Toronto and North York huntsman John Harrison gets his hounds moving for the judges. / Mary Raphael photo
Toronto and North York Clarence 2012 was judged Grand Champion of the Canadian Foxhound Show at the Ottawa Valley Hunt Farm on June 14, 2014. Judges were Messrs. C. Martin Scott, ex-MFH, Vale of the White Horse (UK) and Mason Lampton, MFH, Midland Foxhounds (GA).
It wasn’t too long ago that the Canadian hunts showed mainly English foxhounds, but the Canadian show now offers classes for both English and Crossbred Champions. With this in mind, it’s interesting to note that this year’s Grand Champion, while considered English based on the high percentage of English bloodlines in his pedigree, goes back in tail female to Midland Crossbred lines and on his sire’s side to a strong Blue Ridge female line of Crossbreds.
Clarence’s dam, Toronto and North York Clinic 2006, was a Crossbred hound out of a Midland female.* His sire, Blue Ridge Barnfield 2010, goes back in tail male to strong English lines of which Judge Martin Scott makes note:
Toronto and North York Clarence 2012 (Blue Ridge Barnfield 2010 ex T&NY Clinic 2006) / Mary Raphael photo
Scott writes, “I was impressed by both Clarence ’12 and his litter sister Cleopatra, the champion English [Female],* for their quality. They both moved well and had good size. Upon looking at the pedigree on my return to England I saw that they went back tail male via Blue Ridge Barnfield ’10, whom I have not seen but who was by Duke of Beaufort’s Bailey ’03, perhaps the most influential stallion in England in the past fifteen years. This male line goes back to Heythrop Busby ’96, another very influential sire in his time. I also noted that they go back [through the Midland Crossbred lines] to College Valley/North Northumberland Grafter ’89 from one of the most influential hill hound kennels in England, which we regard as an outcross and valued so highly in their work.”
Toronto and North York huntsman John Harrison must take special pleasure in Clarence’s victory, for this year’s Grand Champion goes back to bloodlines that he introduced to the pack during his earlier term as huntsman twenty years ago.
In 1995, Harrison wrote, “I received some Berkeley hounds from Major Berkeley. One was Ballad ’87 who came to us in whelp to Berkeley Freshman ’84. Freshman was by [Captain Ronnie Wallace’s] Exmoor Freestone ’81. Freestone is the key.”
Ballad’s litter produced Freedom ’92 who appears in Clarence’s fifth generation. Freedom sired an exceptional crop of littermates, and the Grand Champions at Virginia in 1995 and 1994 both go back to Freestone.
Posted June 25, 2014
* In the world of mass-mailed e-publishing we must use the word, “female” when referring to that gender of dogs and hounds, rather than the “b-word,” so that our mailings will not be automatically blocked by spam filters. We know it sounds funny to hound and dog people, but there we are!