Reata Whippet Racing Group

Your hound's eyesight is very precious!  Thanks to Liz Campbell, she tipped us that CERF testing is available in Salt Lake City, UT at the Eye Care for Animals at 1021 E. 3300 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84106.  Their telephone number is (801) 942-3937.  There are two avenues to CERF testing - a call for a specified appointment for your dog and the fee is $52.  The other option is to attend their once a month clinic - you can call to find out the when and to see if you get your dog on the list - this option costs just $32.  Today, Mary & I, took our Vinnie into the Clinic for his CERF test and he passed with flying colors.  Amy Knollinger, DVM performed the test and Vinnie was in and out in just a half hour.  A very worthwhile investment in $ and time for your hound(s).  We will be scheduling Caliente real soon.  The staff and Dr. Knollinger were friendly and very efficient.  Thank you Liz for tipping us on this place!!

Congratulations to two new IWRO Sprint Champions.  The new Independent Sprint Champions (ISC) earned their ISC's at the Southern Oregon Racing & Coursing Association's September 24, 2011, Meet.  They are our 3rd and 4th ISC achievers!

They are:  "Ruger" , Ruger, proudy owned by Michele & Tiven Tegner and "Missy" , FC Windyglen's Petal's of Rose,SC,FCh, proudly owned by Ann Billups.   

We are also proud to note that "Missy", just happens to be a Grandmother to Reata's new girl, "Caliente", Mischief's Fire and Rain, bred by Pascale & James Jones.

Effective May 10, 2011, the Whippet Running Activities Group(WRAG) based out of the Shadow Run Whippets Performance Park, home of Jo and Glen Sowards, in Goldendale, Washington has become an IWRO Member Club.  WRAG has hosted NOTRA meets since 2008 and just completed a sprint track and awaiting approval to host their first NAWRA meet on September 10, 2011.  IWRO will play the role of backup sanction should entry size requirements for NAWRA/NOTRA scheduled events not materialize.  We Welcome the Whippet Running Activities Group and their fine folks to the IWRO family of whippet racing clubs.  Please see their Schedule of Events for 2011 under "IWRO 2011 Calendar"

Jack Lewis, Organization Director 

Another beautiful day to enjoy the hounds doing what they love most-running!  By the last program though it was getting warm as the temps pushed 90, and this October 2?!  We had 5 IWRO entries, two of who were first time entered(FTE): BJ & Matt Dodge's Tiger, and Liz Campbell's Draco.  Rounding out the IWRO entry were the Dalby's Ahni and Xena, and Liz's Willow.  There was extremely close racing between the FTE's and the winner Draco, literally won by a nose!  Five NASR entries also enjoyed the day: Cindy Lund's three JRT's Tinker, JJ and Bandit; Ann Tylutki's Sneek, and Carrie Nanney's Loki (Sam was on the sidelines due to recent surgery, but was rewarded as the day ended with a short chase of the artificial lure).  Joining the fun with practice runs were Ron and Susan di Mattia and their two afghans and Therese Pitakis with her three Saluki's.  Mary and I want to thank all the owners for their great help in making this a very smooth racing event.  Our next IWRO/NASR Meet is on November 6 and it will also include practice runs.

A beautiful day for racing this September 18, 2010 and the Dalby's Ahni and Xena impressed in IWRO racing with Ahni winning the day.  NASR participation grew to 7 participants and new owner/handlers.  Carrie Nanney's Sam and Loki and Ann Tylutki's Sneek were joined by Jodie Levitt's Sheba and Cindy Lund's three Jack Russell Terriers, one a Parsons(Tinker) and two Irish, JJ & Bandit.  Therese Pitakis joined us to practice Tykie and Seven.  It was a day of fun racing and we were even able to get a time for all the dogs.  We are going to try to work in two more IWRO and NASR race dates for this season and have asked for local input as to show & lure trial dates so we can make the most of a date without conflicts.  Stay tuned!  A big thank you to all who supported today's event!

Hi Folks,

Our IWRO/NASR Meet for Saturday is a go.  No LGRA entries thus far, but still a possibility.  We have two whippet entries for the oval, not enough to justify the cost & time to set up an oval, but more entries may change that.  Stay tuned.  A final report on the weekend status will be delivered here on Friday evening at 6pm (September 17).

