Below is my firsthand account of the cast. Compare it with what you may have heard and you can decide for yourself if what you heard was gossip or an outright lie designed to run down a dog and the people behind her. I owned Magic at the time and handled her in this cast. Her sire's owner was spectating and he made the decision to buy her at the conclusion of the cast. I have named the others on this cast. Feel free to contact any of them and see if my version of this cast is accurate.
First dump, the dogs struck right in front of us and got into a dozer pile. They were digging and whining and carrying on. Chris said we had a dog fight and wanted to go in. I told him the dogs were digging and worrying with roots. Chris persisted. I asked James and Larry and they both agreed with my assessment that the dogs were chewing roots and digging in the dirt. Chris was upset. He treed his dog. The dogs got out of the dozer pile and took a track out. I minused Chris on his tree points.
Dogs got in 1/4 mile or so and treed while we were still standing at the road. All dogs treed together. It took more than 5 minutes to get there and Chris' dog was 20-30 yds. off the tree. I minused his tree points and gave the order to handle the other 3 dogs. Chris went to handle his dog and I told him he could not handle him. Chris was upset and withdrew and left the cast. We all agreed to circle this tree.
We are a 3 dog cast now. Next dump we cut down a dirt field road and the dogs strike a bad track off to one side in a deep draw. They take this track in about 1/4-1/2 mile over 20-30 minutes and treed while we stay on the dirt road. Its well after 5 minutes before we get to the tree. Coon seen, credit to James Caudill for finding the coon's body in thick leaf cover. Everyone saw the coon.
Next dump, the guide walks us across a field to cut into woods on the opposite side. The dogs strike about 10 yards right in front of us. The other 2 dogs take a track to the left that proves to be a bad track. Magic takes a track to the right about 1-200 yards and trees. We don't get to this tree before the 5 is up. BIG Oak. All of us are shining and me and Larry see the coon at the same time. Its moving up a limb into heavy leaves. James was shining on the other side of the tree and hasn't seen it. As judge, I am ready to plus it since 2 of 3 people have seen it, when Larry decides he didn't see it after all. We kept shining on the same limb and the coon came out the other side of the leaves and James saw it. Larry saw it "again" at that point. Again, good thing for James Caudill's honesty. All this time, the other 2 dogs were tracking, back the other way and across a gravel road.
I cut Magic to their dogs and she got there and got struck in. They got treed within a few minutes and it took us more than 5 minutes to get there and coon was seen by all handlers. All 3 dogs were plussed.
We had a few minutes left in the hunt and I can't remember for sure, but I think Larry withdrew. Regardless I remember that James' dog and Magic got in 1/2 mile or so and got treed after the hunt was over. It took several minutes to get there. Tree was shinable but had a big nest. Hunt was over. Magic had 475+ and no minus.
I didn't think it would even be good for 3rd place. If I was cheating, I'd have come in with much better score. Chris Roady's dog, was the only dog that had scored any minus all night long. As far as dog power of the cast as a whole, it was as good, or maybe better than a typical NtCh cast. Anybody that knows me or has hunted with me knows I have one set of rules and thats whats on the back of the scorecard. This cast was run by the book. I think Magic put in a good performance. She had all of 1 coon to herself, and did her share on the other 2 coons scored. and didn't make any mistakes. She was about 16 mo. old at the time.
So you can see, my account of what happened is totally different from the rumor. If it was only slightly different and had some elements of truth and it only boiled down to opinions, it wouldn't be worth talking about. But I knew when I first heard this that someone or more likely some group had it TOTALLY wrong and probably not by accident. For lack of really caring I didn't pursue it for nearly 3 years after this win but I think I finally did trace all this to the source. Maybe it was all just a misunderstanding but misunderstandings can be set straight. We'll see if that happens.
These are good things to know about people when listening to descriptions of a dog. If they can't describe the events of a cast accurately, then how are they going to describe what their dog or anybody else's dog is really doing and reproducing? The answer is they can't. If anyone passed this rumor on, not knowing the truth, then shame on them. We're probably all guilty of doing that at some point. The right thing now would be to contact everyone they told and set them straight. I'm not optimistic that will happen but I will be watching and listening...
Thanks for reading. Be careful who you listen to.