Beagle Dog Trophy Race

Yesterday was the Beagle Dog Trophy Race. There were four contenders :

– Murphy (Recent Derby Winner)
– Milo (Last Year’s Trophy Winner & 2nd in Recent Derby)
– Bailey (Only 2nd visit to the racing)
– Benny (First time at the racing this year)

When Milo arrived he didn’t know it was an important race for him today. He had won the trophy last year and was supposed to bring it back so that it could be presented to this year’s winner. Poor Milo – his mum & dad hadn’t even got his name engraved on it yet!!! His mum was sent home to fetch the trophy and a little bird tells us that she was frantically polishing the dust off with her jumper en-route back to the track!

Based upon past performances I think we all knew it was between Murphy and Milo, but they are so close in ability that it was anyone’s guess who the winner would be. It was a close race but Milo won, keeping the trophy for a second year. Murphy was a close second followed by Bailey then Benny.

Milo, Murphy and Bailey

After the important race of the day was over we just had a series of fun runs. First Beanie had a race against three bitches and won by several yards. So a promising start.

Milo’s little sister Jess was a bit naughty in her first race and started playfully jostling race favorite Inca half way down the track. Of course, Inca was only too happy to abandon the race for a bit of mischief. When it was time for Jess’s next race her mum held her back for a few seconds so that Jess was out of harms way and couldn’t scupper the other dog’s chances. Well, that was the plan, but in actual fact Jess rose to the challenge and came VERY close to winning. She finished in second place despite starting several yards behind the pack!

Next Beanie was up against Milo and Murphy and got well and truly trounced by them. In recent weeks she’s been keeping very close to them and loosing by less than a dog’s length. But today she was probably several yards behind them. She won her next race, but she was quite sluggish. She made up speed later in the races, but she started slower than normal every time. It could be because she was pooped after Saturday’s mega run in the park. But we are keeping a close eye just in case her recent change to a raw diet isn’t suiting her as well as we thought!

We finished up with a fun run with all the dogs racing together. Murphy was first, followed by Beanie. Although to be fair Milo never does well in the fun runs as he always seems to be more interested in naughtiness and nonsense on his way down the track!.