Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show: Scottish terrier Sadie wins the terrier group

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

No big surprise here: A Scottish terrier named Ch. Roundtown Mercedes Of Maryscot, Sadie to her friends, has won the terrier group at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

Sadie was heavily favored to win, but odds-on favorites have certainly lost before; witness this year’s working group competition, for example, in which a top-winning golden retriever widely expected to win wound up losing to a Brittany that was hardly a household name.

Sadie also won the terrier group at Westminster last year; she’s the second repeat group winner at this year’s show. (Conrad, a puli, won the herding group for the second consecutive year.)

Although Sadie won her group last year, in the end she lost the coveted Best in Show title to an underdog in the truest sense of the world, a 10-year-old Sussex spaniel named Stump.

But the feisty terrier (and aren’t all terriers feisty?) didn’t take defeat lying down; she went on to win the two other biggest shows in the nation, the National Dog Show in Pennsylvania and the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship in Long Beach.

Despite her winning record, her handler Gabriel Rangel kept his thoughts on the work at hand rather than getting his hopes up for a big win. ‘Expectations? Never expectations,’ Rangel told the Associated Press. ‘If you think that way, you get nervous and in trouble.’

Sadie beat a male smooth fox terrier named Ch. J’Cobe Kemosabe Vigilante Justice, a male Norwich terrier named Ch. Skyscot’s Poker Chip and a male Airedale terrier named Ch. Stirling Cool Hand Luke to win the terrier group. She’ll compete against a whippet, a toy poodle, a French bulldog, a puli, a Brittany and a Doberman pinscher for Best in Show.

Terriers have won more Bests in Show at Westminster than any other group; 44 of the little earth dogs have received the award.

RELATED:
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show: Day 1 in photos

-- Lindsay Barnett

Gabriel Rangel shows Sadie, a Scottish Terrier, in the ring during the 134th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)