Fri, 01/30/2026 - 1:00pm
Westminster’s Sesquicentennial: An Epic Celebration
By
Barbara Fawver
Westminster. There’s Only One.®
The tagline says it all.
Mix the Big Apple and the Dog Show of the Year, and you get pure excitement. Add in the sesquicentennial anniversary of the show, and the excitement barometer simply goes off the charts.
The 150th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show Presented by Purina Pro Plan promises many goosebump moments even before Best in Show at Madison Square Garden.
A fan favorite will likely be the return of nine Westminster legends, Best in Show and group winners, who will take another lap around Madison Square Garden on Monday, Feb. 2. Meanwhile, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, an historical gallery exhibit will present milestones from 1877 to the present relating them to a timeline of the sport, New York, America and the world.
The 2026 show marks a return Feb. 2 and 3 to the Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side for daytime breed judging and to Madison Square Garden in midtown Manhattan for the televised evening judging of Groups and Best in Show.
Westminster’s “Canine Celebration” on Jan. 31 at Javits will feature the 13th Annual Masters Agility Championship Presented by Purina Pro Plan and the Flyball Tournament at Westminster Presented by Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Supplements FortiFlora.
Dr. Donald Sturz, president and show chairman of the Westminster Kennel Club, last year ushered in a symbolic return to Manhattan and Madison Square Garden where the show began in 1877, albeit the fourth iteration of the world-famous venue. He likens the 2025 show to “a dress rehearsal” that went so well it felt like “opening night.”
Sturz won over New York State officials in charge of Javits with data on the economic impact the Westminster show has on New York City along with the club’s longstanding relationship with Madison Square Garden. It laid the groundwork for the club to book the venue and synchronize dates with the Garden.
“We limited ticket sales at Javits last year to 9,000 spectators a day because we wanted to get used to the space. This year, we expect to far exceed that number because we won’t be limiting ticket sales,” Sturz says.
A snapshot of the first Westminster Dog Show, held May 8 to 10, 1877, at Gilmore’s Garden, later renamed Madison Square Garden, reflects the show’s popularity from the beginning. That year, it was so successful with a gate of 20,000 people the second and third days that the club extended the show one day.
“Westminster is the Super Bowl of dog shows. The magic of the show is tied to its reverence to dogs and those who show them,” says Seán W. McCarthy, Westminster president from 2012 to 2018, who created Westminster Week and added the Masters Agility Championship and Masters Obedience Championship, welcoming performance dogs including mixed breeds.
Among the special sesquicentennial events are:
· The Westminster Kennel Club’s 150th commemorative pictorial book, available as a 170-page soft cover or hard cover limited edition of 150 copies. Available at the Westminster merchandise store at Hall 1A in Javits, it features photos from the club’s archives with factoids and editorial comments.
· A new Sensation Stage geared to education with scheduled presentations Monday and Tuesday that include Cornell University veterinarians and the Westminster resident veterinarian, Dr. Treyton Diggs; grooming and dog training demonstrations; Dog Show 101 with AKC judges giving a glimpse of how dogs are judged in the ring; and Meet & Greets with some of the Westminster legends. The Sensation Stage will be near the Westminster merchandise store in Hall 1A.
· The debut of the Vin-Melca Trophy during the Monday, Feb. 2 show at the Garden. The sterling silver challenge trophy, offered by Thomas L. and Merry Jeanne Millner, honors Patricia V. Trotter for achieving a record 11 Hound Group Firsts with her Vin-Melca Norwegian Elkhounds. The trophy must be won three times by the same owner for permanent possession, with the winner taking home a commemorative pewter trophy.
The resiliency of the Westminster Kennel Club to host its iconic dog show over 150 years is remarkable. Westminster is the oldest organization in America dedicated to the sport of purebred dogs and the second-longest continuously held sporting event in the country after the Kentucky Derby, which began two years earlier.
A few bumps along the way could have ended its streak: In 1880, William H. Tileston, a charter member and show manager, was tragically killed six days before the show opened when a poorly designed and faultily built second-story wall of the Garden collapsed on him while on club business, postponing the show two weeks; in 1946, the ninth day of a tugboat strike nearly closed New York City due to barges being unable to deliver coal and oil fuel supplies, delaying the start of the show by one day; and in 1969, a 15-inch nor’easter snowstorm crippled the city, closing airports and clogging highways. The show persevered during World War I and II, the Great Depression and even COVID-19.