Jack

A wonderful oval practice this morning (August 29).  Though the overnight winds tried to bat down our oval track streamers they only got about 25% of them, so all was up in a jiffy for this morning's runs.  We started on time and swiftly moved through the runs completing before 10:30.  Melissa and Liz's boys look more than ready for the upcoming Lure Trials.  BJ and Matt's Tiger looks like he is ready to impress some folks at our upcoming IWRO Sprint and Oval weekend.  Tiger is a contender.  Irva and Crystal had to run off to a previous engagement, but their kids were awesome in clicking off the seconds in a run apiece.  Michelle's wonderful Saluki continue to impress, especially the youngster, extremely fast!  Karen and Bob just had to be pleased with Bruno's efforts, the very definition of enthusiam, as were Matt's Rhodesians.  Matt's puppy worked perfectly well with Carrie's Loki to show how a wonderful relay could be run.  Loki ran the first leg, handing off to Matt's pup for a perfect finish.  And of course, what can you say about Sam!  Just another cruise around the track, well, make that two.  And newcomer, Jodie, with her "Sheba" , showed that Sheba makes the most of those 12 mile a day runs with Mom on her bike - took to it very impressively.  Yvette and Kevin were back with their IG pups who continue to amaze.  Wait til they take the formal course of training on the squawker lure, they will be awesome.  A big Thank You to all who supported today's session.

Hi Folks,

By request we will have another oval practice at 9AM this coming Sunday, August 29.  We have a spanking new battery for the occasion and the continuous loop set up will be used.  See you there!

Thank you to all who came to experience our first oval set up in over a year, today, August 15.  We thought our batteries could be a problem, but the real culprit was our new line.  It just wasn't "seasoned" enough to handle drag lure duty and in turn caused our batteries to go down.  Then we at least switched back to a "continuous" set up and quickly got through the day even with the help of our '62 Dodge Polara 500 battery, go figure.  We had a lot of sweet running hounds out there today.  We were very proud of our Vinnie who smoked the track so consistently - my times of him were only off by .17 of a second, so he obviously doesn't care if we run drag or lure.  Khaos, Draco, Willow and Cyber were also awesome on the oval as were Irva's Ibizan and new whippet youngster!  Of course, Irva's Ryan knew his way around the oval even if he insisted that Mom be there to root him on.  Therese and Michelle's Saluki's certainly knew what they were doing as did Carrie's Sam and Loki, and how about Nanci's Afghan!  Nanci's Wolfie also showed that chasing the bunny is something that he wants to do.  We also had Yvette and her hubby out with two young IG's and I mean young.  Their 7 month old IG showed great promise, while their 5 month old IG looked like a smaller version of Vinnie out their - totally focused, quick and wanting to kill a bunny!  Sure hope they come back!

Yes our new line had to become more seasoned after today, and YES I will be off to Walmart for a NEW Deep Cycle battery!!!  Thank you all for your help.

ALSO!  I was thinking, instead of biting my fingernails the whole weekend while Mary is off to the BC Nats with Vinnie (August 27-29), I would probably be more productive by having a practice session.  This would be the weekend BEFORE the great USRCC Labor Day Trials.  Is there an interest?  What day would you want?  What format do you want? Sprint or Oval?  And to Irva's idea, YES, I could reverse the Oval track to more simulate a lure course if most want to opt for the oval format.  Let me know - I will post the essence of these thoughts on the USRCC & RWRG Lists soon!

August 7 saw a day considerably cooler than the hot monsoon days of the past two weeks and the hounds that joined us for racing and practice runs enjoyed it immensely!  On the racing front, the Nieminski Family celebrated the debut of their gorgeous Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Kenya and Reggie, in LGRA racing.  Both ran extremely well, true and straight, and focused on that lure with Kenya edging out Reggie each of the three runs.  NASR Competition saw Sam and Loki move closer to their Single Racer Championship (SRC) and Carrie Nanney never looked prouder.  Ann Tylutki's Sneek debuted in NASR this day and did not disappoint, showing speed, focus and heart.  We also saw many other folks out with their hounds to enjoy practice runs.