European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 23, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Re sidelights Lacy is congratulated by owner Marion Lawrence and Trainer Michael Kemp after winning Best of show. Westminster show sniffs out exactly which is top dolby Timothy Cahill new York Bureau the thrill of seeing the Best of anything is More than physical perfection or flawless execution. It does no to matter what we re looking at a basketball figure skating carpentry. At the heart of All excellence is magnificence the splendor of striving for something beyond the Ordinary the Ideal being its own Reward. This is the Ace in the Hole for the Westminster Kennel club dog show held each year in new York City. The show is without a doubt the single most prestigious event of its kind in the world and for the two Days in february it fills Madison Square Garden with exceptional canines and their encourages perfection holds court. Hovering Over All the pretence and excess and silliness of this Rich Mutt convention is the nobleness of the human will to achieve excellence. Without this spirit of perfection Westminster is Little More than an exclusive country club Ball. Of All the uses the average person could think of for a dog a from Protection to companionship to chasing rabbits a racking up Points and collecting trophies Are pretty near the Bottom. Yet Peoples love for dog shows has a longer run than Lassie. Dog shows Date Back 150 years to Britain where a group of countrymen decided to compare their Bird dogs not for looks but for How Good they were at their jobs. Victorian England also inspired parlor exhibits of toy dogs where Idle Duchesse gathered to see whose pug was prettiest. The two ideas weren to so far off eventually the conceit of superiority and vanity joined forces. In 1877, the Westminster Kennel club held the first of its championship shows in new York. Today in its 115th year Westminster has developed an opinion of itself that recognizes no Peers. The show describes itself As a the oldest continuous sporting event in America with the exception of the Kentucky  never mind that by objective standards that makes the dog show the second oldest event. By Westminster a reasoning the Buffalo Bills Are the Best team in the nil. Besides if dog showing is a sport then Flower arranging should be an olympic event. For two Days the Madison Square Garden Arena was covered with a Bright grass Green carpet and divided by purple velvet ropes into seven rings most of them the size of boxing rings. There 144 Breeds recognized by the american Kennel club were judged. Each Breed was represented by a number of Champion animals vying for the title Best of Breed. This is the preliminary round of the contest. Its also the one where the spirit of excellence makes the most sense. The fanciers of each Breed Long ago agreed to turn their subjective preferences into objective standards and judge All the dogs of that Breed against these expectations. Half the losers May think the judge is crazy but at least they have an established set of criteria to fall Back on As they grumble about it later. This is not the Case As the event progresses. Later the Breeds compete against each other in what might he seen As the semifinals. Dogs Are divided into classes or groups a sporting working herding terrier hound non sporting and toy in the evenings the Arena is transformed into a single Large ring and the Best of Breeds of the Day s groups Are brought together for a judge to pick a Best of group. How this is determined is beyond the grasp of the average Spectator. The hound group for example includes the 185-Pound Irish wolfhound and the 30-Pound Dachshund. This is a Little like comparing Speed skaters with figure skaters a Quot my Gold medal in the 500 meters is belter than your Gold medal in ice  the Best of show is chosen from the seven group winners. The result is presumably As close to a perfect specimen of canine Breeding As possible. At the end of the second evening the judge his infallibility Complex securely in place scans the finalists and an Points the chosen one. The spectators Many dressed in formal evening Wear and seated in stands that normally hold hockey fans and Rock concert goers fill the lower expensive seats and overflow into the first tier of Chepies where they mix with the curious Public. Everyone has been loud and boisterously partisan All night and when the judge announces his decision the place erupts even More loudly with hoots and shouts and Long applause this year the Winner was a wire Fox terrier called Lacy whose full name is Champion registry a lonesome Dove. For old film buffs it is the same Type of dog that played Asta in the thin Man movies with Myrna Lay and William Powell. Lacy is a Small Perky showman who was bom to Wear the Crown. Some Breeds look better in the ring than others. The big Breeds in the working Hunting herding and hound groups look like they took a Day off work to attend the show. These particular dogs will never pull sleds or retrieve Birds but they look like they should. You can take them out of their origins but you can t take their origins out of them. At the other end of the spectrum Are the toy dogs and other miniature Breeds which to a certain Rural continued on Page 7 Page 6 a sunday february 23, 1992