My Career as a Lure Courser
Part 7 - Sixth Race
First race with no ribbon!
by Val the Whippet, F. Ch.
On September 4, 2000, at Emich/Knight Field, Camano Island, Washington, I entered my sixth official ASFA Lure Coursing event, this time sponsored by W.W.W.A.
This was Labor Day weekend and they had races Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I only made it on Monday. People were joking about my owners showing up on the third day with a fresh dog!
There were 13 field champions running this time. For my preliminary run, I ran with Reebok and Jam. Black and whites rule!
Me in yellow on the left, Reebok in blue and Jam in pink.
Here's my sister, Chickie, after her first run of the day.
My final run was against Cayman and Dare (mostly black with some white). (Dare lives with Magic, which I find amusing, because I have a cat living with me named Magic.)
Me in blue, Cayman in pink and Dare in yellow coming up to the finish
line.
After the scores were tallied up, Cayman came in first place. And there were five dogs tied for 2nd-NBQ, including me! NBQ means "Next Best Qualifying" and is basically 5th place. You don't get points toward Lure Courser of Merit, but you do get points toward best dog in the country.
So we had the big run-off. I was up first with Twister and Reebok.
That's me in my pink jacket coming into the finish line.
Then Socks and Steapa ran.
After those scores were tallied, there was STILL a tie. Between me and Reebok for NBQ. We were all getting tired, by now. Sometimes, folks flip a coin for ties, especially NBQ's. But my people and Reebok's dad decided that we should run again! I was tired, but when I saw those bunnies out there, my ears pricked up and I was ready! So back out went the judges. Back out we went.
This time I was wearing yellow again. (I got to wear all three colors today.) Reebok was pink. And guess what? I actually caught the bunny before the race was over!
What a prize!
They had us start again from where I caught the bunny and then finish the rest of the course.
Here's me with the bunny at the end of the course.
After the final final score was added up, Reebock got the NBQ. This was the first time I raced and didn't get a ribbon. (It's not that unusual. A lot of the dogs who win a lot, sometimes don't win anything at all.) I was disappointed, but mom was proud of me anyway because I did so good!
I guess the dogs that race a couple of weekends a month are in better shape than me, and that's the reason I didn't win. I did really good to be tied with so many great dogs.
Actually, Reebock's owner gave us the ribbon because he didn't really want it. So Reebock got the points, but I got the ribbon. Here it is...
The judges were Mike Savage and Vern Staack, both from Spokane.
