The Westminster Group Winners Their Story…
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By Joan Harrigan
The Best in Show lineup at the 144th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show didn’t disappoint judge Robert H. Slay of Cary, North Carolina. He called it the strongest he’d ever seen—among the seven were two repeat group winners from 2019 (the Havanese and the Boxer) who also happened to be 2019’s Number 1 and Number 2 show dogs (all-breed), respectively. The Standard Poodle was the top Non-Sporting dog in 2019, and 4th in all-breed points. And, the Hound Group winner was the formidable Whippet Bourbon, the top hound last year, and Number 3 in all-breed points.
Slay had seven very different dogs arrayed before him—all in top condition and all with breeders, owners, and handlers who had placed these dogs at the very center of their lives. In the ring, each dog and handler moved as a single entity. All were deserving—they’d defeated many dogs and handlers to stand in the Best in Show ring. There is only one Westminster, and in the end, only one Best in Show.
“Kentucky Bourbon” Returns
GCHG Pinnacle Kentucky Bourbon was second in the Hound Group last year; to get there, she’d upset her litter brother, “Whiskey” in the breed. This year, she takes the group under judge Marjorie Martorella of Millstone Township, New Jersey. Bourbon was bred by handler Cheslie Pickett Smithey’s husband, Justin Smithey, and Yvonne Sovereign. She is owned by the Smitheys, Dr. Ken Latimer, Judy Descutner, and Nancy Shaw. The bond between Bourbon and Pickett Smithey is palpable. She’s known Justin and Cheslie Smithey forever; she was whelped at their home in Athens, Georgia.
“She’s been with us since we could hold her in the palms of our hands,” Pickett Smithey says. “She’s our companion, and sleeps in our bed.” It’s interesting to ask breeders just when they recognized that a puppy was something really special. Bourbon showed early potential—at just four months, the Smitheys could see that she had that “star quality.”
The week before Westminster, Bourbon broke the BIS record for her breed with her 73rd win since January 2019. “Whippets love their people,” Pickett Smithey says. “You ask, and they go out there and do it for you.” Pickett Smithey “married” into this breed; she was “born into” Papillons, which her mother bred. “She brought me to the shows since I was ‘yea high,’ and never said no,” she says. “I was able to learn so much!”
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Posted by AnthonyA
on Apr 1 2020. Filed under Current Articles, Featured.
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