Challenge” loft Frank has his pigeon office where he keeps all his pigeon materials. On the walls are various pictures of his champions. As I was looking at them I saw a photo of a blue hen banded IF 89SLI and that peaked my interest, as my old club on Long Island was the SLI (Southern Long Island HP Club). Frank saw me looking at the photo and said “Tom that's my foundation hen and I bought her from you in 1989!” What a surprise. But more about that later.
Frank feeds one of the best feed mixtures available, Gerry-Plus Verselega, imported from Belgium, and he gives them top supplements such as Colombine's “Optimal Energy 15,” Vita-King products, imported grit & minerals, and salt/mineral blocks. He even uses Verselega anticoccidiosis floor litter and “Floiastimul” anti-PMV litter imported from Germany, to keep the birds healthy.
He has his own health program, developed through thirty years of racing experience. When an entry arrives a “chip” is immediately put on it, and then it is isolated in a holding section for seven to ten days by itself and treated for coccidiosis, canker, and worms, then inoculated against PMV, pox, and paratyphoid. They are put in with the other birds and settled to the loft. Espo regularly consults on health matters with the well-known vet and champion flier John Kasmierczak, owner of the West Trenton Animal Hospital.
Frank gives the “Challenge” birds 70 to 80 training tosses, starting at one mile and increasing every toss up to 200 miles, from July up to two days before the race, the first week in October! He does this because, as he says, “I don't want a crap-shoot. I want the best pigeon to win the race.”
Frank trains the birds himself. He recently bought a new, modern training truck holding 32 large 48” x 32” metal crates with wire mesh floors. The truck is well ventilated, even when at a standstill, because of a thermostatically controlled electric exhaust fan in the ceiling. The “Challenge” birds were basketed in the new truck 5 PM the evening before the race. Frank's son-in-law drove overnight to the 350-mile race-station on the west course, Cadiz, Ohio. The next morning he called Frank for liberation at 8 am.
Frank manages the loft and birds by himself, he feeds and waters the birds himself, even cleans the loft by himself .... But when it comes to the computer work, he has an expert helper, Chris Anzick, who does it all.
Birds are accepted for the race from March 15th to the end of May, and it is suggested that they be 25 to 35 days of age because it is much easier to settle them at that age.
Frank has a sheet rock hanging business and still works full time. When he gets home after 4 PM he goes to the lofts and stays there until dark. Then he goes inside, eats dinner with his family, and is asleep by 9 o'clock. He's up by 3 am packing birds for their training toss, then back home and off to work. What a routine. Frank had heart by-pass surgery a few years ago and it hasn't slowed him down a bit, which is amazing.
In the Beginning
So where did the idea of the “East Coast Challenge” come from? And who is this guy Frank Esposito? To answer these questions we have to look back, way back to the 1940's. Frank's father was in the US Army “Pigeon Corps” in WWII and met Frank's mother in Hawaii during a layover. After the war they moved back to his father's old Italian neighborhood.
Both Frank and his father were born in Brooklyn, New York. In those days there were a multitude of pigeon lofts in the area and young Frank, ten years old at that time, because fascinated with pigeons. Soon he had a pigeon loft in his backyard on top of the garage.
As Frank grew into a young man he began racing competitively with his father as his partner. His father Lou had flown successfully in CONEY Island during the 1950's under Espo Loft. Frank founded a very successful building supply yard in 1987. His cousin John Esposito of “Espo Loft” on Long Island was racing successfully, so Frank often heard about the birds. His cousin gave him a team of birds to start him on the right foot, and he was on his way.
In 1989 he decided to introduce some new winning blood to his loft. He had been reading about the “world champions” Gerard & Michel Vanhee of Wervik, Belgium, and their agent Tom Smith that was flying the Vanhees so successfully. So he sent his father and son to Long Island to buy some Vanhees from Tom's Ponderosa-America Lofts. They left with six youngsters from Tom's combine winning Vanhees, four blues and two reds. Frank never looked at their pedigrees until years later. He put the young Vanhees in the stock loft and flew their offspring. If he had looked at their pedigrees he would have seen they were not only down from G & M Vanhee's champions, but also closely bred to Tom's many Combine winners.
