THE FLAT-COATED RETRIEVER 
famous sons were Blizzard and Horton Rector. The former was an 
excellent worker, and made his mark in no uncertain fashion both on the 
bench and at the stud. 
More celebrated still was Horton Rector, bred and broken by Mr Shuter; 
his dam was Black Blossom, and he was a delightfully balanced and 
compact dog, rather on the small side; a capital dog in the field in his 
young days, he became hard mouthed later, but this fact did not detract 
from his stud value, and he can claim as his sons the well-known dogs 
Grouse of Riverside, Sweep of Glendaruel, and Black Quilt. Grouse 
and Sweep won important field trials. Horton Rector won the Cham- 
pionship at the Crystal Palace three years in succession, and earned for 
his owner £1,400 in fees and prizes. Grouse has an extraordinary record. 
Mr H. Reginald Cooke bought this dog as a puppy in Bedfordshire, and 
broke him himself. He won first prizes in the open stakes at the Inter- 
national Gun Dog League Retriever Meetings in 1906 and 1909, and was 
also first in the open stake at the Cheshire and North Wales Retriever 
Society Meeting in 1909; in addition he is a champion on the show 
bench, and is, I believe, the only show bench champion who has won 
an open stake at field trials. Sweep of Glendaruel has not Grouse’s 
record, but he is a wonderful worker, and has sired an even better dog 
than himself in Rab of Glendaruel, probably the fastest retriever of the 
present day. 
Black Quilt, bred by Mr Harding Cox, distinguished himself greatly 
on the bench and at the stud; he was bought by Mr Cooke from his 
breeder, and his two great sons. High Legh Blarney and Shotover, are 
well remembered by present-day exhibitors. The former was bought 
by Mr Cooke, for 200 guineas, at the sale of Colonel Cornwall Legh’s 
kennel, and well has the dog repaid the outlay. He has won fourteen cham- 
pionships, a feat equalled by two dogs from the same kennel, viz., Jimmy 
of Riverside, his son, and Worsley Bess. Blarney has only once been beaten, 
and then before Mr Cooke bought him, by, I believe, his half-brother, 
Shotover. He has been a huge success at the stud, and has impressed his 
beautiful head properties on a very large proportion of his progeny; in 
fact, it is not too much to say that, during recent years, nearly all the 
principal bench winners were by him; further, although one has never 
heard much about his working capabilities, he has got some excellent 
workers, including Longshaw Bruce, Horton Rosette, Coquette and Dolly 
Varden. Blarney died in his eleventh year in February, 1913. 
LL 
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