The Importance of Selectivity and Racing in the Breeding of the Racing Greyhound.

Racing greyhounds alone, are bred from the best performers among the population, who can be objectively "selected" from among their peers, by virtue of their superior performance abilities and traits as well as by virtue of their racing accomplishments. Racing, furthermore, supports the vast and diverse familial structures of the racing greyhound.

Selectivity, as a result of objective quantification of a greyhound's racing career, and the documented and comparative performances of its close family members and of all racing greyhounds, is what has allowed the breed to flourish and to remain athletically functional and viable with a uniquely vast store of diverse genetic reservoirs.

Racing competition among racing greyhounds, illuminates for the breeder, which greyhounds are the most correctly and highly adapted specimens from among the entire population. And the pedigree and performance records of the breed, further illuminate for the breeder, which families of racing greyhounds are compatible with other families of racing greyhounds, in the ongoing process selectivity and of breed perpetuation and athletic adaptation, at a supremely functional and conformationally sound level.

There are 46 female families of racing greyhounds. Each one if them is crucially important to the racing greyhound breed and its genetic diversity and well being.

Racing is simply a modern day simulation of the instinctive hunting/chasing/coursing function, from which all greyhounds have emerged.

The willy-nilly breeding of sporting dogs, without a performance-based paradigm to objectively determine which specimens and families are the strongest, and are on the cutting edge of performance adaptation functionality --- by genotype and phenotype, and by actual head-to-head competition in the realm of racing --- is simply an exercise in pro-creation.

Racing greyhounds, on the other hand, remain among the most beautifully adapted athletes in the animal world --- because of racing.

Whistler's Stud, a black male bred by Larry Birnbaum, is by Craigie Whistler out of EE's Speed Dream.

Click here to read about Craigie Whistler

Click here to read about EE's Speed Dream

By Dennis McKeon

I'd like to take a brief moment to expand upon what Martin has already offered, concerning his lineage and how the mating of his 2 parents plays off a few of the interminglings of superior female familes in the pedigree of Whistler's Betty and hope that it will amaze you, as it has me.

As Martin has mentioned [on Craigie Whistler and EE's Speed Dream], his 4th dam, Gurley, is the modern foundation dam to many of the Randle family racing greyhounds, including the great Dungaree and Kail.

And if we look at Gurley's dam, Pay Joan, we note that she is carrying the immortal Real Huntsman (by Never Roll X Medora) as both her paternal and maternal damsire

Click here to see Pay Joan.

So it appears that the linebreeding to the invincible 2 time American Derby champion, Real Huntsman, overruled the perceived weakness due to the accidental mating of that had preceeded her emergence and the great Gurley emerged anyway and she traces her tail female lineage to Miss Judy, whom we can recgonize as the early matriarch of the family of Medora herself, her son Real Huntsman, and Gurley, as well as the aspiring star, Whistler's Betty.

Miss Judy (Judas III x Irish Midget), meanwhile, had been quite prolific .

Again, through her great grandaughter, Medora, whose own great grandaughter, Je Nays Empress who, when mated to the English import, Julius Caesar, produced the 1967 American Derby Champion, Xandra.

If we look at the pedigree of Akbar, the sire of HBs Commander, we note that his paternal grandsire, Tara Bounder is a grandson of Je Nays Empress, and that Akbar, himself, is a direct female line descendent of Je Nays Empress which makes Akbar, also, a memeber of the Medora branch of the Miss Judy female familty of racing greyhounds.

Click here to see Akbar.

HBs Commander, a son of the unheralded Akbar, also, and amazingly, traces in tail female to Miss Judy as well, through a daughter of Shy Warrior X Miss Judy, named Brindle Judy.

So we see the convergence of the various branches of the Miss Judy family starting to take place as we look at the pedigree of Whistler's Betty and then, looking at the great Molotov, the sire of Craigie Whistler, we note that his damsire is the marvellous Blendway, a son of Hall Of Fame brood matron, Buzz Off whose 3rd dam, Mary Moore, is the modern foundation dam for all the great Beckner family racing greyhounds, and who was the also the dam of Wonderland Derby winner, Boga Mary Moore, and so her direct female descendent Blendway, as we trace her lineage through the bottom line of her perdigree, just so happens to be yet another direct female family descendent of Miss Judy.

Then we see the Miss Judy family of Real Huntsman and Medora, converging in the pedigree of Whistler's Betty, through several branches of its modern day prolificity via the tail female line of Whistler's Betty, via the tail female line of Akbar, via the tail female line of Blendway, and via the tail female line if HBs Commander himself.

What is most interesting here, is the notable, multiple appearances of the great brood matron, Elsie Jones, and her sibling Linda Jones who appear, in Betty's pedigree, several times Elsie Jones as the dam of Kelly Jones, who is the sire of Unruly, the 2nd damsire to Craigie Whistler and also the sire of PKs Jet, the maternal great grandsire to Craigie Whistler and Kelly Jones is also the 3rd damsire to Betty himself.

Meanwhile we see Linda Jones, the sibling of Elsie Jones, appearing twice, as the 2nd dam to Kelton, the sire of Akbar, whose son, the hugely influential HBs Commander, is both the paternal great grandsire to Whistler's Betty  and her damsire.

Now, if we look back at the pedigree of Xandra, (a direct female line descendent of Je Nays Empress, Je Nay, Medora and Miss Judy) our 1967 winner of the American Derby, the most important and prestigious race in the history of American Greyhound racing.

Click here to see Xandra.

We note that she, like Elsie and Linda Jones, is also sired by Julius Caesar.

In conclusion, we see, in the pedigree of Whistler's Betty, the continuum of the intermingling of the descendents of Julius Caesar, through the legendary Jones Family of racing greyhounds, with the descendents of the equally legendary Miss Judy family of racing greyhounds (Akbar, HBs Commander, Gurley) who upon their initial introduction to one another, through Julius Caesar and JeNays Empress, the sire and dam of Xandra had produced an American Derby winner which was considered the penultimate accomplishment for the American breeder, during most of the 2nd half of the past century.