Winter Garden Specialties
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By Amy Fernandez
I took my annual hike up to Rye Brook to check out the 2020 Winter Garden specialties. I don’t blame you for losing track of exactly what, where or when. These shows have moved around A LOT.
You might call this the large breed offshoot after the collapse of the Meadowlands deal. It wasn’t that long ago, but from a dog show perspective, it seems like an eternity. Some smaller breeds regrouped over at the Pennsylvania as the Metro Specialties, several of them unfortunately relinquished their stake in Westminster week, and a few of them ended up at the Westchester Hilton in Rye Brook. I don’t need to reiterate the challenges of holding a specialty in conjunction with Westminster. Winter Garden President Kathy Cunningham-Roy could write the book. “We are proud of the entries we draw. We have worked very hard to keep this alive.” She’s not exaggerating. Most of the shows drew about 50-75 dogs. Not colossal but considering the logistical hurdles, simply getting it done counts big in terms of prestige, visibility, and top quality competition.
Winter Garden coalesced around the Combined Setter Specialties that began in NYC 60 years ago. Setters truly do represent the backbone of American purebred culture; sorry Sensation, but they were taking over by the time Westminster got up and running in 1877.
Kathy’s involvement with the show dates back to those days in NYC. She says, “After the move to Secaucus, Combined was incorporated into the Meadowlands deal. After that venture failed, AKC stepped in to try and preserve the weekend, which was when it became the Garden Specialty Association. AKC worked with the group for two or three years trying to make a go of it. Ultimately it also failed, but a handful of us were just too vested in keeping the shows alive.”
That diehard group included English Setter breeder Lourdes Fernandez who says, “When that Secaucus deal started circling the drain…” Basically Lourdes, Kathy, Anne Marie Kubacz from the Eastern Irish Setter Association, and Laura Bedford from the Gordon Setter Club took matters in hand. “We are all old timers; we decided we cannot let this die.”
Kathy and Lourdes were manning the catalog sales that morning, and I admit that I liked these ladies from the get-go. Real-time dog people have this unmistakable vibe. Well, I don’t need to explain it. Even though I come from the other end of the purebred spectrum they were happy to talk about their club and dogs in general. Anyway they have been at this long enough to earn their stripes. I just wanna warn you; don’t plan on getting out of there without buying a raffle ticket.
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Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=180191
Posted by AnthonyA
on Apr 6 2020. Filed under Current Articles.
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