The Groundbreakers

It has been said frequently that the first time Westminster Kennel Club awarded a Best in Show was in 1907. That is what most people, myself included, believed. And since the list of BIS winners printed in the WKC catalog every year starts with that year, it's easy to think that's the case.

This is not correct, however. There were in fact Best in Show awards even earlier, as is clear from occasional references in early show reports. One such I found in an old issue of Kennel Review. The report from that year's Westminster (1925) says that BIS was a Pointer shown by B. F. Lewis, Jr., whose father, apparently, to quote the article, “thirty-five years ago won special for best in the show with a pointer named Robert Le Diable.” That takes us back to 1895!

It would be interesting to know more about Mr. Lewis, Sr., and Robert Le Diable. We know that the son's first name was Ben and that he and his wife showed a lot of Lansdowne dogs of different breeds. The only thing we can make out about the 1895 winner this long after the event is that he was probably named after an opera that was popular all through the 1800s but is seldom performed these days.

Another early winner is referenced in Anne M. Hier's interesting “Dog Shows Then and Now” (published in 1999 by Images in Print). She mentions Samuel L. Goldenberg and his wife, who were influential in French Bulldogs and English Toy Spaniels in the early 1900s. Their imported English Toy Spaniel Ch. Darnall Kitty was reportedly undefeated in both her native England and in the U.S., and she obviously was BIS at Westminster. Direct quote: “Under judge George Raper she was named Best in Show all breeds at Westminster in 1904.”

Nella Goldenberg with some of her dogs. Obviously she had a Bulldog and a Griffon as well as French Bulldogs and English Toy Spaniels.

There is much on the Internet about her owner Samuel Goldenberg and his wives (he divorced and remarried), not because they were dog fanciers (although that is actually mentioned in the items I found about them) but because they were very wealthy, lived part time in France, and survived the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912 — one of the biggest maritime catastrophes of all time in which at least 1,500 people drowned. (It was also the inspiration for an epic romance and disaster movie with Leonardi di Caprio and Kate Winslet.) Supposedly Mr. Goldenberg needed only one day's rest upon arrival in New York before he was ready to judge a “world record” entry at the French Bulldog Club of America on April 20 that year. Kitty, the English Toy Spaniel, is not known to have produced any puppies: Anne Hier says that she was accidentally killed while playing with a French Bulldog. 

Best in Show Westminster 1904, English Toy Spaniel Ch. Darnall Kitty. From Dog Shows Then and Now.

Page from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1887. From The Dog Show – 125 Years of Westminster.

That's two BIS winners who are not recorded officially. There were probably more, although a BIS winner was not necessarily declared every year in those days. It may be difficult for modern fanciers to realize that Best in Show once was not nearly as important as it is today: It was simply one challenge class among many, and to win it you had to enter — you did not automatically qualify for BIS by winning the Group in those days. (To begin with, there were no Groups!) For many years it was not even necessarily reported who won. Going through AKC reports from more than a century ago can be quite frustrating, as the Best in Show winner is often not mentioned at all.

Westminster has been held annually since 1877, and William F. Stifel, in his wonderful “The Dog Show – 125 Years of Westminster” (published in 2001 by Westminster Kennel Club) writes: ”In most breeds, there was a single class for both dogs and bitches, but some classes were divided by sex or age or Native versus Imported or weight or various combination of these.” There was not even necessarily a Best of Breed winner unless there happened to be a special prize for this.

From 1907 until 1922, Terriers dominated Westminster in a big way: Of 16 Best in Show awards, 13 were won by Terriers! The first three were won by the Smooth Fox Terrier bitch Ch. Warren Remedy; the fourth was won by another Smooth Fox Terrier bitch, Ch. Sabine Rarebit; the fifth was won by a Scottie, and the sixth was won by an Airedale. Not until 1913 did a non-Terrier win BIS: the Bulldog Ch. Strathay Prince Albert.

Best in Show Westminster 1907, 1908 and 1909, Smooth Fox Terrier Ch. Warren Remedy. 

Remedy was owned, bred and handled by the patriarch of the Fox Terrier breed in America, Winthrop Rutherfurd, who came from a prominent New York family but had a big estate and kennels in New Jersey. He was known to every reader of the tabloids as “the other man” in the era's greatest society drama: Rutherfurd was engaged to railway heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt, who had been forced to renounce him, very much against her own wishes, to exchange the family fortune for the title of Duchess of Marlborough a few years before.

