BevLive: Soldier Hollow, end of the prelims

Soldier Hollow. They should maybe rename it Milliken Hollow. Amanda just won the second and third preliminary rounds. She won today 8 points ahead of the next dog with a scorching Monty run in the morning. The first day was hot with the best running in the morning. Happily, Nan and I had a morning slot and managed to make use of it. Oddly enough I think there were more pens the first day than the second. The second day was very hot, with good morning running. Alan Mills ran first on the second day and set the standard with a good go, no pen. Today stayed cloudy and not hot. Much better running.

The sheep have been very manageable every day. The biggest problem is that they don’t pen. Handlers use all their tricks and skill and they don’t pen. Just when it looks hopeless, bam, someone pens, making the rest of us look fools!

I think this has been the smoothest running Soldier Hollow yet. The sheep have been very well spotted. The top end of the runs have mostly gone quite nicely, with none of the mad dashes across the top end of the field that have been common in previous years. The level of competition has been very high with the scores closely grouped.

The preliminaries are over now. We’re all walking dogs and cleaning up for the handler’s dinner.