Western Whippet Derby.

[tlewis]

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Winner of the Western Whippet Derby. Over one hundred entries was:-

KENTFIELDS ALCAEUS ELECTRA

Owned by sisters Merril Woolf and Robyn Brown of California (Via Australia!)

Alcaeus went undefeated all day in four programs of bend racing over 300 yds.

(Two rather poor picture taken by myself)

 

[tlewis]

Alcaeus.

 

[BeeJay]

Very nice. And the breeding is?

 

[Judy]

Yes - neeeeeed breeding. I didn't know Merril was your sister!

 

[Strike Whippets]

Lovely, powerful looking dog ...........All of the American racers look very well covered .......Is this because of them doing longer distances or is this because you don't handicap by weight ?? what do you think ?? .........I often wonder if a smaller/average sized/weight Whippet from over your way would weigh in easily over here after some of the owners over here had "fined one down" ...........

 

[BeeJay]

Yes - neeeeeed breeding. I didn't know Merril was your sister!

>Owned by sisters Merril Woolf and Robyn Brown of California (Via Australia!)

I read that as meaning Merril Woolf and Robyn Brown are sisters. :unsure:

Hey guess what Judy we've just read the same thing and gotten two different meanings out of it. What's new eh! :lol:

 

[Merril]

Alcaeus (Kentfield Alcaeus Elektra) is sired by MacDuff Vitesse (Mac Tonight x Windyglen's Vitesse Manon) x Kentfield Andromeda Elektra (Elektra's Achilles x Ringdove Cassiopeia).

He is bred by myself - Merril Woolf (Kentfield) and my sister Robyn Brown (Elektra).

Our whippets are all fairly well covered mainly because we have no weight classes here - they all run off scratch from the smallest to the largest.

Alcaeus would actually be quite large by your standards as he is 20.5" tall and 35 lbs. I could take him down about a pound but I'm not sure he'd run better at that weight.

If he is entered both days over a racing weekend, he has to run 4 times each day for a total of 8 races varying from 200 yrds x 4 on the sprints to 270 yrds - 300 yrds x 4 on the bends. They run 3 x on the 350 yrd or 440 yrd ovals. A lower weight might not be enough for them to handle the excess distance and cause them to fade in the last program. (this from experience in the past at trying a lower weight).

-Merril

 

[Judy]

Hey guess what Judy we've just read the same thing and gotten two different meanings out of it.  What's new eh!  :lol:

Well blow me down (polite version :wacko: ) if your not right there Beejay

 

[tlewis]

Well blow me down (polite version :wacko: ) if your not right there Beejay

You'd be surprised who's lurking!! Maybe NOT!!

Congratulations to Merril and HER sister Robyn. I should add that the day before was the NAWRA Nationals and Alcaeus was well placed in that big event too.

That gave him the combined High Score win over the two days to make him the best of the best!

Hope he makes his way to Texas in Oct. for the WRA (E.Coast) Nationals.

Another two days of top class racing. Four scratch straight races 200yd straight the first day and three races the second day over 350 m bends.

You WCRA racers still have time to enter!!! No passports needed! Just KC registration.

Ya'll come now!!

 

[Merril]

Yes, Alcaeus is entered in the Texas nat'l meet. He'll take a month off to re-group so that will be the next meet he is entered in.

Glad to see you in Orgeon, Tony. Good luck with those beautiful pups.

Merril

 

[Strike Whippets]

You WCRA racers still have time to enter!!! No passports needed!  Just KC registration.
Ya'll come now!!

[SIZE=14pt]LOL[/SIZE] :lol: :lol:

Another two days of top class racing. Four scratch straight races 200yd straight the first day and three races the second day over 350 m bends.
So if your dogs are doing these distances over 2 days, how do you train them for building up their stamina ??......

 

[Strike Whippets]

Forgot to thankyou Merril for your reply :b .......We are looking into importing from America so i am being dead nosey (w00t)

 

[BeeJay]

Yes, Alcaeus is entered in the Texas nat'l meet.  He'll take a month off to re-group so that will be the next meet he is entered in.
Glad to see you in Orgeon, Tony.  Good luck with those beautiful pups.

Merril

Would you normally run every week?

 

[Merril]

The spring and fall have many more race meets than the summer and winter months so the calender is quite full around that time. There are weekends when we'll run two weekends in a row then rest for a couple of weeks then another meet then a week or two off inbetween, then another weekend of racing.

We rarely have practices/club races/schooling meets so race meets are the only form of racing they get.

To keep them fit and able to compete over the course of a weekend, they get a pretty good workout 3 x per week plus road walking on alternate days.

Everyone has their own workout schedule, but mine consists of free running in hay fields that are 2 miles long by 1 mile wide bordered by the delta slough inlets on 2 sides. They get to chase birds, egrets, jacks, or race each other down the irrigation canals.

