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Celebrations are made of and remembered for the World Grand Champions they crown, and 1968 will be no exception. The big show takes many hours but none is so important as that final hour on stake night.
The honor of representing the breed as the 1968 World Champion was bestowed on the versatile GO BOY ' S ROYAL HEIR and Donald Paschal Nearly everyone at the Celebration was glad to see Donald win this elusive championship, for he has spent many years in pursuit of it. But sentiment alone cannot win the world title, and that was certainly not the case this year.
ROYAL HEIR is a proven eight-year-old stallion who has answered many challenges in his showring career. He answered his most important one on Saturday, September 7 at midnight when twenty strong challengers entered the ring with nothing on their minds but beating the favorites, ROYAL HEIR and Donald.
Donald and his horse moved into the favorites’ position on Wednesday night with a victory in the aged stallion preliminary, a class that had 60 entries. Donald did it under less than favorable conditions and many voiced the opinion that " the horse won’ t be able to keep up in the mud.” Well, they were wrong, and ROYAL HEIR has the blue ribbon to prove it. Mud or no mud, he was adjudged better than 59 other top studs from all over the country.
Donald and ROYAL HEIR did not win the title without a stiff fight from several contenders who are champions in their own right. The most persistent was the popular ENTERTAINER and Joe Webb( as if you didn’ t already know). Joe and his horse are battle-tested many times over, and while supporters of this great horse are deeply disappointed over the results of September 7, they can certainly hold their heads high and take heart in the knowledge that their
favorite team will be back next year. The championship was decided in the final fourhorse workout when the judges picked ROYAL HEIR, THE ENTERTAINER, ACE’ S SENSATION and GO BOY’ S BLACK ANGEL to do battle for the blue. It was no place for the faint-hearted as each horse pulled out all the stops in an effort to win. Each had its great moments in front of the judges and two of the judges marked the number of ROYAL HEIR while the third voted for THE ENTERTAINER. It was a great victory for Donald and a hard loss for Joe.
Regardless of one’ s own personal choice, it is easy to see the other side in the battle of these two great
horses. ROYAL HEIR has had a checkered career with his ups and downs. He had been under several top professionals before Donald took over in 1967. Buddy Hugh and Steve Hill, to mention just two, have both handled the horse and both are still high in their praise and admiration for him. The last two years certainly emphasize the versatility of this great horse. He has not been beaten in
two years and has two World Championships to show for his efforts, one achieved last year against amateur
competition and one this year against open horses. Quite a feat, and a real credit to all connected with ROYAL HEIR.
The victory by GO BOY’ S ROYAL HEIR continues the domination of stallions, as the last time that a
stallion did not win the Grand Championship was
' way back in 1954 when the mare WHITE STAR turned the trick. Also, GO BOY’ S ROYAL HEIR is the third horse sired by MERRY GO BOY to win the title, the others being GO BOY’ S SHADOW in 1955 and 1956, and last year’ s champion, GO BOY’ S SUN DUST. It is interesting to note that the victory of a GO BOY horse came on the 20th anniversary of the famed sire’ s last Celebration win in 1948.
In the Grand Championship stake the quality of horses has never been higher. The third place horse, ACE’ S SENSATION, and Wink Groover tried the impossible; coming back the night after their victory in the Junior Stake. It was a magnificent bid by a great horse and rider, and it was almost a successful effort.
The fourth place tie went to the great mare, GO BOY’ S BLACK ANGEL, and Charlie Bobo. As we just pointed out, mares have not been conspicuous for their showings in championships in recent years, but Bobo and his horse were in contention all the way. Another horse who has made a magnificent comeback is MAN OF RHYTHM with Boyd Hudgins. This horse won the Junior World Championship in 1966 but suffered a severe injury last year and was virtually forgotten as far as 1968 was concerned. Boyd’ s horse never made a mistake and many thought he should have been put in the final workout. Boyd was upset about being left out of the final working, but this horse has time ahead of him.
The 1966 World’ s Grand Champion, SHAKER’ S SHOCKER, and Betty Sain showed in the stake but
did not receive a ribbon. They tied tenth in the stallion preliminary class earlier in the week.
The Reserve World Champion of 1967, MR. GLO, and Elmore Brock tied sixth in the stake and fourth in the stallion preliminary. Total Celebration attendance suffered its first loss in many years with the total dropping by nearly
14,000 paid admissions from last year. The 1968 attendance was 109,457, while 123,242 turned out in 1967. The forced postponement of Thursday night classes to Friday afternoon was the principal cause of the gate loss even though the final night’ s crowd of 1968 was 2,000 below the previous year’ s figure. The postponement this year was only the second one in the thirty-year history of the show. The Junior Walking Horse Championship was decided on Friday night with 21 horses competing for the title. The winner, with Wink Groover up, was the popular ACE’ S SENSATION, the Three-Year-Old Champion of 1967.
Wink and his horse dominated the class after winning the stallion preliminary earlier in the week. The
horse was sold twice during the Celebration with the final owner being Randall Rollins of Sugarloaf Farms, Atlanta, Georgia. The prices were not disclosed but six figures were popular in discussion about the sale.
ACE and Wink tried to do the impossible and come back Saturday night to win the Grand Championship. This effort was almost successful as ACE tied third giving a tremendous account of himself. The championship stake was the third strenuous class that ACE was called on to make, and the powerful black stud never gave up.
The reserve award in the Junior Championship was won by SUN’ S CHAPARRAL and John T. Carter. John T. tied reserve in this class last year on WAR- LOCK. The third award was won by Albert Rowland on SUN’ S SECRET AGENT, while the fourth place tie went to David Welsh on the potentially great
60 Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse