One Find Champions

“It’s bird dog, not birds dog,” judge Andy Crowell said when I asked him how he and fellow judge Rich Robertson had chosen Lester’s Georgia Time as 2018 Florida Champion, handled by Robin Gates for Jim Clark and Baker Hubbard of Columbus, Georgia, with only one find, and that of a single hiding in a hedge row and found by the dog while it was regaining the front after a change in direction of its course. Andy explained that in an all-age stake it was race, not bird finding, that counted most. And Time’s race had been outstanding, all at the front and searching.

None in the gallery nor among the handlers had predicted Time’s win, for there were several multi-find performances the judges might have chosen. But Rich, a seasoned pro, and Andy, a seasoned amateur with multiple championship wins, all-age and shooting dog, picked Time, for its race: all at the front and searching and reaching. One bird pointed was enough.

On reflection, I recalled Andy had run and handled at Hoffman many, many years in the time before its early release program. He had seen many one-find wins. And so had Rich who perhaps more than any pro save perhaps Dave Grubb, had run everywhere in the U S and Canada in his long successful career, including many grounds not blessed with birds like Chinquapin. (Ironically, and in sharp contrast, Rich had won the Florida in 2015 with Utah’s Red Rock Express with six finds but a big all-age race as well.)

The only other one-find Champion at Chinquapin in the twenty-six years I have reported was Lester’s Tom Cruise in 2011, a strange year when few dogs had multiple finds in spite of birds being plentiful but not moving. Cruise was handled by Andy Daugherty for owner Brad Calkins of Denver, perhaps the sports most long-time loyal patron. Like Time’s, Tom Cruise’s race had been outstanding.