As before, I promise running order and start with judge assignments. The process is identical to what I described for the ASFA lure coursing trial earlier except for the list of stakes. AKC recognizes a different breed in the regular stakes, the Portugese Podengo Pequeno, and, instead of a Limited stake, a set of Foundation Stock Service (FSS) breeds. Those breeds will be called out separately in the running order of the premium list, but I typically simplify on the running order and treat them as a group, because the only hounds in that group that have shown up in our neck of the woods are Portugese Podengo (Grande and Medio).
Whippets should have the most courses. Though the number of Singles seems to have increased some, we simply don’t get as many at the AKC trials. I’m guessing there will be enough to sneak past any of the other breeds. I think Basenji and Rhodesian Ridgebacks are the remaining breeds that could have more than two courses. Greyhounds are a solid bet. After that, it’s a guessing game, filling in with the most likely to be present. Again, I check that the number of breeds that I crossed off at the top matches the number that I wrote down the center. The bottom will definitely be Irish Wolfhound, Sloughi, and the Pequeno—I’ll be quite surprised if any of those appear that weekend.
Definitely, this will be a one judge per stake weekend with a new FTS. First, I’ll make the judge assignments that have to be due to what they might enter in the trial. With AKC, it’s important to have a different judge for a given breed each day due to how the Field Champion title is awarded.
To strike some balance on the number of courses that the judges are judging each day, I need to fill in with Anya on both days some.
I’ll split the rest between Cori and Laurie.
I think that will work, but I may need to make some tweaks once I see how the running order plays out.