FINDING A PUP
Finding a pup with good breeding was not going to be easy. Every Thursday, I had a look through the racing post adds. I was looking for a pup costing not more than £1000 that was bred to stay. Hopefully, fingers crossed, he chases and he can grade in at Romford Stadium, my local Dog Track. where I was once a kennel boy.
I'M THE SPOTTY 17 YEAR OLD
BEING PRESENTED WITH A TROPHY FOR ACHIEVEMENT, AT ROMFORD STADIUM AFTER WINNING 17 CONSECUTIVE OPEN RACES.
Having not been dog racing in the last 12 years, I was not familiar with the latest stud dogs. Whisper Wishes and Sand Man were long gone. So I Looked at the breeding of the open racers in the racing post, to see what names cropped up the most. I made a list, that read. Toms The Best, Spiral Nikita, Larkhill Jo, Staplers Jo, Top Honcho, Smooth Rumble, Plasterscene Gem and so on.
Even after that little bit of homework, finding a pup with the breeding I liked was not easy. The pups advertised in the post were between £500 and £800, but I was not to sure on the Dams. I had never heard of them or seen them run.
I decided to look at Irish bred pups on the Internet, what I liked with that was, if you click on the Sire or the Dam, it would come up with their breeding . Now I can see the names I remember from years ago, Bright Lad, Liberty Lad, Sand Man, Linda's Champion, Monalee Champion. Oh yes it's all coming back to me now.
COULD THIS BE THE ONE
After Eight Weeks Of Looking.
On the 26th February 2003, I found the web site for Cherryhill Kennels.
which had a list of brood bitches. There was Call Me Baby, who came second in last years Derby ( 2002 ) and also Drumsna Cross, a lovely looking blue Bitch with some good breeding.
DRUMSNA CROSS Pedigree
I read the write up about her, she held the 647m track record at Belle Vue, so she was a stayer, which is what I was after and she won THE CORAL MERCURY TROPHY FINAL at Romford , (which is where I am hoping to run my pup.) And in doing so she beat El Poker ( not a bad dog ).
My next step was to E-mail Cherryhill Kennels to ask if they were going to breed a litter from her in the near future and if so would any be up for sale. Two days later I had a reply saying she had just returned from being covered by Smooth Rumble. And that four people had already got their Name's down for bitch pups.
I quickly replied stating that I was after a Dog pup. The next day I received an e-mail from the Breeder, Dennis Wilson saying that the Dog pups are £1000 each and that he will put my name down for one. And if I e-mail him back in about 8 weeks he will let me know if she has had any pups.
Over the moon
I was really pleased, Smooth Rumble had thrown some really good hounds lately, for example Maxie Rumble , Keltie Sparkler, and Centour Corker. The latter won the Ladbroke Golden Jacket at Crayford doing the Track record twice. And in six months won over £20,000 in prize money. In my opinion he was virtually unbeatable over 6 to 8 bends. unfortunately he sustained a career ending injury and is now standing at stud.
On Saturday 26th April 2003 I received an E-mail from Dennis, saying that Drumsna Cross had whelped a litter of four dogs and two bitches on the 20th April, and that he will send me a photo of the Dog pups soon
The Four Dog Pups
Dennis told me I had 2nd choice after the owner of the bitch. The owner chose the Blue pup, so I chose the black one and sent off my £200 deposit. A few days later, I received an E-mail from Dennis Wilson saying that he had received my cheque. I asked Dennis if it was OK if I sent the remaining £800 when they were Twelve weeks old, and he said that would be fine.