Charlton “Chat” Reynders III, Westminster president from 2019 to 2021, including the first year at Lyndhurst Estate, says, “We wanted the 145th annual show to be a powerful signal to dog lovers around the world that this tradition continues. All our work in creating the show was designed to offer a step back into the light for fans around the world.”
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show has become what Reynders calls “one of the most iconic sport brands in America.”
Dog fanciers would surely agree that Westminster is a brand that stands apart from any other.
A checklist of the show’s distinctive modus operandi includes:
· A limited entry of 2,500 dogs, all which must be AKC champions
· An invitational event in which the Top Five dogs of each of the 202 eligible breeds and varieties, plus the National Specialty winners, are invited to pre-enter, based on the Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025, qualifying period for the 2026 show
· A benched show, one of two in the country, in which dogs must be on their benches the day they are judged from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding time allowed for grooming and judging and a 3 p.m. dismissal for Best of Breed/Variety winners to transfer to the Garden
· The longest nationally televised live dog show, having begun in 1948 in the early years of television, with FOX Sports planning 16 ½ hours of coverage of the 2026 show that will air on FOX, FS1 and FS2
“I think Westminster is the only show in the world for champions only,” Sturz says. “The excitement the event generates from the moment the judging panel is announced to the entry process, which is kind of like Willy Wonka’s golden ticket where people are waiting to learn whether their entry made it in, is unique to Westminster.
“Part of the magic is that so many people have personal memories that connect them in one way or another to Westminster and there are communal memories that circle around Westminster. I don’t know of a lot of events that do that in the universal sense.”
Westminster Week brings together the dog fancy from across the county, even the world. The hoopla of the event is celebrated with parties, galas and award dinners. By the end of Westminster Week, most are teetering on exhaustion.
As for being a benched show, the virtues are twofold, Sturz says.
“I see it as a great educational opportunity for the public and a great opportunity for us as a sport to interface with the public to educate them and put a positive spin on our world.” Sturz says. “For those in the sport, it is an opportunity to engage with our peers and talk about dogs and breeding programs.”
In “The Dog Show: 125 Years of Westminster,” for which club member and author William F. Stifel received a Sensation Award in 2009, it says, “Benching transforms a dog show from mere competition into a noisy conference room of unrivaled value to exhibitors and spectators alike. There is no better spokesman for dogs than breeders and owners. No one can better communicate the commitment that owning a dog calls for.”
Benching aligns with Westminster’s mission to enhance the lives of all dogs by celebrating the human-canine bond and promoting responsible dog ownership and breed preservation, Sturz says.
Life-Changing Moments
Winning Best in Show at Westminster creates instant celebrity. Photographers swarm to get shots of the winners, and TV and print reporters clamor for interviews. Reaching millions worldwide, the suspenseful, two-day live televised broadcast leading up to Best in Show guarantees an audience of dog lovers.
The 2026 Best in Show judge David Fitzpatrick, of East Berlin, Pennsylvania, knows firsthand what it means to win. A two-time Best in Show winner at the Garden, the Pekingese breeder-owner-handler won in 2012 with Malachy (GCH Palacegarden Malachy) and in 2021 with Wasabi (GCHG Pequest Wasabi). In 2023, he took Reserve Best in Show with Rum Dum (GCH Pequest Rum Dum).
“When Malachy won in 2012, I couldn’t believe it,” Fitzpatrick says. “It was like the moon and stars aligned. It’s sort of a life-changing experience for the handler and the owners because you get on this whirlwind of excitement and congratulatory celebrations with lots of interviews and televisions appearances, all while trying to absorb the magnitude of how lucky you have been to have won.”
The late Bo Bengtson wrote in “Best in Show: The World of Show Dogs and Dog Shows” that winning Best in Show at Westminster is “the sort of experience that changes people’s lives and makes its own particular demand on both people and dogs: the round of public appearances, press, and TV interviews following a Westminster win require a degree of media savvy that cannot reasonably be expected of dog show winners but that most seem to possess as a matter of course.”
Longtime Westminster member, the late Chester F. “Chet” Collier, who served as show chair from 1978 to 1989 and president from 1989 to 2001, was a television executive and network producer. He was instrumental in expanding the Westminster TV audience into the millions, and in 2000, the dog show had the second highest rating of any show on cable.
