Feathered fortunes: inside Asia’s richest pigeon race

Somewhere on the cavernous loft floor, cooing softly from inside a stack of crates, a feathered fortune waits for its moment to shine. It’s “basketing day” for Asia’s richest pigeon race, held in Pattaya, eastern Thailand. In 24 hours’ time, a US$2 million prize pot will be shared among the lucky owners of the birds that find their way home. For now, those hopes are packed tightly, wing to wing, into crates: more than 5,000 perfectly conditioned racers waiting to be scanned, logged and stamped...