Field Champion
FC BRANKO'S SUGAR RAY
First, we have our #1 stud. "Sugar", as he is called at home, is the hound that we all wish for, even temperment, takes no guff and deals none out. Lots of hunt, a gentlemen in the kennel box, but turn him loose he is a hunting machine at work, but you can tell he enjoys it. With a ton of nose, he uses it to find the game whether it be rabbit or hare. When game is up you can see Sugar in front, and he never loses his desire to run like the book says, "run as if to overtake."
Sugar was sent to Denny Dugan in Ohio for Denny to campaign in UKC competition. He did very well. Sugar became a UKC GRAND CHAMPION WITH FIVE VICTORIES. Then Freida called me and said Branko had a very good male I might be interested in. I made arrangements to pick him up from Denny on my way to the AKC Large Pack Nationals in New Hampshire in 2003. I competed in the trial, came home to run the hound and to see what he had on Thursday night that week. It had been raining all week. I went out at midnight in the rain and put Sugar and some hounds I knew very well down in the rain and tried to listen to what I had on myhands. Well, I decided what I was hearing couldn't be that good and could hardly wait to see him run in the daytime. That Saturday I took him to Pelican State trial. It was a class of 34 15" males. Sugar had never been in such thick briars and rough running conditions, but he took third place that day. The next week he went to Lake Conway in Arkansas- different judges- another class of 34 15" males and he took second.A weekend warrior gets no rest, so the very next weekend he got his first win in the AKC competition in a class of 24 big males. Well it took Sugar just four and a half months to finish. He finished at Hardin County in Texas. His wins were in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.
After making some phone calls to Canada, I was making arrangements for shipment there, and found out you can't do it, atleast without some very good friends. I had talked with David Chafe in Newfoundland, who was to handle Sugar in CKC trials there. The problem was that after 9/11 things got more difficult to ship things across, even beagles. Air lines would not cooperate with each other. Thanks to good friend, TomSharpe, in New Hampshire, who made two trips to the airport-to pick up Sugar andthen return the next day to ship him over to David in Canada, he won his first CKC trial and it was on eight inches of snow ! Sugar had left the south in 80 heat and only two weeks later won a trial on snow. Like I said earlier, Sugar is a hound all of us wish for.
Sugar hasn't finished in Canada yet but he turned five in May of this year and hasn't
slowed down any. How can I thank so many people for their help with Sugar? Thanks to Branko and Freida Krpan, to Denny Dugan, to David Chafe in Canada, to Tom Sharpe. Then thanks to Andy Papadimitropoulos and " Cheech" for bringing Sugar back from the CKC Nationals (where he took 8th place) to me at the AKC Nationals two weeks later. To all of you, your help is very much appreciated.
Sugar came home and without much rest I put him in another trial to see if running
on hare had affected his ability to do well on a rabbit. Well, after running hare for six months, he won again on rabbit! As I write this he is still at home and breeding a good number of females.
In all, Sugar has won ten trials total; all licensed trials, and given me a helluva lot of fun. (still is) Sugar will go back up north of the border 'cause he thinks ten wins ain't enough and I want him to show he can make International Field Champion. If you look at his pedigree it shows he can do it, and knowing Sugar, he can. I just have to get him there-looks like I'm gonna need those good friends again.
I have puppies by Sugar and if you called to reserve a pup, you can call and speak to me or one of my secretaries or E-MAIL us. If you would like to get in on some of
this blood, call or e-mail.