That year, Collier judged Best in Show, awarded the top prize to the English Springer Spaniel bitch Samantha (Ch. Salilyn ‘N Erin’s Shameless). The daughter of the 1993 Best in Show winner, Robert (Ch. Salilyn’s Condor), Samantha is the only offspring of a Westminster winner to win Best in Show.
Handler Kellie Fitzgerald, of Tabernacle, New Jersey, recalls, “The day after we won, we were on the media tour, and New Yorkers were hustling and bustling on their way to work. They would shout out, ‘Is that Samantha? We saw her win.’
“That’s what Westminster has done for the sport of purebred dogs. Westminster has educated the public, some of whom may never have physically gone to a show but have seen it on TV. Westminster has allowed them to see the level of competition and the quality of different breeds. They have made dog shows a top-notch, serious sport.”
Fitzgerald won a second Best in Show at Westminster in 2007 with the English Springer Spaniel male, James (Ch. Felicity’s Diamond Jim). His win chronicled six Bests in Show for the breed. The first was in 1963, and James’ win stands as the most recent.
Another two-time Best in Show handler, Scott Sommer, of Houston, Texas, won in 2001 with the Bichon Frise male, JR (Ch. Special Times Just Right), the first Bichon to win, and in 2009 with the Sussex Spaniel male Stump (Ch. Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee). At 10 years, 2 months and 2 days old, Stump is Westminster’s oldest winner.
“We put Stump in and out of the van five times before we went to the airport, because I wasn’t sure whether to take him, as he had been sick for a while,” Sommer says. “It was a shock to win. I don’t think I ever heard the crowd so loud at the Garden. They were shouting for Stump. We were in the right place at the right time.”
The all-breed judge Howard Tyler, as quoted in “The Dog Show,” said, “You can’t use Westminster or any other single major show as a barometer for evaluating the greatness of a dog. Top dogs often get beaten in the breed at Westminster.”
The scenario played out at the 1938 Westminster show when Wire and Smooth Fox Terriers were varieties of the same breed. The Smooth Fox Terrier male, Ch. Nornay Saddler, was expected to win the breed over the Wire Fox Terrier bitch, Ch. Spicypiece of Halleston, defending her 1937 Best in Show. When the judge lined up the dogs and had the handlers drop their leads, Saddler moved a little backward and the bitch forward, depicting the desired natural terrier attitude to win the breed, though not the show. Saddler went on to set a record of 51 Bests in Show over his career.
For a few lucky dogs, things line up a few times over. In 1907, the first year Best in Show was awarded at Westminster, a Smooth Fox Terrier bitch, Ch. Warren Remedy won, and then she won again in 1908 and 1909, becoming the only dog in history to win three times, a feat most in the sport say would not likely be possible today. Her handler, Donald Munro, is one of three handlers to win three Westminster Bests in Show. Others are Anne Rogers Clark, who won in 1956, 1959 and 1961, and Gabriel Rangel, who won in 2010, 2014 and 2019.
Four-time Best in Show-winning handlers are Percy Roberts, who took top honors in 1926, 1927, 1934 and 1937, and Peter Green, who won in 1968, 1977, 1994 and 1998. Five dogs have won Best in Show two times, the latest being the English Springer Spaniel, Ch. Chine’s Adamant Jane, who won in 1971 and 1972.
Michelle Ostermiller Scott, of Chesapeake City, Maryland, is one of 23 women to have won Best in Show and one of 15 handlers to have won two times. She won in 2004 with the Newfoundland male, Josh (Ch. Darbydale’s All Rise Pouch Cove), and in 2005 with the German Shorthaired Pointer bitch, Carlee (Ch. Kan-Point’s VJK Autumn Roses).
“I always dreamed about winning at Westminster, and then when it happened, it was surreal,” she says. “To win with two different dogs in back-to-back years was astounding. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. I was the ‘lucky one’ at the end of the leads of these two beautiful dogs.”
‘Guardians of the Sport of the Purebred Dog’
Westminster’s storybook beginning took place in the late 1800s at an elegant, quiet long-gone hotel on Irving Place, the Westminster Hotel, where a group of gentlemen sporting enthusiasts gathered in the bar to drink and brag about their dogs’ shooting accomplishments. They formed a club and bought a kennel and clubhouse in Pascack, New Jersey.
