"We had the greatest turnout in at least the last ten years." This was the initial report furnished by Barry Brubaker this evening from The Lookout Trial For Field Champions.
There were 97 bitches entered on the female side and 86 males in the dog class when the entries were closed this morning. The bitch class was up 8 entries from last year while the male class was up 12 entires.
Thirty braces were run in each class before the sun set this evening. The rest of the braces will be run tomorrow morning starting at 8 AM sharp.
Barry reported that the weather was near perfect for the first day of the trial. He said the temperature was 65 degrees and the sun was shinning brightly. A rain storm passed through the area Friday evening.
Judges for this first field champion trial in 2004 in the competition for the Joy Dog of The Year Award are Gary Bushmire and Buddy McLeroy in the male class and Ewing Carhart and Jimmy Ponder in the female class.
Check bracebeagling.com tomorrow evening for the listing of the winners in each class. We also will have all the dogs in second series listed as they came back.