The love affair Europe has for pigeon racing began in the 1800s and grew into a working-class sport. There's not a feeling like when you sit there on a on a weekend and wait for your pigeons and you see them come home. It's like, "Wow, I did this." You're the coach, you're the nutritionist, you're the scout. It's the best.But purists have seen the sport change as prize money has soared. It started about 20 years ago with a new kind of competition called one loft racing. >> [cheering] >> In which fanciers fr ...

We went to a one loft race in Portugal to see how it works. Months earlier, fanciers shipped their best young prospects to the race loft so the pigeons could learn to recognize it as their home. The cost to enter a bird is about $500.The more pigeons, the larger the pot of prize money. Season opener. All racing pigeons are identified by leg bands.Just before the race, each of the 3,300 birds is scanned into a database and then driven 300 miles away to be released. The first pigeon to find their way back int ...