No one expected a runoff, but when the Secretary announced it, no one was really surprised. But when it ended, with Butterfly named National Champion, all were surprised except two.
The dogs called to go in a runoff were Butterfly, owned by Mary Cant, and handled by Marty Short, and Arbitrator, owned by Carl Leffer and handled by Eddie Eanes.
The dogs called for the runoff had been bracemates in the three-hour heats. They were clearly top contenders when the forty entries had run, each with a ten-find race to the Amesian standard. (No other entry had a comparable race or more than five finds).
How the runoff brace ended surprised all. Eddie Eanes, handling Arbitrator, was riding on course two hundred yards in front of the judges when he topped a rise and saw Butterfly pointed. On instinct he yelled ”Point!” Then his entry, Arbitrator, appeared and ran past Butterfly to steal the point.
When in three minutes the judges arrived and saw the scene, Arbitrator standing, Butterfly backing, Eddie blurted, “She had the birds, my dog failed to back, stole the point.” As if to emphasize Eddie’s statement, a covey lifted in front of Arbitrator and flew to the nearest thicket.
The judges looked at one another as Eddie rode to Arbitrator, dismounted and pulled a roading harness from his saddle and fitted it to the dog and remounted, rope in hand.
Butterfly still stood rigid, unmoving. Marty Short arrived and a marshal told him of his good fortune.
From the porch of the Ames Manor House, after the Secretary had announced Butterfly National Champion, the senior judge praised Eddie Eanes’ ethics to applause by all except Carl Leffer who had left the plantation with Arbitrator in the trunk of his Lexus.
That night Mary Cant and Eddie Eanes spent together in Memphis in the Peabody Hotel. Before that they had only flirted, though each felt the attraction. Both were single. In three months they were married to one another.
Carl Leffer never believed Arbitrator had stolen Butterfly’s point. None could fault him for that opinion, though all the pros knew Arbitrator never backed except on command, and that trait had ironically accounted for the win that qualified him for the National.