Originally Posted by
STA8541
Really nice post. I just asked a fella that was clearly in a position to know about the Gr. Ch. Dendy match with Gr. Ch. King before I saw this what his thoughts were about King's age & alleged lack of conditioning (it's an old thread so I don't expect to hear back, but I was curious as to his opinion on the off chance he sees it). I also heard about the Gr. Ch. Haunch match, that it was done basically to bump Gr. Ch. Mayday up the sire list. I'd never heard of Ch. Ali Baba until now, but obviously he falls into the same category, as does Robert T, etc.
I saw some really sensible replies made to this question here, nice job. It seems to me it's not necessarily "either/or" but depends more on the people involved & the circumstances, as well as the dogs & their opponents. It may depend on whether or not the owner is more of a "breeder" type or more of a "match" type. There is no hard line, many do both, but a guy that is more interested in the dogs as blood stock may want to limit the hound's hunts once...& this is important...once he knows of the dog's gameness & has seen it for himself in a contest or roll with another quality dog. Such a man may not want to risk losing such a valuable animal once he knew he had something he wanted in terms of breeding. Reaching back through the mists of time e.g. my understanding is Bolio was matched just the once (pretty sure he was rolled more often) & won a long match over a 2xW opponent that killed both his priors & that a lot of people said was an ace; apparently Bolio made this other dog look at times like he couldn't get out of his own way. His gameness was thus tested & proven, while he also showed tremendous ability, & so that was the match career of legendary Bolio, just the one hunt & then went on to become a terrific producer. His owner didn't need to see any more gameness & didn't have anything more to prove (or maybe couldn't find any takers for a second match, I have no idea). Maybe if he kept on matching him the dog would have been KIA at some point (especially if they wheeled him back out after he'd well earned a luxurious retirement), who can say?
So much for the man that is looking to breed. Maybe there's another guy that's not so concerned with the dog's pedigree or is too worried about breeding him, but is just looking for hot match prospects. That guy may have seen hundreds or even thousands of dogs before he sees one the quality of King, Robert T, Haunch, Ali Baba, etc. That type of guy may want to match his charge as often as possible, for glory or $$$ or both.
It's not an easy question to answer imo & is why I say "it depends." Thanks again for the thought-provoking question!