Max Riddle, an all-breed judge who was a reporter for the Cleveland Press and syndicated dog columnist, was quoted in Stifel’s book, “They couldn’t agree on the name for their new club. But finally, someone suggested that they name it after their favorite bar. The idea was unanimously selected, we imagine, with the hoisting of a dozen drinking arms.”
Meanwhile, Stifel juxtaposed another possible origin of the club’s name.
In the 1941 Westminster Dog Show catalog, he wrote, it said that the club took its name from the Duke of Westminster, “from whose kennels in England many of the Association’s dogs were imported.”
Research did not show any dogs came to the Westminster Kennel Club from the Duke’s kennel, Stifel wrote. Almost certainly, the club was not named for the Duke.
However, he added that, curiously, a travel brochure of the day said the hotel “was named in honor of the Duke of Westminster, whose coat of arms appears on its stained-glass windows, stationery and menus.”
“But if the club was named for the hotel and the hotel was named for the Duke, wasn’t the club named for the Duke?” he asked.
Undeniably, the Westminster Kennel Club was made up of a group of passionate dog enthusiasts. Although it was basically a Pointer club, the club also boarded members’ dogs, adding up sometimes to over 200 dogs.
The Westminster Kennel Club had three clubhouses. After two years at Pascack, the club moved to Babylon, Long Island, staying there from 1879 to 1904. The club then moved to Tenafly, New Jersey, but closed permanently in 1906.
At the Pascack kennels, Stifel described, “a collection of highly bred Pointers, unrivaled on this continent.”
A 70-pound lemon-and-white male named Sensation was the most prominent of the club’s Pointers. Club member George DeForest Grant sailed to England in 1876 to acquire “a fine Pointer dog” and returned with one having a distinctive profile and said to have the best head of any Pointer in America and probably England, Stifel wrote.
A dual dog, achieving First and Special Prizes in conformation and placing in field trial stakes, Sensation became the symbol of the Westminster Kennel Club. A likeness of his head appeared on the cover of the first dog show’s catalog in 1877; since 1935, except for 1980 to 1982 when his head alone appeared, Sensation has been pictured on point gracing catalog covers. Sensation on point is featured on the club’s 150-year logo.
William H. Tileston was the driving force who persuaded his fellow club members to hold the 1877 show. Kennel editor of Forest & Stream, which later merged with Field & Stream, Tileston was named show chair. He continued as show manager after the first show until his tragic death in 1880 when the wall of the Garden collapsed on him.
The First Annual New York Bench Show of Dogs Given Under the Auspices of the Westminster Kennel Club, held May 8 to 11, 1877, counting the extra day added on, was deemed a success. There were few dog shows in America at the time. The American Kennel Club was not yet established, though in fall 1884 at Westminster’s only Non-Sporting Breed Show, a national dog association was organized, named the American Kennel Club and officers were elected.
At the 1877 show, there was a single class for dogs and bitches, but some classes were divided by sex, age or weight, or Native or Imported. Special prizes included silver trophies from Tiffany’s, a double-barreled breech-loading central-fire shotgun, a fly road, a leather sportsman’s traveling trunk, an opera glass and a pearl-handled revolver. Prizes of gold coins were paid the last day of the show, and ribbons were awarded with blue for first, red for second and white for third.
The entry fee included handling fees by uniformed attendants who took the dogs into the ring and a crew of attendants who fed and exercised the dogs. Selling dogs was an integral part of shows, thus owners were urged to list prices for each entry for publication in the catalog, along with a dog’s sire, dam, date of birth and show record.
In “The Dog Show,” Stifel wrote that two Deerhounds, Oscar and Dagmar, bred by the Queen of England from the Prince Consort’s famous stock had a price of 10,000 pounds ($50,000) each. Such prohibitory prices, according to the New York Times, simply meant the animal was not for sale, but $100 to $250 was “a very good price for a good dog.”
At a meeting in December 1877, seven months after its first dog show, the Westminster Kennel Club voted to incorporate and hold a second annual bench show in May 1878. Its charter members included a Civil War general and college president, a physician, lawyers, a banker, the owner of America’s Cup racing yachts and a representative a show sponsor, dog food manufacturer Spratt’s Patent of London.
Contrasting the beginning of the Westminster Kennel Club and the tremendous changes over the next 125 years, Collier wrote in “The Dog Show” foreword that “it was necessary for the club members to keep abreast of what was happening and at the same time make sure the club adhered to the basic belief that they were the ‘guardians of the sport of the purebred dog’ and not be subject to passing whims that would cause the sport and the club to stray from that objective.”
