The Irish Red & White Setter Club held it’s Open Stake on Grouse in the Dublin Mountains on Saturday 29th July 2007. One of the judges was unable to attend so Tom Dunne took the lead role ably abetted by Fr. Seamus O’Neile. The wind was slightly East of North for the most of the day and steady at 2 – 3. The scenting conditions were good and it was just about perfect for the job in hand. There were only twenty two dogs in the stake as there were some multiple withdrawals for reasons unknown.
The first round was run in the main to the right hand side of the road up to Kippure. Mostly good running ground but running into shallow banks at the top. I watched all but two of the first round and saw one grouse, walked up by the gallery.
Jalad was first up in the fifth brace against Hugh Brady’s Remkilens T Ebba an imported Irish Setter Bitch. I was quite pleased with Jalad. He covered a lot of ground at pace and was hunting but his nemesis appeared in the shape of a lark and he gave it a bit of a course. I offered to pick him up but the dogs were going well and I was let run on rather than upset my bracemate’s run. I didn’t expect him to get back, and he didn’t.
Roxy was next. By now we were in the peat banks and while the going up top was good the cuttings badly disrupted the flow. Roxy, running against Michael Murphy’s young Pointer dog Gardenfield Murphy, a debutante which took a lot of vocal handling, stuck to her task. She covered a lot of ground and handled well but the ground disrupted her pattern. I hoped for a bit of slack and didn’t get it, or another run.
Judy was next running with another debutante Desi Linton’s Red & White Setter dog Craigrua Desmond. We were still in the banks and this didn’t suit Judy. She gave it her best but it wasn’t enough.
I may have mentioned that I put the dogs unto the Skinner’s Field & Trial Supreme the moment I heard that the trials would go ahead. Initially I used the recommended dose and the dogs made an awful lot of condition. I have them cut down to half rations but they aren’t fit and being overweight doesn’t help.
I didn’t stay for the rest of the trial I went home.
Result: -
1st Capparoe Jip Billy Grace’s English Setter Bitch.
The winner had a find in on a snipe.
