Drax
My first Drax. Events have always conspired against us in previous years, and we’ve never made it. Well, we kind of made it via Rotherdrax, but I’m not sure that counts!
I warned everyone Kim wasn’t at all fit for solid racing, but due to one of the bottom team dogs coming into season, we had to reshuffle slightly and so Kim ended up running as a equal part of a 5 dog team (on a declared time, no less!) We got very very close to breakout; I think our breakout time was 21.10, and we ran a 21.13, with a few under 21 but with lights, thankfully! Kim was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day, I felt pretty bad about running her but unfortunately Bailey came out lame on the second to last race of the day, so we didn’t really have any option. We came 3rd, I think.
Mollie was dropped down to the bottom team and promptly ran 5.1s singles times as lead dog for them, so it was probably a good job she wasn’t in Kim’s team after all! We’d definitely have broken out if she’d been running with us, eek! Even more impressively, she ran consistent 5.1’s all day and although she was over 9″, she should only get fitter and faster from this point. I’d hope that she’ll continue running 5.1s for the rest of the season with Bails over 11″, and that’s just a bit good for a dog who will be eleven in June!
Dylan’s team was down to four dogs due to the reshuffle, but they were a strong four, all young but experienced and they ran together all last summer (although not over the winter) so we slotted back together easily. I really trust all the dogs and handlers on the team, so it was nice being able just to think about getting the best out of Dyl for once! Speaking of, Dylan ran really well, especially in the afternoon. He’s very comfortable over 13″ and he really likes running third as he can get hyper-focussed and noisy at Lucy (who runs lead) and then has time to re-focus for his own run.
We ran easy 20s times all day, which was a good start to the season, especially as this group should improve – but it does depend on who we have at the next tournament! (My feeling has always been that this team should run with four dogs rather than mix/match with five, but it’s always up to the team captain in the end!) It was good to see that we were running the same kind of times at the end of the day as at the start, which just proves how fit the dogs are. I think we were 3rd in the Division, but I was frozen to death and went home before the presentations.