James Mortimer and William Rauch are two Westminster pioneers who represented that very spirit.
Mortimer was the resident kennel supervisor at Babylon and then became the show superintendent serving from 1885 until his death in 1915, running 31 Westminster dog shows.
Stifel referenced an article published in the Gazette in 1975 by John T. Marvin, who said Mortimer was prominent as “a breeder, exhibitor, kennel manager, superintendent, handler, importer, judge and above all, as an advisor, for his knowledge was extensive and well-considered.” Marvin said at the time such a breadth of activities was proper and legal, though the AKC later would not allow one to wear so many hats due to a potential conflict of interest.
Rauch, who was the Westminster show chair from 1901 to 1928 and president from 1923 until he died in 1930, convinced his fellow governors in 1907 to award a trophy for Best in Show. His hand in planning the Jubilee 50-year celebration in 1926 included the highly prized Golden Jubilee Medallion for Best of Breed.
According to Stifel, Popular Dog said during Rauch’s tenure as president, the New York show became “the best, brightest and most attractive of all canine exhibitions.”
Endeared by his fellow governors, Rauch was honored in a resolution at the time of his death for standing for “everything that was best and highest in the advancement of dogs and dog shows.”
Shortly after Rauch’s leadership, during the Great Depression in 1933, the Westminster Kennel Club introduced Children’s Handling open to boys and girls under 15. The first qualifying classes were held at Westminster and one win over the next 12 months at events where the competition was offered qualified a junior to compete for the Children’s Handling Grand Challenge Trophy at Westminster in 1934. It became Junior Showmanship in 1951, and over time the age limit was raised to under 18.
The 92nd Annual Junior Showmanship Finals will be judged on Tuesday, Feb. 3 and air on FOX. Eight finalists will be chosen from 99 handlers. Michael Faulkner, of Center Cross, Virginia, who became a member of the Westminster Kennel Club in 2024, began his own career in dogs as a junior handler and is judging Best Junior.
Westminster’s Tradition & Legacy
The Westminster Kennel Club from the beginning has practiced philanthropy that supports canine causes. At its first show in 1877, proceeds of $1,295 from the extended day went to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to help fund a home for stray and disabled dogs. During World War I and II, show profits benefited the American Red Cross, National War Fund and National Dogs for Defense, which during the Second World War shipped nearly 500 dogs a week to training centers.
Westminster Cares is the umbrella under which the club’s giving program is described. The website says the club is “one of the oldest mission-based organizations in the world dedicated to dogs.”
Among the beneficiaries are:
· Veterinary students who receive scholarships via the Westminster Foundation. Since it began in 1987, the program has awarded $4.8 million to students at Cornell University, Tufts, the University of Pennsylvania, Michigan State, Tuskegee University and the University of California-Davis. The Foundation brings the veterinary student recipients to the show each year.
· Eight Junior Showmanship Finalists each year who receive scholarship awards for post-secondary education based on their placements. Since it began in 2010, the awards have totaled $232,000.
· Three national parent breed clubs a year receive breed rescue awards of $5,000 each to support rescue-related expenses. Since it began in 2019, the program has awarded $105,000 to 21 parent breed clubs.
Special awards have long been part of Westminster’s dog show history and none
more so than the challenge trophies offered to winners. The James Mortimer Memorial Sterling Silver Trophy for Best in Show, first offered in 1917, honors the man who was Westminster’s superintendent for 31 shows. The same owner must win five times to retire the trophy.
The new Vin-Melca Trophy, offered by Thomas L. and Merry Jeanne Millner, honoring Patricia V. Trotter must be won three times by the same owner for permanent possession. The previous Hound Group challenge trophy, the St. Hubert’s Giralda trophy in memory of Geraldine R. Dodge, was retired in 2025 by the Whippet bitch Bourbon (GCHP Ch. Pinnacle Kentucky Bourbon).
“The impact Pat and her Vin-Mela Norwegian Elkhounds have had on Westminster is immeasurable,” says Millner, Westminster vice president and secretary.
“Her 11 owner-handled Hound Group Firsts is likely never to be replicated and is nothing short of legendary. As if that weren’t enough, Pat has judged at Westminster many times, including Best in Show in 2021. Merry Jeanne and I hope that establishing the Vin-Melca Trophy will both honor Pat’s contributions to the fancy broadly and Westminster specifically and inspire generations to come.”
