Grand Champion Hillsboro Stafford is one member of an exceptional un-entered litter by Midland Striker ’15. / Geri DeSousa photo
Hillsboro Hounds (TN) huntsman Johnnie Gray sidestepped his usual protocol and made a breeding decision that turned out quite well. Two years ago in the show rings his own hounds came up against Midland Striker a few times, and Johnnie liked the yet un-entered Midland dog hound. Before sending a bi*ch* out to be bred, however, Johnnie’s practice is first to see the potential sire in the hunting field so he knows that it hunts well. At that point, no one had yet seen Striker in the hunting field.
“I didn’t want to take a chance and wait another year—who knows what might happen?—and I knew Striker’s sire and dam were good hunting hounds. The bi*ch I wanted to breed was Warwickshire Daylight 2012. There was no question about her hunting ability, so I went ahead and sent her to Striker at Midland.”
Bingo! Daylight produced a litter of pups at Hillsboro, sired by Striker, that have attracted the attention of a lot of judges this year. There was un-entered Stafford, Starlight, (Hillsboro) Striker, Spitler, and Steamboat.
The litter did well at Carolinas. Stafford was Grand Champion Foxhound of Show. Earlier, he was English Champion Foxhound, and Starlight was Reserve English Champion to him.** Spitler, who went to Whiskey Road Foxhounds (SC), was Reserve Crossbred Champion Dog and Un-Entered Champion Foxhound with Starlight picked as Un-Entered Reserve Champion to him. Steamboat, who went to Midland, was Champion Un-Entered Hound at the Southern Hound Show and Champion Crossbred Un-Entered Hound at Virginia. An exceptional litter, indeed.
In a separate article reporting on this year’s Bryn Mawr Hound Show, where Midland Striker 2015 was judged Grand Champion of Show, Midland MFH Mason Lampton discusses his K-line, starting with Midland Kate 1995, and credits her pre-potency for establishing the line that has produced so many exceptional foxhounds. Kate’s bloodlines are in Striker and his get, and in numerous other winners in the show rings today.
Judges for this forty-first Annual Carolinas Hound Show were John Gilbert, Mason Lampton, Sally McLaughlin, Charles Montgomery, David Raley, and Jeannie Thomas. The show was held at the Springdale Racecourse, Camden, South Carolina on May 5 and 6, 2017.
Aiken Zorro 2015 was Reserve Grand Champion. Click for final results at Carolinas.
Posted July 7, 2017
* Periodically we apologise for the silly practice of fudging the bi*ch-word. We do this so that our e-magazine won’t be marked as spam and go undelivered to you!
** The litter is technically Crossbred, but an honest error occurred somewhere in the entry process!