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Show nS saBnaaBafchaiawimart Vwv GRAY frost-brown stubble and the green of the pines but even better looking the bbek and white or the brown and white of a pointer or siHor freezing into action on the COVey point the only competitor competi-tor who reaches top competitive form as immovable as marble. Quail hin ting witli a good dog may not be the king of sports, but a good many millions think so and their day isn't far ahead. And the dog Is really the king of this autumn and winter thrill. This occurred to us uiii ii we ran into Andy Sage, the Long Island sportsman, sports-man, who owns and develops more champion held trial Qranlland Rice dogs than anyone we can recall off hand. His dogs have won the national championship six times, four of them in a row against the former record of two in a row. They have also won the big futurity fu-turity seven times in a row and they will be Just as hard to beat in the coming tests on ahead. "My best dog," Mr. Sage said, "is Ariel, winner of six championships. Ariel is now seven years old but can still range with the best. There are three fundamental qualities that make a great bird dog scent, speed and stamina. In Held trial tests there is also the matter of ranging class or form to be considered. In my opinion It is harder to breed and develop a champion dog than it is a champion horse. There are many good bird dogs, of course, but few great ones that can win championships champion-ships against the best. Ariel le my pick but Luminary isn't far behind." I Field Trial Thrills Clyde Morton trains the Sage entries en-tries in a secluded hamlet known as Alberta, Ala., which isn't far away from Selma. These championship champion-ship field trials range all the way from Saskatchewan and Duluth to East Tennessee and while there are no rhutuel windows, no football or baseball cheering, they have just as great a thrill for those who love the hunting dog and who travel far distances dis-tances to see the best at work The judges in these championship tests give their time, attention and devotion devo-tion to their work without any pay and they contribute a big part to any field trial's success. Thousands of ex-servicemen and millions of others now in the woods and fields enjoy a double thrill. The first Is the work of the dogs, without any question the most eager form of life in pursuit of the quarry. The next thrill comes at the covey's rise when the tense silence Is suddenly broken by the whirr ol many wings an easy looking target but an elusive one except for the experts. ex-perts. The first average tendency is to shoot too quickly and also to blaze away at the covey in place of selecting select-ing a single or double target. One of your correspondent's greatest great-est shocks is to fire and see no feathers fall where so many feathers seemed to be at a close and unmissable unmiss-able range. When you take up the major thrills of sport, the football player can offer a long run through a broken field or a long completed pass. The golfer has his long iron dead to the pin. The baseball player can counter with the home run or the triple. The horse player will take his chance on hitting a 50 to 1 shot on the nose or winning a husky daily double. The Elusive T tirkey You can hear the clamor of the 10 milium fishermen, moving from trout to bass to salmon to tarpon. But the nearest thrill to the dops working and the covey rise is to see a wild turkey light in a tall pine close to your hide-out and then try to spot him later only 20 yards away, as all 20 pounds of him suddenly vanish and yet you know he is there. Here is the greatest of all camouflage camou-flage artists. The incomparable will o' the wisp. Yes. even with a few occasional diamondbacks thrown in, I'll take turkey hunting and give you the memory of a 40-foot putt with the match all squared on the 18th green. No wonder Andy Sage would rather rath-er have Ariel than another Man o' War. Or would he? Field trials now cover a big part of the country. For example, Duluth has become a leading center in this respect where next spring Duluth sportsmen expect to hold one of the leading trials of the season. The East also has its trials and its share of good dogs. For here is sport in the final meaning mean-ing of the word. Beau Jack Warms Up On the way to another football gathering we got offside and bumped into Bowman Milligan and Chick Wergeles, who are handling the pugilistic destinies of ti p returning Beau Jack. "We have sent Beau Jack back to Augusta to ready for his next fight," Chick Wergeles said. "He weighs 144 pounds now and will soon be down to 140. Beau Jack is to meet the winner of the Janiro-Greco fight late in December. |