HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF WHIPPET RACING ORGANIZATIONS By Greg Gammie, National Race Director, WRA Also see the WRA Contacts List and an explanation of the WRA Title Scheme Return to Whippets: Breed of the Month

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Here's a real short run through the different organizations. WRA, NAWRA, and CWA run 200 yard straight away sprint races, for adults the programs vary a bit for puppies. NOTRA runs oval races varying in length from 220 yds to 440 yds. Back in the late 50's and early 60's whippet owners decided to start racing them. The program they came up with was a 200 yard sprint race with all dogs coming from one starting box at the same time. This program was adopted by the AWC in the mid 60's as the National Point Race program. The award they gave is the Award of Racing Merit (ARM ). ALL AKC and AWC disqualification's applied to any whippet racing in this program. This program was administered by the National Race Director (NRD) who was appointed by the AWC Board of Directors and answered to them. There was much agitation within the racing community to allow spay/neuter whippets to race for ARM points. In the mid 80's the AWC board held a vote to see if the membership wanted to allow spay/neuter whippets to race in the NPR program. The vote was for allowing these dogs to run in the NPR program. After the vote a letter was circulated to members, and if I remember correctly was printed in the Whippet News, saying how awful this was and how it made a mockery of the NPR program as a breed improvement program. The AWC Board decided not to allow spay/neuters to run with in the NPR program but to have a separate class for them only. This was said to be the same as continuing to not allow them to run as there would never be enough dogs to make the minimum number of 20 to make an official meet. This is exactly what happened. During this time, several new race rules were required by the AWC Board which the race community found unacceptable. These were the reneging on the Spay/neuter issue, forcing clubs to replace their acceptable wickets with new 'official' ones, reclassifying CKC registered dogs as 'foreign' and imposing expensive registration requirements on them. Because it was felt that there could never be enough race oriented people in the AWC to influence the large majority of show oriented people who controled racing through the AWC Board. It was decided to form another racing organization with no connection to the AWC. Whippet owners on the west coast broke off and formed a separate organization called the North American Whippet Racing Association (NAWRA) which allowed the running of spay/neuter whippets with the unaltered whippets. The rules they adopted were nearly the same as the NPR rules, since the basic program was not the issue but the running of spay/neuter whippets and a few new race rules. Their title, the Race Champion (RCh), has identical requirements to the ARM. The also have the Supreme Race Champion (SRCh) title which is much harder to get., requiring 50 National, 30 for bitches, points. These are only given to the top 2-3 dogs in any meet. In the late 80's a kennel out west has a very fast liter which was rumored to be part greyhound. The breeder underwent two AKC audits of his breeding records and emerged with no findings of any wrong doing. He made the offer to the AKC to have the bitch genetically tested but the AKC said it was unnecessary. Later the bitch died in an open field coursing accident. After much controversy NAWRA demanded that both sire, dam and all the liter must be genetically tested, which was not possible because the dam was dead and was known to be dead by those who demanded the testing. Since complying with this demand was not possible the breeder of the liter could not comply and was banned for life from all NAWRA events and the liter and all its get were also banned, I think for 5 generations. About this time the Continental Whippet Alliance (CWA) was formed. Their program also stems from the basic NPR program developed in the 60's. Its title, the ARX, has requirements identical to the ARM. They also have titles based on performance in shows and fun matches and one for participation in a certain number of meets. Though they do not ban any dog specifically they uphold the ban of ANY racing organization anywhere. Hence, they ban dogs banned in Britain and by NAWRA. In 97 NAWRA rescinded the Life time ban on west coast kennel owner and all but the first generation after the accused liter. At this time several dogs which had been banned by NAWRA, but no which it no longer applied, were submitted to CWA for registration. These applications were denied. The reason given was that a life time ban cannot be rescinded so they were still enforcing the now non-existent NAWRA ban on The west cost kennel owner and his breeding. Other dogs were submitted to CWA which were from this kennel but were never covered by the NAWRA ban. These were also denied registration with CWA. The stated reason was the NAWRA ban on dogs of the one kennel , which had never applied to these dogs. The Whippet Racing Association (WRA) was formed by the clubs which were running NPR races in '96 when the AWC dropped its sponsorship of the NPR program. The title was changed to Whippet Race Champion (WRCh) and the requirements remained the same. The Whippet Race Champion Excellent (WRChX) was adopted at that time, with the same requirements as the SRCh. The Companion Racer (CR) and Companion Racer Excellent (CRX) titles were also adopted at this time. The basic program has remained the same as the NPR program though changes have been made to suit the community racing in it now. At this time any whippet with full AKC/CKC registration may run with the WRA. Notice that I skipped the National Oval Track Racing Association entirely? That is because it is indeed separate. In the mid 70's, or so, Dave Rosenstock, and others, organized NOTRA in the west. It gradually spread to the whole US, and parts of Canada. Its point system is similar, but has significant differences, to the one use in the NPR and other sprint organizations. The tracks run are oval or U-shaped depending on the length. Track length is from 220 yards to 440 yards. The titles given are ORC (Oval Race Champion) and SORC (Supreme Oval Race Champion). NOTRA also gives grade titles of the ORC title. So a dog can get an ORC-D if it runs grade D. NOTRA has a category for 'Other Breeds' these are anything allowed to run by NOTRA that is not a whippet. All the traditional sighthounds are on this list and some of the more newly recognized ones. Admission is partly a factor of interest on the breeds part. The AWC inadvertently fostered the growth of NOTRA in the midwest and east by a ban on one club having more than one meet in one weekend. So, in order to make a more cost effective weekend for the participants many clubs started having a NPR meet on Saturday and a NOTRA meet on Sunday. All the organizations grade the dogs from A( fastest) to D (slowest). As a way to place them together in the first heat. The method for doing this varies a bit between the organizations. After that the number of points a dog gets, based on its finish in the races it runs, determine where it will be place in the next heat, or program, run. Four heats, or programs, are run to complete a race meet in all the sprint organizations, while there may be 3 or 4 in ovals, depending on the track length. So if a dog wins its race in the first heat it gets 5 points, its different for the A dogs so I will ignore them. In the next heat it will run with dogs with similar points. If it gets 3rd in the next race it gets 2 points, for a total of 7 and will run with dogs having about 7 points in the 3rd heat. This goes on until all 4 heats are run and the dog with the most points wins the race meet. The Large Gazehound Racing Association (LGRA) is the sponsoring organization for the 200 yd sprint racing of all non-whippet sighthounds. The rules have been adapted to the other sighthounds but it is basically the NPR program. The LGRA program is growing very quickly as the owners find that not only racing lots of fun but that it is excellent training for lure coursing and helps decrease the amount of cutting done by experienced dogs.

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