At the age of 20 months, Warren Remedy faced off against 16 other breeds of dogs in Best in Show in 1907. The New York Tribune wrote: “Warren Remedy, William Rutherfurd's smooth fox terrier bitch, is the best of the two thousand dogs in the thirty-first annual bench show of the Westminster Kennel Club, at the Madison Square Garden. At least that was the dictum yesterday of the congress of judges who were called on to pass on the best dog in the show of any breed, age and sex. The award was received with mild applause by the casual visitors, who could not help admiring the sprightly little miss, and with wild acclaim by the fox terrier fanciers. It was a triumph for Mr. Rutherfurd, who bred the winner at his home in Allamuchy, N.J., as among those defeated were Squire of Tytton, the unbeaten collie; Dolly Gray, the champion Old English sheep dog, and Deodora Prince, the taking English setter, which is practically true to type.

Winthrop Rutherfurd in later days. From Best in Show – the World of Show Dogs and Dog Shows.

“The victory of Warren Remedy came in Class 35 of the specials for the Spratts trophy and $50 in gold. The class created unusual interest, as the best of all breeds appeared in the ring for the coveted honors. Some twenty breeds were represented, and it was a novel sight to see them all together, from the big, kindly St. Bernard to the tiny, mincing Pomeranian. After careful study and some deliberation the judges weeded out all but eight dogs, and from these made their final choice. … The judges conferred for a full ten minutes before they could reach a final decision. The first vote was not quite unanimous, as two or three of the [ten] judges were in favor of the English setter, but at last an agreement was reached, and the little fox terrier was picked up bodily and carried off in triumph. The English setter Deodora Prince got the reserve ribbon and Squire of Tytton, [the Bulldog] Mahomet and other English bred dogs had to acknowledge defeat by American bred ones.”


Immediately afterward, Remedy competed once again, this time for the Ballyhoo Bay Challenge Cup, awarded by the Ladies Kennel Association of America. A similar lineup of dogs competed for the trophy, with the exception of Squire of Tytton being replaced with the American-bred Rough Collie Mountaineer Magistrate. Remedy was expected to win this title as well, but it was instead awarded to Deodora Prince.

Later in the 1907 show season, Remedy was named Best in Show at the inaugural North Jersey Kennel Club dog show. A week after that victory and also in New Jersey, Remedy won the award for the best dog or bitch in show at the Asbury Park dog show. After Remedy had won the Best in Show title at the Westminster Kennel Club show in 1908, she was declared to be the "best dog of her kind in America,” and she won again in 1909.

The Sabine Fox Terriers, in contrast with the East Coast Warren dogs, came all the way from the West: F. H. Farwell, the owner of the vast Sabine Kennels in Orange, Texas, was a wealthy and colorful cattle rancher who would travel to shows with as many as 60 dogs and two handlers — one to groom and one to show the dogs. In spite of the difference in backgrounds, obviously Rutherfurd and Farwell were able to co-operate: Ch. Warren Remedy was sired by Ch. Sabine Resist.

Best in Show Westminster 1910 Smooth Fox Terrier Ch. Sabine Rarebit. From The Dog Show – 125 Years of Westminster.

In 1910, when Rarebit won BIS, Remedy tried for a fourth BIS win but was in fact defeated by two Sabine dogs. The New York Times wrote that Remedy “was beaten in her own class this season by the Sabine Kennels' Sabine Fernie, much to the surprise of the fanciers. Fernie was then defeated for the Grand Challenge Cup offered for ‘best fox terrier’ by the American Fox Terrier Club by Sabine Rarebit. In addition, Rarebit took the special prize offered by the Sabine Kennels for the best smooth fox terrier of the year and the cup for the best American or Canadian smooth fox terrier. The placing of Sabine Rarebit as the best dog in the show was received with favor by the fanciers, it being said there was little question but that she had the better of the argument with Warren Remedy for the honor.” (Rarebit was clearly a male, but he was referred to as a bitch in the above.)

