Last Tuesday evening was “Best Of Show”.  ‘Round Town has been clutching our special box seat tickets from Suzie Reingold - in the Beekman Tower ‘safe’ – for weeks!  Sachs Fifth Avenue’s windows on 50th Street has been decorated with ‘Best Of Show’ ‘ribbons’ for a week.  The ‘New York Times’ carried many features on the 132nd annual Westminster Kennel Club show.  

Phoebe Bowditch, of NYC, and her house guest, Sally Cosgrove, DVM (with Pfister in Chicago) met ‘R.T’ for dinner at the Metropolitan Club. Sally has shown her ‘hunters’ at the Miami Valley Hunt’s Cross Country events and ‘Trials’. She asked about the horse barn fire in Bellbrook.   Said she had a friend who’d lost two of her horses.  (See last item in "'Round Town") “I’m really an Ohioian,” Added Sally.  “I graduated from Kenyon College, and Ohio State Vet. School.”

Following dinner, the hostess suggested:  “Now the Club will get us a taxi…”  “No way,” said Phoebe. “We’ll get on the subway here at 60th and be at Penn Station in a few minutes…and we’ll never have to got outdoors in this snow ‘n sleet!”

Suzie was in her box with two int’l-rated Judges.  Susan Miller Hall, from Zionsville, IN, soon joined us – and the fun began.  The organization of the show never ceases to amaze.  Following the judging of the Working and the Hound groups the annual awarding of six Vet. Scholarships took place – all six winners were girls!  And with that – THE Best of Show class began.

And the winner was -  ‘UNO’, the 15-inch (at the shoulders) Beagle – who is now a legend!  The ‘applause meter’ must have influenced the Judge!  After his (Uno’s) required performance – the dog turned to his ‘handler’, put back his head – and ‘howled’ with a self-congratulatory-‘voice’.  The spectators went wild!  

“Now we’ll get on the subway again,” said Phoebe.  “The thousands exiting will make getting a taxi impossible!”  “Yes, - easy for you, but I’ll never find my way to the East Side…”   “Sure you will….you get off at 60th and Fifth…and you’ll get a taxi home from there!”  It worked!

A day’s shopping in SOHO is a ‘must’.  It’s a least an hour’s bus ride cross-town on 49th to 7th which becomes Broadway to Canal Street. The ‘ride’ defies description. The people-watching is the best.  Alighting a fellow passenger said: “Well, first I’ll hit Starbucks and then I’ll head to my studio!”  'RT hit the street vendors and their ‘knock-offs’ before finding the Ralph Loren super-sale-center, and the Hilfiger, and the…

After hearing about a ‘horse-barn fire near Bellbrook’ from a Chicago DVM here in NYC, ‘Round Town tried calling Ginny Whalen and was afraid it might have been Whalen’s beautiful Locust Wood Farm where the Miami Valley Hunt had it’s ken
nels for so many years.  No answer – Ginny must still be in Florida.

So, next on the list was a near-by horse owner Rosie Allen who lives on Upper Bellbrook Road.  “You mean you didn’t know?  It was horrible!  It was an icy night…the Bellbrook Fire Dept. couldn’t get up Penewit Hill…had to go miles around…no water at Locust Wood when they did get there…fire was so quick the owners barely got out of their apartment, but could not save any of the horses…the only thing standing where the MVH kennels, club room, and horse stalls were – are the silos!  I’ve got all the newspaper articles and clippings that I’ll give you when you get home…”

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