Three Creek Bassets’ 40th Annual Gumbo Flats Gold Cup Stake Awards Brunch

The 40th Annual Gumbo Flats Gold Cup Stake concluded with the traditional Awards Brunch, Sunday, March 15, 2015, at Strathalbyn Farms Club, Weldon Springs, Missouri. Two judges, Thomas H. Jackson, M.F.H., and John Martinson, JT.-M.B. Leawood Beagles, evaluated the basset and beagle packs, hunted by an impartial huntsman, Mark Smith, M.F.H., Shawnee Foxhounds. The hunt began at 10:00 AM with Laura Balding and Lei Ruckle serving as the Masters of the Field. The brunch followed immediately thereafter, honoring the best hounds and beagles plus awarding of colours and recognizing other contributions. As a major anniversary of the Gold Cup Stake, many of the regulars reminisced about the numerous memories and recollections.

Bassets constitute a short-legged, dwarfed hound, whose slower movement and low-set form work perfectly for hunters on foot in search of small game. With his long ears helping to stir up the scent, packs of Bassets were used to drive small prey, such as rabbit and hare, from dense undercover into open terrain where hunters could move in for the kill with spears, nets or clubs. The sport of pack hunting with Basset Hounds continues to this day.

Rabbit hunting with Beagles has a long history. The American Kennel Club-affiliated Beagle Field Trials have occurred for over a hundred years. Since rabbits need to have familiarity with the terrain of the hunt, Beagle clubs own or lease the land for their events and maintain it as a rabbit habitat.

For the safety of the dogs, most fields are fenced. At the Three Creek Bassets Gumbo Flats Gold Cup Stake, hounds are sent on a hunt test. Hunt tests held by the Basset Hound Club of America, like other types of hunt tests, are intended to make the sport more accessible to the average owner of the breed than field trials.

Hunting a hound pack requires a staff consisting of a Huntsman and the Whippers-In, who have responsibility over the order and discipline of the pack. A Field Master takes charge of the field (members of the hunt and guests) that follows behind observing the hounds work the covert.

The Hounds are reviewed on a number of criteria by the judges that follow the hunt. All the hounds are given a number to wear to help the judges track each hound. The hounds do not run with a huntsman well known to them so that no pack or hound receives an unfair advantage. All the packs run together, but each breed is judged separately leading to four winners in each breed.

All proceeds from the two-day affair benefited Three Creek Basset Fund.

The Three Creek Bassets comprises one of the registered national basset packs that hunt rabbits on a regular basis.