After the first four years with two American-bred Smooth Fox Terrier winners, imports totally dominated the next several years. Not that the English-born dogs who won were necessarily that fancy. The Scottish Terrier Ch. Tickle Em Jock who was BIS in 1911 had originally been bought for £15, and the Wire Fox Terrier bitch Ch. Matford Vic, who won BIS in both 1915 and 1916, had a back story that was hard to top: She had originally been purchased as a children's pet for £2 but was seen by a Terrier expert and first sold for £1,000. An American agent paid £2,500 for her to come to the U.S., and after her Westminster wins she was sold for £5,000 to a rich lady who wanted to establish a Wire Fox Terrier kennel in Huntingdon, New York. (Converting old sums to modern money is always risky, but the average U.S. wage in 1915 was $687 … If you Google what £5,000 in 1915 would be worth in 2022, you get $143,125.)

In 1912 one of three early Airedale Terriers won BIS: the English import Ch. Kenmare Sorceress. The other Airedales were both U.S. bred: Ch. Briergate's Bright Beauty in 1919 and Ch. Boxwood Barkentine in 1922. No Airedale has won BIS at Westminster in the 100 years since.

The winner in 1913 was a Bulldog who had been imported only two weeks before the show, Ch. Strathay Prince Albert, and in 1914 BIS went to a very consistent Old English Sheepdog, Ch. Slumber (by John O'Dreams out of Nightmare): She was also Reserve BIS in 1917 and had won a special for Best Non-Sporting Dog or Bitch in 1912.

Best in Show Westminster 1914, Old English Sheepdog Ch. Slumber with her owner Mrs. Tyler Morse. 

We already mentioned the dual winner in 1915 and 1916, Ch. Matford Vic. Amazingly, another English import Wire Fox Terrier was also BIS twice: the male Ch. Conejo Wycollar Boy won in both 1917 and 1920. (His sire Ch. Wireboy of Paignton had won Reserve BIS in 1915!) It's a well-known fact that Wire Fox Terriers have won more BIS at Westminster than any other breed, not just in the early years but in the decades since.

In 1918 a White Bull Terrier from Canada won, Ch. Haymarket Faultless; he was again Reserve BIS the next year. When he won, The New York Times called the competition for Best in Show “the most remarkable demonstration ever seen,” because the two judges could not agree: Vinton Breese favored the Bull Terrier, but his co-judge Charles Hopton was voting for the Pekingese, Ch. Phantom of Ashcroft. Perhaps the best known of all American judges in those day, George Thomas, was called in to referee: He had already judged BIS the previous year and preferred the Bull Terrier. The Pekingese was Reserve BIS again in 1921 — and was apparently heavily favored to win that year but was wildly unpopular with ringside at both his BIS performances. His main competitor in 1921 was the particolor Cocker Spaniel bitch. “[T]he crowd hissed Phantom and cheered for Seductive — who won,” writes William Stifel. This was, of course, long before the division of English and American Cocker Spaniels into different breeds.

Incidentally, only one other dog was Reserve BIS twice at Westminster in those days. The famous Greyhound Ch. Lansdowne Sunflower “almost” won in both 1920 and 1922. She had reportedly won BIS 49 times at other shows and was hoping for a 50th BIS at Westminster … It was not to be, and in the mid-1920s Reserve BIS was not awarded for many years — it came back again only in modern times.

The BIS winner in 1922 was, as mentioned earlier, the Airedale Terrier Ch. Boxwood Barkentine. In 1923 there was no Best in Show award. Quote from my book “Best in Show — the World of Show Dogs and Dog Shows” (published in 2008 by Kennel Club Books): “In 1923 there was no Best in Show winner at Westminster — the only time in more than 100 years that a top award was not announced at this show. The American Kennel Club barred interbreed competition that year while investigating the irregularities that routinely occurred at this level of judging: for example, defeated dogs could win over dogs that had placed ahead of them in earlier classes at the same show, and even dogs that had not competed for Best of Breed might turn up to compete — and win — in the Best in Show judging.”

The result was basically the rules that now govern Best in Show judging at all AKC shows: Only undefeated Group winners may compete for Best in Show, and only undefeated Best of Breed winners may compete in the Groups. This may seem self-evident to us today, but it obviously was not 100 years ago. In the beginning there were only five Groups: Sporting (consisting of Gundogs and Hounds), Working, Terriers, Toys and Non-Sporting. The Hounds soon broke out from the Sporting breeds and formed their own group, but the Herding Group was not created until 1983, when these breeds broke away from the Working Group.