Result: Garden State Open Shooting Dog Championship

Location: Lacey Township, New Jersey

Post Date: Dec 10, 2021

Submitted By: Lloyd Miller

Chris Catanzarite with Backcounty Missy and Marcus Ramseur with Ravenwood Gemstone and Joe Cincotta, Joann and John Perry, the judges.

The English Setter Club of America Garden State Open Shooting Dog Championship started Monday, October 25, and concluded Wednesday, October 27. The weather was great except for some misty rain Tuesday morning.

The club would like to thank Purina again this year for their continuous support of this event.

Our judges this year were Joann and John Perry of Claymont, Del. We thank them for their time in the saddle and attentiveness throughout. Their decisions were well received.

The club also thanks Joe Cincotta for the work he did as chairman to put together this trial. A great idea to hold over the many amateurs between the National Amateur Pheasant and Region 2 Championships. We thank him very very much.

This year we utilized our standard counter-clockwise course for the hour stake, taking in the extreme southern limits of the grounds and then switching to the inner north and south loops before starting over on a continuous course layout. It provided a nice flow for dogs and handlers and plenty of bird work for all.

On top the courses nicely groomed by the State and filled with large coveys of quail left over from a Brittany Championship held here several weeks prior plus numerous pheasants from the recently concluded National Amateur Pheasant Shooting Dog Championship. It made for great test for the dogs and handlers since birds could be anywhere.

THE WINNERS AND OTHERS

The Garden State Open Shooting Championship had great entry of 37 top shooting dogs. Taking the championship title this year was Backcountry Missy, white and orange pointer female, owned and handled by Chris Catanzarite of Scenery Hill, Pa. Missy scored with six stylish finds and one unproductive. Missy's winning performance came from the 17th brace which ran after lunch break on Wednesday afternoon. This brace turned out to be on the fast side as the dogs covered an hour and 20 minutes of course in the hour. It was no fault of Missy or Chris as Missy was continuing to find birds to the sides of course and getting behind (once being over ridden and found by scout on point at top of cable road). She caught up at the 20-minute mark at the southwest corner where both dogs had divided finds, all in good order.

From here Missy and Chris had four more very stylish finds but was always in a "catch the front mode," not knowing that the lead dog was lost at about the 35-minute mark. When time was called, she was lost for a few minutes but was found to the front in very next field. The fast pace was not what one would want but her real stylish birdwork, class and speed on the ground and endurance stood out to make her the winner this day.

Taking the runner-up honors was Ravenwood Gemstone, white and orange pointer female, owned by Joe Cincotta of Stockton, N. J., and ably handled by Marcus Ramseur of Sicklerville, N.J. Gem also ran Wednesday but in the first brace (14th brace overall) carding seven nice finds and one unproductive with a strong consistent forward race.

She started with a good pheasant find in scrub oak cross edge at end of breakaway field, a back of bracemate at horseshoe mound, a quail stand in Rocky's field, another on south loop, another at the cable road crossing, and three more on the inner north loop at the northeast, mid, and northwest field bird spots. Gem suffered her lone unproductive at the center mound area just prior to time being called. It was very good hour of classy front running and very stylish and polished birdwork.

Only six other dogs ran clean and completed their hour heats. Listed in order of running they are the following dogs.

Limbsmoke Skeet Rock, white and orange setter male handled by your scribe, ran in the second brace Monday morning and put on a show for the gallery, not bragging, just ask those who rode for what they saw. Rock had ten finds in the hour, seven coveys of quail and three on pheasant. I believe he may have pointed more birds in one hour than any dog run here at Greenwood in history. My estimate was about 150 quail plus the three pheasants. All the covey rises had somewhere between 15 to 35 birds in them. What I believe hurt was that he had six finds and one stop to flush on a pheasant in the last 30 minutes, thus not getting a chance to show off a strong finish on the ground.

Calico's Guns and Roses, pointer male with Alex Smith at the helm, scored on five finds and one unproductive in the third brace. Great River Yellowstone, pointer male handled by Brian Sanchez, ran in the fourth brace and had three finds and an unproductive coupled with a nice forward race.

Tuesday's running started with the eighth brace off at 8:03 a.m. Heard Hill Jaybird, with Lynn Heard handling, did a real nice job for the hour. Starting with a nice back of bracemate, then a good stand at top of course, another stylish find on the outer south loop, plus another just before Hunter's cut and another at the cable road crossing. Continuing on out the north loop, she continued doing a nice ground race scoring two more times on a pheasant and covey of quail. A good performance with six finds, I believe.

Springflow's Backcountry P, pointer male ran in the ninth brace with Chris Cantanzarite. He had four finds (one was on a pheasant) and one unproductive. Wednesday's running produced a clean run by Little Wing Inked Up for Bo Mamounis. He started with a back of bracemate then carded five nice finds in order along a nice hunting race although on the shorter side. A good effort.

One last dog that I will mention is Backcountry Girlfriend. She ran on Tuesday in the eleventh brace (first brace after lunch). She ran a nice hunting race with I believe seven or eight finds but suffered a second unproductive on right pine edge of the shoot field just prior to time being called. It was a tuff break to end a pretty good performance.

Lacey Twp, N. J., October 25 -- One Course

Judges: Joanne Perry and John Perry

GARDEN STATE OPEN SHOOTING DOG CHAMPIONSHIP

[One-Hour Heats] -- 37 Entries

Winner--BACKCOUNTRY MISSY, 1672663, pointer female, by Erin's War Creek--Backcountry Tornado. Chris Catanzarite, owner and handler.

Runner-Up--RAVENWOOD GEMSTONE, 1660563, pointer female, by Erin's Stone Cutter--Touch's Blackbelt. Joseph Cincotta, owner; Marcus Ramseur, handler.