Current:Home > MarketsSage, a miniature poodle, wins the Westminster Dog Show -Nova Finance Academy
Sage, a miniature poodle, wins the Westminster Dog Show
View
Date:2025-04-22 21:11:17
A miniature poodle named Sage won the top prize at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show Tuesday night.
It was the 11th triumph for poodles of various sizes in the United States' most prestigious canine event — only wire fox terriers have won more. And it was the second best in show win for handler Kaz Hosaka. He led another miniature poodle, Spice, to the trophy in 2002 and said this year's Westminster would be his last.
"No words," he said in the ring to describe his reaction to Sage's win, soon supplying a few words: "So happy — exciting."
Striding briskly and proudly around the ring, the inky-black poodle "gave a great performance for me," added Hosaka, who said he'd been competing at Westminster for 45 years.
Sage bested six other finalists to take the top prize. Second went to Mercedes the German shepherd, also guided by a handler, Kent Boyles, who has won the big prize before.
Others in the final round included Comet, a shih tzu who won the big American Kennel Club National Championship last year; Monty, a giant schnauzer who arrived at Westminster as the nation's top-ranked dog and was a Westminster finalist last year; Louis, an Afghan hound; Micah, a black cocker spaniel; and Frankie, a colored bull terrier.
They faced off at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home of the U.S. Open tennis tournament.
In an event where all competitors are champions in the sport's point system, winning can depend on subtleties and a standout turn in the ring.
"Just to be in the ring with everyone else is an honor," Monty's handler and co-owner, Katie Bernardin, said in the ring after his semifinal win. "We all love our dogs. We're trying our best."
Monty, who also was a finalist last year, is "a stallion" of a giant schnauzer, Bernardin of Chaplin, Connecticut, said in an interview before his semifinal win. She described him as solid, powerful and "very spirited."
So "spirited" that while Bernardin was pregnant, she did obedience and other dog sports with Monty because he needed the stimulation.
While she loves giant schnauzers, "they're not an easy breed," she cautions would-be owners. But she adds that the driven dogs can be great to have "if you can put the time into it."
Dogs first compete against others of their breed. Then the winner of each breed goes up against others in its "group." The seven group winners meet in the final round.
The best in show winner gets a trophy and a place in dog-world history, but no cash prize.
Other dogs that vied in vain for a spot in the finals included Stache, a Sealyham terrier. He won the National Dog Show that was televised on Thanksgiving and took top prize at a big terrier show in Pennsylvania last fall.
Stache showcases a rare breed that's considered vulnerable to extinction even in its native Britain.
"They're a little-known treasure," said Stache's co-owner, co-breeder and handler, Margery Good of Cochranville, Pennsylvania, who has bred "Sealys" for half a century. Originally developed in Wales to hunt badgers and other burrowing game, the terriers with a "fall" of hair over their eyes are courageous but comedic - Good dubs them "silly hams."
Westminster can feel like a study in canine contrasts. Just walking around, a visitor could see a Chihuahua peering out of a carrying bag at a stocky Neapolitan mastiff, a ring full of honey-colored golden retrievers beside a lineup of stark-black giant schnauzers, and handlers with dogs far larger than themselves.
Shane Jichetti was one of them. Ralphie, the 175-pound great Dane she co-owns, outweighs her by a lot. It takes considerable experience to show so big an animal, but "if you have a bond with your dog, and you just go with it, it works out," she said.
Plus Ralphie, for all his size, is "so chill," said Jichetti. Playful at home on New York's Staten Island, he's spot-on - just like his harlequin-pattern coat - when it's time to go in the ring.
"He's just an honest dog," Jichetti said.
The Westminster show, which dates to 1877, centers on the traditional purebred judging that leads to the best in show prize. But over the last decade, the club has added agility and obedience events open to mixed-breed dogs.
And this year, the agility competition counted its first non-purebred winner, a border collie-papillon mix named Nimble.
- In:
- Dogs
veryGood! (2)
Related
- See you latte: Starbucks plans to cut 30% of its menu
- Netflix employees are staging a walkout as a fired organizer speaks out
- Bus with musicians crashes in western India, killing 13 and injuring 29 others
- Is The Future Of The Internet In The Metaverse?
- 'Kraven the Hunter' spoilers! Let's dig into that twisty ending, supervillain reveal
- These Oscars 2023 Behind-the-Scenes Photos of Rihanna, Ke Huy Quan and More Deserve an Award
- Why Top Gun: Maverick’s Tom Cruise Will Miss the 2023 Oscars
- Pregnant Rihanna's 2023 Oscars Performance Lifted Up Everyone, Including A$AP Rocky
- Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
- Halle Bailey Proves She's a Disney Princess in Jaw-Dropping Oscars 2023 Gown
Ranking
- Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
- Facebook is now revealing how often users see bullying or harassing posts
- Nebraska officials actively searching for mountain lion caught on Ring doorbell camera
- Oscars 2023: See All the Couples Bringing Movie Magic to the Red Carpet
- John Galliano out at Maison Margiela, capping year of fashion designer musical chairs
- Put Down That PS5 And Pick Up Your Switch For The Pixelated Pleasures Of 'Eastward'
- Oscars 2023: See Brendan Fraser's Sons Support Dad During Rare Red Carpet Interview
- U.S. indicts 2 men behind major ransomware attacks
Recommendation
Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
Austin Butler Is Closing the Elvis Chapter of His Life at Oscars 2023
This Super Affordable Amazon Sheet Set Has 355,600+ Five-Star Reviews
Nicole Kidman's All-Black Oscars 2023 Look Just May Be Our Undoing
Nearly 400 USAID contract employees laid off in wake of Trump's 'stop work' order
Facebook asks court to toss FTC lawsuit over its buys of Instagram and WhatsApp
Huge policing operation planned for coronation of King Charles
Google Is Appealing A $5 Billion Antitrust Fine In The EU