That same year, the successful flier Fred `Breezy' sold out his Huysken-Van Reil family, which emanated from the Long Island champion Danny Buonagurio, of M & S Loft fame. Danny was one of the most outstanding fliers in the tough Eastern Long Island Club and the Suffolk Nassau Combine having won an abundance of club & combine races and average speed awards. Frank bought a few wonderful HVR specimens. He mated one of the HVR cocks on one of the Vanhee hens, and immediately hit pay dirt.
It was a “hit pair;” they bred four winners in short order, but even more amazing was that many of their offspring began breeding winners. A dynast was in the making. Little did Frank know this pair would become the Foundation Pair of his loft. In 1993 he moved to his present address in Morganville. The in 1995 Frank's good friend, the highly successful NJ flier Richie Bennett, gave him a few of his magnificent Hansennes. They were crossed in and hit immediately. Today Espo's family is a blend of Vanhee X HVR X Hamsenne.
Frank believes only in PERFORMANCE. He is a hard trainer, taking the birds for several midweek tosses every week during the race season. If he feels they need a hundred-mile or a TWO HUNDRED-mile midweek toss, he packs them up and hits the road with a friend. Then into a race on the weekend! Frank would breed a hundred ybs, race them the whole program, then select out only the best five to eight to keep as yearlings.
Frank's family of pigeons has produced some excellent racers: One hen was clocked four weeks in a row as a yb, then as an ob was his first clock birds seven weeks in a row from 200 to 600 miles! That's the kind of pigeon he strives for. One season Frank flew 6 cocks on widowhood; tow of the cocks won “17 boards” between them! That's consistency; just what he likes. Another year Frank had 8 hens on this race team; six mated up to cocks but two others wouldn't mate.
One of those unmated hens started acting like a widowhood cock, cooing in her box, clapping around the loft, so Frank gave her a cock just before shipping and she was his first clock bird. That season she won a multitude of positions. The next year she was retired to stock and bred a 3 x 1st prizewinner, plus a 200m tune-up race winner in the Las Vegaas.Com rage! In 1993 Frank won both 250-mile Central Jersey Combine young-bird races back to back, which is still a record. The Central Jersey Combine races from west to east, and is the largest combine in America with over 400 lofts shipping thousands of pigeons each weekend. There is no tougher competition in America. Because of the combine's broad front and depth, birds have to “think,” as well as fly fast. The have to “break,” or they are among the also-rans.
Birds flying the west course really have to be smart because there is a lot of clashing with other combines also flying west. On race-day Frank has caught birds from eastern Long Island, York, Pennsylvania, even Wilmington, Delaware!
Frank has done well in derbies over the years: In 2002 he flew three yb derbies winning two and placing 2nd in the third: 1st Capitol CIy One-Bird Derby 350 miles by 15 minutes!
Frank feels his best performance of 2003 was 9t, 10th, 11th, 14th North Hudson Futurity 350 miles, clocking four on a drop, flying against a tough head wind that favored the northern lofts. He was the only loft on the south side to clock near the top, and these were only 25-day birds! That was a real feat.
Out of eleven futurities flown that year he was 7th position of better in nine of them. In fact, Frank won 1st Patterson Sprint 250 miles ybs by 25 minutes, and on the same day won 1st & 2nd Three-Bird Derby by 20 minutes! What a weekend! Then the next week he won 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Perth Amboy Futurity by 5 minutes! Derby races are very popular in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area because the flier has to be able to select only a single pigeon, sometimes two or three, to compete with. Mob fliers cannot win with numbers in these races. Frank has been in the top 5% of every race he has flown since starting back in the sport. That is consistency.
When racing, Frank spends a lot of time just looking at his birds. He says, “I look for a bird that look a little strange. Birds that don't exercise around the loft well are not feeling well. You should not have to force them to fly.” He thinks that as race-birds fly home the ones in the best condition, and that have the best motivation, stay ahead, while the others lacking motivation and condition fall behind. The longer the race, the farther they fall behind.
I asked Frank what his “keys to success” are, and he listed them: “1st, Excellent health, 2nd, Good pigeons. And 3rd, Well trained pigeons.” You can't go far wrong if you can implement those three keys.
