100 Years of Best in Show

Nobody knows how many Bests in Show have been awarded since AKC “modernized” the competition, beginning in 1924, making it similar (in fact, almost identical) to the finales at our shows today. There have been a little more than 75,000 all-breed shows held under the club's imprimatur since then, but the fact that not all clubs bothered to organize a Best in Show competition, especially during the early years, contributes to make the number of BIS ribbons awarded a little uncertain.

(I seem to remember a dog that I co-owned in the 1980s winning a group and being told there was no BIS competition, but can that really be right? Did some shows not have a contest for Best of all breeds only 40 years ago? Maybe I am wrong after all …)

What am I basing these figures on? The number of all-breed shows for each year from 1884 to 2008 is carefully recorded by AKC itself in the excellent little book “DOGS - The First 125 Years of the American Kennel Club,” published in 2009. The annual number of shows for a decade after the book's publication is published in the AKC annual reports, but that apparently stopped with Covid in 2020: I have not managed to find the number for the last four years anywhere. This is particularly frustrating since because of Covid there were probably about half as many shows in 2020 as during a “normal” year. (By 2021 there were almost as many shows as usual, and in 2022 things were back to normal. The figures for 2023 have apparently not been completed yet.)

It is clear, however, that there were a lot fewer shows during the first few decades after 1924 than there are now: A total of 14,019 AKC all-breed shows were held from 1924 to the end of the 1960s, for instance; about 60,000 from the 1970s to the end of 2023.

There is no way I can report all the winners of BIS that deserve to be mentioned. There are just too many beautiful dogs that have garnered 50 or 60 or even more Bests in Show and still have to be bypassed without so much as a mention. That's why Dog News' “100 Club” is so wonderful: All the members must have won at least that many all-breed Bests in Show each; a few in fact have more than 200.

Most of us for whom an all-breed Best is still a unique and wonderful experience would probably think that winning 100 BIS is almost impossible, and surely there was no need for such a club? We'd be wrong: There are almost 50 members of the club, and I'm pleased to present the 20 that won 100 BIS during the seventh and eighth decades after the “modernizing” — 1984-2003. (And I'll even add the handlers if I know who they are and they are still active in the dog sport.)

The first ones have already been presented; they won in the 1950s. There was a famous race between the Boxer Ch. Bang Away of Sirrah Crest and the English Setter Ch. Rock Fall's Colonel to be the first to reach the magical 100 mark, won by the Boxer, who took his 100th BIS at the Bronx County Kennel Club show on December 4, 1954. He won 121 BIS in all, but the English-born Pekingese Ch. Chik T'Sun of Caversham won even more a few years later: He took his 126th AKC BIS in 1960. Then there was a lull until 1980, when the white Standard Poodle Ch. Lou-Gin's Kiss Me Kate won her 140th BIS — a previously unimaginable feat.

German Shepherd Dog Ch. Altana's Mystique. Photo Cook.

All these have already had their pictures illustrating the previous articles; in the last one there was a big photo of the Scottish Terrier Ch. Braeburn's Close Encounter, who was the first dog to win 200 BIS. “Shannon,” as she was called, provided many thrilling moments where it was never clear which one would win, she or her archrival, the German Shepherd Dog Ch. Covy-Tucker Hill's Manhattan, also the winner of 200 BIS. Both were BIS at Westminster (the Scottie in 1985, the German Shepherd in 1987), but after a few years their records were beaten by a bitch of the same breed as Manhattan, the Canadian-born GSD Ch. Altana's Mystique, whose run of success — incorporating an incredible 275 all-breed BIS — establishes her as the top dog of all time, and doesn't look like it will be challenged any time soon. Both Manhattan and Mystique were handled by Jimmy Moses and owned by Jane Firestone.

German Shepherd Dog Ch. Covy-Tucker Hill's Manhattan. Photo Vicky Cook.

Sam Lawrence came up with the idea of the “100 Club” in the early 1990s, when he and his wife Marion were campaigning four of the top-winning show dogs of all time: the Wire Fox Terrier Ch. Registry's Lonesome Dove (called “Lacey,” winner of more than 200 BIS, including Westminster in 1992), the Doberman Ch. Brunswig's Cryptonite, the Black Cocker Ch. La-Shay's Bart Simpson and the Maltese Ch. Ta-Jon's Tickle Me Silly — each the winner of at least 100 BIS. Nobody else has owned four members of this very exclusive club. Furthermore, only one breed — the German Shepherd Dog — had four individual members during the two decades we are concerned with this time (1984-2003). They include the two previously mentioned dogs, as well as Ch. Kismet's Sight For Sore Eyes and his daughter Ch. Kaleef's Genuine Risk, both winning in the first years of the 20th Century and both also shown by Jimmy Moses.

Wire Fox Terrier Ch. Registry's Lonesome Dove. Photo Gay Glazbrook.

There was also the Wire Fox Terrier Ch. Galsul Excellence, imported from Ireland, shown by Peter Green and sire of Lacey; the Lakeland Ch. Revelry's Awesome Blossom (shown by Clay Coady), and the Welsh Ch. Anasazi Billy The Kid (handled by Wood Wornall). There was the Kerry Blue Ch. Torum's Scarf Michael, who had been BIS at Crufts in his native England and won Westminster, too, in 2003, the last dog to win both shows and piloted to all his U.S. victories by Bill McFadden. There were two white Standard Poodles, Ch. Whisperwind's On A Carousel (BIS Westminster 1991) and a few years later Ch. Lake Cove That's My Boy, both shown by the late Dennis McCoy and Randy Garren. There was a Bichon Frisé, Ch. Special Times Just Right (BIS at Westminster 2001), and one single Hound, the Afghan Ch. Tryst of Grandeur, handled by Michael Canalizo. She was Top Dog in 1995 and came back to the top spot four years later, at an age when most top dogs have long since been retired. There was also an impressive Bouvier des Flandres, Ch. Galbraith's Ironeyes, who was the Top Dog in 1990.

Kerry Blue Terrier Ch. Torum's Scarf Michael. Photo Ashbey.

And there were not one but two Pekingese, both — amazingly — bred by the same kennel in Scotland: Ch. Yakee Leaving Me Breathless of Franshaw (handled by Hiram Stewart) and Ch. Yakee If Only (shown by David Fitzpatrick), both active in the first years of the 2000s. (In fact, the second of these, If Only, should properly be included during the last two decades of this survey, 2004-2023, as he won the most during 2004-2005, but it seemed natural to include him here …)

Pekingese Ch. Yakee Leaving Me Breathless of Franshaw. Photo Family Tree.

Pekingese Ch. Yakee If Only. Photo Gay Glazbrook.

Have we forgotten anyone? Yes, the English Springer Spaniel Ch. Salilyn's Condor, BIS at Westminster 1993 and a beautiful representative of what remains one of America's top kennels ever. They had THREE contenders in the last article, Ch. Salilyn's Classic, Continental and Hallmark. Obviously I got them mixed up: Kathy Lorentzen writes, “The photo on page 51 of the June 28th issue is incorrectly identified as Ch. Salilyn's Hallmark. The dog is Ch. Salilyn's Classic. The record is correct for Classic.” She is quite right: I can of course not keep all the BIS-winning Salilyn Springer Spaniels apart, but the back of the photo on page 51 is clearly marked “Ch. Salilyn's Classic,” so I have no excuse except a temporary (?) brain freeze …