Not uncommon for Combines that are spread out far and wide, to have a club,or certain lofts out of the way,to have bad returns...As stated before,clashes between birds from another combine will throw a wrench in the results...Remember a few years ago,a 500 miler going to the NY area I think,when they had allmost NO returns at all...The story was on the BIG news channels on TV,asking people to report any stray homing pigeons found anywhere on the East coast...As it went,seems most of the birds overflew the coastline,and wound up in the ocean...Really Sad !!!....Some were found on some ships,coming into the East coast ports....This IS part of pigeon racing...Do not get up set...Never put ALL your birds in one LONG distance race especially....I have 10 pair of OB flyers...I will set up 3 pairs for the 400 miler,and 3 pairs for the 500 miler...So that IF there was a SMASH race,I would not lose ALL my best pigeons...Don`t think for a minute that you CANNOT lose YOUR champion pigeon..Ask the Janssen Bros about that !!! And they never flew races longer then 175 miles,if I`m not mistaken....It does happen,and it`s part of pigeon racing...Just prepare certain birds for certain races...And as the old saying goes,"Never put all your eggs in one basket".....Alamo