Frank has also bred winners for several other lofts. One of his birds won half of the “out of area board” and a good prize for Vinnie Torre's Hillside Loft in the big Twin Towers young-bird race. In fact, Frank gave three ybs to three different lofts for the Twin Towers Race and all three won a good prize. In the Viola race, Frank's friend TEXACO Loft won 6 of 8 prizes with his blood.
In 2004 he decided to send out almost all his ybs to out of area races. He sent 87 ybs to 15 one-loft races and futurities, winning ten 1st prizes! He then bought some of the winners back for his stock loft. The reason he decided to do this rather than race ybs from his own loft was a matter of finances: He figured out that he had spent $10,600 competing in 12 local Futurities, including pools, but not including training of feed. He reasoned that for that amount he could enter ten one-loft races and the rewards would be much higher.
In 2005 Frank won several top prizes in out of area races including “Equal 1st” at 150 miles in the Snake River Challenge flown in Idaho. In 2004 he won the 150 and 250 in that same one-loft race.
Back in 2002 Frank flew his last yb series because he decided to found the East Coast's only one-loft race and didn't want any conflicts. He had attended the big Las Vegas one loft race and came home excited about the possibilities. He envisioned putting together a big money race with plenty of fellowship for the flyers back east. He wanted a race where the best pigeon won the race, not a “crap shoot.” The birds would have the best management and would be trained extensively so the best bird would win.
Frank chose the 350-mile station for his race because of its difficulty for ybs. The entry fee would be $1400, which includes a $300 perch fee, and the balance is added to the prize money. The entry fee covers two primary birds and one back up. There would be no betting, pools, or Calcutta because Frank felt it was unfair to out-of-area competitors because they couldn't come to the loft to see their birds. Also he saw something happen at another one-loft-race that disturbed him: When the birds were displayed before the race, so competitors could handle their birds and pool accordingly, one guy grabbed the wrong pigeon and bent one of its flight! When the owner saw this there was a big commotion. Now what do you do? Frank didn't want any problems like that.
Frank also decided to add a rule to the race regarding “equal first.” If the birds arrived together, no matter which entered the trap first, they would be declared equal 1st and share the appropriate prize money equally. He reasoned that he wouldn't penalize a bird that homed at the same time, but was a little nervous about trapping, which could well be caused by the unusually large number of people in the yard watching the event.
Last year, 2004, Espo's East Coast Challenge was flown with 115 birds liberated at 8:30 am and the first birds were clocked at 3:21 PM, almost seven hours on the wing. The “equal first rule” came into play, not once, but twice! Two birds dropped together after 350 miles. One bird, Frank Viola's, entered at 15:21:15, a split second before the other, Taxaco Loft's at 15:21:18, and they shared first, 1469.94 ypm. There was little controversy, but Frank referred to the “equal first rule,” which was published before the race, and the controversy was over. They split about 40,000 points! Then eight minutes later four more birds dropped from the sky together and were clocked at 15:29:55, 15:29:58, 15:30:04 and 15:30:06, all awarded equal 2nd at 1440....ypm! These four were bred by Texaco Loft of Staten Island, the nationally known Clausing Co. of Florida; “Lucky 7 Loft,” Tom Candos, of Burbank, Illinois; and Flamingo International Challenge, John Gallagher, of Spring Hill, Florida. The 2005 Challenge winner, Joe Zack clocked one of his own birds in 15th position in the 2004 race. Fifty-three birds were clocked by the end of the second day. It was a very satisfying race.
In November of 2005 Frank attended the big Vegas one loft race and had a ball. What a set-up, What fellowship, What a race! He was totally impressed by the management and production of the Vegas races, and met many personable fliers from all over the country. One fellow he became particularly friendly with was Bob McCarty of Texas. Frank says “What a great guy he is. A real pigeon man, and really is interesting. I told him he has to come to Jersey and see our race.”
Now “Espo” is planning the 2006 edition of the “East Coast Challenge” and it looks like there will be even more birds and more prizes that the last race. He says he would someday like to see some “foreign birds” compete against America's best. We'll have to wait and see, but no doubt there will be some big points awarded and some outstanding performances once again.
Good flying.