June 6, 2010
Blue Ridge Mortimer 2009 (Crawley and Horsham Morpeth 2005 ex Blue Ridge Crocus 2006) was judged Champion English Foxhound and ultimately Grand Champion of the Show at Bryn Mawr on Saturday, June 5. Mortimer goes back in tail-male to Marty and Daphne Wood’s renowned Live Oak Drummer 1989, but the bloodlines had to cross the Atlantic twice before winding up in the Blue Ridge kennels.
Marty Wood drafted one of Live Oak Drummer’s sons, carrying Midland, Heythrop, and Exmoor blood, to Captain Ronnie Wallace, MFH at the Exmoor. The Captain entered the hound to his pack as Exmoor Drummer in 1998. Two generations later, Exmoor Drummer’s grandson, Crawley and Horsham Morpeth 2005, was acquired by Blue Ridge MFH Linda Armbrust and brought back across the Atlantic to her pack in Virginia.
The Morpeth to Crocus cross was a good one, according to Blue Ridge huntsman Dennis Downing. “Everyone looks at the stallion line first, but I think it was Crocus that was most influential in this breeding,” Downing said.
Perfect, an un-entered bitch at Green Spring Valley, was Champion Crossbred Foxhound and Reserve Grand Champion of the Show. An extremely classy white hound, Perfect (Fox River Valley Keg 2005 ex Greeen Spring Valley Piecrust 2006) was judged Champion Un-Entered Bitch at Virginia just a week before. English bloodlines on her dam’s side are primarily from the Exmoor and Fell hunts on the Scottish-English border and the rugged Lake District.
Champion American Foxhound was Potomac Jeopardy 2005 (Potomac Rapidan 1999 ex Their Jezebel 2000). In the Penn-Marydel ring, Andrews Bridge Jazzy 2009 was judged Champion. Jazzy (Andrews Bridge Emperor 2005 ex Their Poe 2007) is a maternal grand-daughter of Long Run Sabor 2001, whose son Long Run Saigon 2009 was Champion Penn-Marydel at Virginia just last week.
Click a photo to start slideshow. Photos by Karen L. Myers
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