Special Attractions with SBKC Continued FROM page 73
Bo Bengtson, who has been a world renowned sighthound personality for over half a decade, was faced with an extremely large class of tremendous quality. The winning Greyhound bitch, Ch. Grandcru Phelps Insignia, had to edge out her dam “Era” in order to qualify in the spectacular. “Era”, her dam, has enjoyed an illustrious career and won the Hound group at the AKC/Eukanuba in 2009, and the Greyhound Club of America several times. The sire of “Insignia” is Fionn Clann Paramount At Sobers. This dog, bred in Russia and owned in Italy, has had a tremendous career in Europe for many years. In 2009 “Monty” won the Purina Breeders Cup in Italy and as one of the prizes was sent to SBKC to compete. He went second in the highly competitive Foreign Bred competition in 2010 and also placed second in the Hound group all four days, but was not able to acquire a single point towards his American title. He should have been made an honorary Grand Champion just for these awards. This lovely winner of the “Spectacular” has already accounted for winning the Greyhound Club of America, but it is her lineage that is so impressive. Besides Insignia winning the “Spectacular” she was paired with her mother, “Era”, in the Breeders Showcase. As thrilled as Julie Mueller and Eugene Blake were in winning BIS at the Monday show, going second in the “Spectacular” under Bo at the initial event with their homebred GCH Aurora’s The Song And Dance Man, is a memory that will always last. Many old time Sighthound fanciers still remember George Bell winning BIS at SBKC in 1980 with the legendary Saluki bitch, “Fantasia”. It was interesting to see Bo as a leading Whippet breeder, have three Whippets of top-notch quality competing in the “Spectacular”. He awarded third place to the Whippet, Ch Solaris Saxon Shore Hypnotiq Kamio. His final cut of twelve consisted also of the BOS and BOW at the breed level. Both of these winners came from famous kennels of “Runners” and “Sporting Fields”. Fourth place went to the lovely Borzoi bitch bred by “Majenkir”. Her handler Stuart McGraw has just started her campaign. Although the total entry for Sighthounds was relatively small for the show the level of quality in the Spectacular was extremely high. Several top quality Sighthounds were not able to be pulled for the final cut of twelve. The four placements and four AOM’s all received generous prize money, but their owners and breeders were more thrilled to receive recognition in this glorious event. This year the second annual “Bullyganza” was much more successful than its initial conception. Allowing besides the breed
winner to compete, having the BOW and BOS winner allows for unknown big winners to compete. Marcelo Veras was faced with a super lineup – some big winners and some young non champions. The eventual winner was a class White Bull Terrier bitch owned by the Hon. David Merriam and Jan Dykema. This young class bitch earlier in the day won the breed under Bill Poole in an entry that included a specials dog with very impressive wins behind him. David and Jan were so excited with her placing in the group Friday and the breed win under Bill Poole was a real thrill. When this youngster captured the entire Bullyganza victory it was a surprise to all since many dogs were competing with big records behind them. This year a magnificent perpetual trophy in honor of “Rufus” was offered to honor the breeder of the highest
year in a row the all time top winning Mini Bull, “Simon” was the Reserve winner. Earlier in the day “Simon” had been edged out for the breed by a lovely white bitch. This is another example of why the BOW and BOS are eligible to compete. It allows for more depth of quality. It could happen that a certain breed could capture first, second and third in these competitions. Third place went to the Bulldog, “Ralph”, also a big time BIS winning dog. Fourth went to the young Frenchie bitch “Freda”. Marcelo, along with Larry Cournelius, quite often are competing against this bitch at major shows. What nice sportsmanship that Marcelo can recognize the quality of his competition. I am sure Patricia Shaw and Jodi Longmire greatly appreciated this recognition. This relatively young Frenchie won the breed that day in an entry of roughly seventy over other top winners. A week later she became the first black masked fawn bitch ever to go BIS in this country. Hopefully all of the AOM’s also enjoyed their recognition as the four placements did. At the conclusion of the exciting Spectacular and Bullyganza events, the main theme of the weekend, Breeder’s Showcase, commenced. In a short five years the Showcase has gained recognition, not only in this country, but has received worldwide attention. Most of the other special attractions revolve around the same theme, that being giving recognition to breeders from the States and also foreign lands. Geir Flyckt-Pedersen and Augusto Benedicto Santos, III were the two judges for Best and Reserve this year. Betsy Dale was slated as the tie-breaker judge if needed. In the five years since the inception of the Showcase the final decisions never required the tie-breaker judge. Dinky and Geir have both been involved breeding dogs since they were youngsters. Although Geir now resides in the States, his famous “Louline” breeding program was well known even while he was living in Sweden and England. It is interesting to note that both of these gentlemen got their first start in dogs with German Shepherds, like so many of our American judges also. Lynda Gall, who has been a top breeder of English Cockers, judged the Sporting group. For unknown reasons the Sporting group has always been the smallest entry of the Showcase since its inception. As an example the regular part of the show always has a much larger entry of Sporting than Terriers and yet there is always less than half the Sporting entry in the Showcase than for Terriers. The committee has always been perplexed why so few Sporting breeders show so little interest in the Showcase. Lynda awarded first place to a young pair of German Wirehaired Pointers bred by Franz Neuwirth and Christine Whitmore. Susan Hamil, of Quiet Creek Bloodhounds,
F
“For unknown reasons the Sporting group has always been the smallest entry of the Showcase since it inception... The committee has always been perplexed why so few Sporting breeders show so little interest in the Showcase.”
placing Bull Terrier in Bullyganza. There is also a Challenge trophy in memory of Raymond Oppenheimer and William Kendrick. These two great gentlemen did so much to develop Bull Terriers on both sides of the pond. When David Merriam won the entire competition, I could only think how proud Raymond Oppenheimer and Bill Kendrick would be of him. David has been involved in Bull Terriers for well over fifty years. Besides Bull Terrier fanciers so many others from aspects of the sport were so pleased to see David competing again and seeing his joy of a tremendous victory. How fitting that David captured the win for the “Rufus” trophy, which is a one of a kind woodcarving, by the great artist, Linda Lethin. Like the Sighthound Spectacular, Marcelo Veras made a very large initial cut in the Bullyganza. For the second
Continued on page 105
Dog News 103