Sturz, who is in his fourth year as the club’s 25th president, counts this year’s show as the 54th he has attended since he was 10 years old and showed his family’s Golden Retriever Clyde in Junior Showmanship and made it to Junior Finals.
Reflecting on the 38-member, invitation-only kennel club, Sturz says, “Members come with experience in the sport and are seen as individuals with much to offer.
Not unlike other kennel clubs that originated in the early years of dog shows, the Westminster Kennel Club for much of its history has been a men’s only club.
“I am the third woman in the club’s 150-year history to become a member,” says Patricia Proctor, of Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, who joined Westminster in 2024. “I believe the significance of this shows that in the culture of the sport women have more than proven their knowledge and contributions to the sport.”
Proctor started out in Junior Showmanship, obedience and conformation and then became a breeder-owner-handler and later a professional handler. She is a former AKC Executive Field Representative and then was director of the AKC field staff. Since retiring, Proctor became an AKC judge. She has been a member and officer of breed clubs, has run training classes and stewarded at shows.
Prior to Proctor, the first woman to join the club was Dorothy N. “Dottie” Collier, of Sapphire, North Carolina, wife of Chet Collier, who joined the Board of Governors in 2017. Collier, who has a long history adjudicating at Westminster, judged Best in Show in 1997.
The second woman member was Alexandra “Sandra” Bishop, of New York City, who joined in 2015 and was a member until she died in 2020. Bishop coordinated the biannual Westminster-Leash Match Show and was a life trustee of the ASPCA, of which her late husband, Louis F. Bishop III, had been chairman.
With the sesquicentennial celebration only days away, Struz says, “This year’s event will celebrate and pay tribute to the universal love of dogs and the many generations who have shaped what the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is today.”
“The Westminster dog show represents much more than competition and showmanship,” says past president Reynders. “It is a testament to companionship. A judge charmed by a dog, a connection through the lead, a loving groomer, an adoring owner, a nervous junior handler calmed by an experienced dog. These are all magical, lifting moments. In a world where loneliness is becoming an epidemic, I think our show takes on ever more importance.”
One club member who made sure the Westminster show continued despite COVID-19 was show chair David A. “Dave” Helming.
“I reached out to Dave about contingency plans knowing the 2021 show at the Garden could be disrupted,” Reynders recalls. “He had already put together a roughly sketched map of Lyndhurst grounds. It was a fully considered plan from someone who knew precisely what it takes to put on a show. I remember Dave saying, ‘What’s going to be great about this show is how it is going to bring us all together in such a special place the dogs will love.”
Westminster honored Helming with a Sensation Award in 2024, recognizing his contributions as a member since 2017. He served as show chair from 2017 and club secretary from 2022 until his death in August 2023.
As for choosing David Fitzpatrick to judge Best in Show at the historic 150-year Westminster dog show. Sturz is confident the club picked the right guy for the job.
“David epitomizes an important part of the Westminster story as a breeder-owner-handler with multiple Best in Show wins and many Group wins,” Sturz says. “He has established himself in the sport as someone who is highly regarded and highly respected but who also has a rich Westminster history. To me, he was the perfect choice. He embodies everything the Westminster story is about.”
Fitzpatrick is starting at the top in his first Westminster judging assignment. Like other Best in Show judges, he will be sequestered until Tuesday, Feb. 3 right before he takes command of the show ring at Madison Square Garden. He joins a small cadre of five Westminster Best in Show winners to judge Best in Show: Percy Roberts, who won four times, judged in 1967; Anne Rogers Clark, a three-time winner, judged in 1978; Frank Sabella, who won one Best in Show, judged in 1990; and Peter Green, a four-time winner, judged in 2019.
“I feel privileged to judge on this historic occasion,” Fitzpatrick says. “It’s very exciting and quite a responsibility. You want to do the best job you can.”
As the lights come up on the Best in Show ring and the group winners enter from the ready tunnel, 150 years of Westminster history will pause for this moment in time. Gorgeous dogs who made the Westminster Week journey, won their breed and the group steal our hearts. Who doesn’t have goosebumps?
Congratulations, Westminster Kennel Club, on 150 years!
Back to taglines. This one says it all.
Westminster. A Sensational Canine Event.
Fri, 01/30/2026 - 1:00pm