Road walking is on quiet country roads for 3.5 miles.

We also have 5 acres of our own, but the older dogs are too damn lazy to do much exercise in our field since they have long decided it was not worth the effort. (they know every inch of it by heart by now). The young dogs will still run about, but I don't rely on it to keep them fit that way.

Merril

 

[BeeJay]

Thanks Merril. Interesting to learn what different racing folk do.

Lucky you having 5 acres of your own.

 

[Strike Whippets]

Your dogs are very lucky .........I must admit to keeping my dogs well covered and they all free run and hunt every day and i feel that my lot would do better over a longer distance than alot of our "fined off, lead walked only" racers over here but this is just my personal opinion :b .........but i do think it makes a difference

 

[Judy]

I must admit to keeping my dogs well covered and they all free run and hunt every day    and i feel that my lot would do better over a longer distance than alot of our "fined off, lead walked only" racers over here

Do I sense a critisism here Hannah Surely not

Seriously though, I don't know anyone that just road walks and you have to remember that the rest of us condition our dogs for the shorter sprinting distances we do here. Your right, it does make a difference but I don't see much point in conditioning racing whippets for longer distances than we actually race here.

 

[IanGerman]

ROFL ..... 200 yard "sprints"

The poor little things would consider racing in the UK as a nice relaxing break! Especially EA's 50 yard scratch dash!

It's interesting to read how others do things though. I assumed by Merrill's reply that that there being NO weight groups, all in and all off scratch, there really is no point at all in breeding smaller dogs. Which is kind of a shame I think, being that historically - in the UK at least - the classes went down to around 10lb I believe. Do some campaigning for a 20lb and under class Merrill - the smaller whippets really are delightful!

I imagine that the racing population in the US must be much, much higher than here in the UK, otherwise you would have the same handful of dogs winning all the time and the rest getting more and more disillusioned. I guess that's a basic difference between the US and the UK though ... they hail winners, and the rest don't matter - whereas we hail winners, put the losers into a consolation event and call THEM winners too!

I do agree though that whenever you see a picture of an American whippet, they DO look mighty handsome - and Acaeus is no exception

 

[John E Greenwood]

As I understand it, they used to have longer races here....I, for one, wish that they still did.

Dogs behave better...don't hunt on and are more responsive to recall at a heavier weight.....As soon as Barney has finished racing, I will put a couple of pounds on him (from 30.5lb to 33lb), for the coursing season...He will be easier to live with, and will listen to commands more, when out ferreting etc.

 

[Merril]

Funny you should mention weight classes, John.

I am not the only one who has proposed weight classes in North America over the years. We have gone round and around with different ideas. A couple of years ago, I proposed on an America whippet list that we do up to 35 lbs and over 35 lb divisions. Only two divisons, mind you! It was shot down. The arguments against it were many. Proposing more than two divisions would cause my fellow racers to bring out a rope and start looking for a tall tree. Change is very hard to come by here!

I have also proposed to our sprint racing organization that we have varying distances from 150 yrds to over 200 yrds. It is defeated each time I propose it. (it's the smaller distance they have the most trouble with, not the longer distance!)

We do have varying oval/bend distances thanks to our inovative free thinking founder of oval racing in north American, but you can't make them budge on distances or weight groups for sprint racing.

Another whippet racer over here proposed a weight 'cap' of 45 lbs. It was defeated!!!

Personally, I would vote for a cap of 40 lbs (which would exclude 2 of my own dogs) but you can guess the chances of that actually happening.

As for hailing winners, we do have grades over here which is our version of consolation racing. Each dog is graded on it's last 3 performances. (meets) All dogs get 4 chances at each meet (heats) to prove themselves in every race meeting. Winners go up, slower ones move down. No championships are awarded to the slower dogs (although there are lower level titles dogs can attain), but they do get awards for placing higest in their grade, age bracket, if they are a lure coursing champion etc. They don't all go home empty handed.

As for little ones, well, some of us like to swim against the flow and do keep a few little ones. No one takes them seriously of course, but they are damn cute if nothing else. My smallest is 23 lbs which is tiny for over here. Yes, our dogs all race off scratch - dogs and bitches together. Many of our dogs weigh in the 30-45 lb range. A few bigger than that and a few smaller. Not too many under 30's (even less under 25 lbs) and most of the little ones don't finish very high in the meets.

I would like things to change, but it isn't going to happen I don't think. I would still like to see an under 35 and over 35 catagory, but even that seems too radical for this country. <sigh)

Believe it or not, Alcaeus at 35 lbs and 20.5" is considered one of the smaller dogs racing and more along the size line of the bitches racing who also run head to head with either sex.

Merril