BREE Cudmore and her Kelpie, Moana, have taken a special place in Coprice Victorian Farm Dog Championship history, just the second woman in more than 30 years to take the title.

Taking out the open section of Sheepvention’s annual dog trials by five points over Vin Gedye and Scoriochre Pontas, the pair made the Hamilton Showgrounds yards circuit look almost effortless in the championship, despite a slightly forward start.

“She did a great job with her early pick up; we had a really nice sheep, after she sorted it, he just led them into the pen beautifully,” Bree said.

“She was a bit keen when first came out … a bit hard in the first pen, she bumped them a bit hard and we had a bit of a break in flow, but other than that we just steadied her up a bit after the first pen (and) she handled them beautifully.”

Bred by Bree’s friend and mentor, Travis Scott – the 2018 Victorian Yard Dog Championship winner – the five-year-old black Kelpie out of station bitch, Storm, and sired by Hilton’s Pin, started trialling before COVID-19 hit, working her way out of the lower levels very quickly and earlier this year won the Open at the Australian Yard Dog Championships.

“She’s quite a capable dog, part of my main team,” Bree said.

The young handler, herself, is no stranger to trialling, beginning competition with Zoe – who also competed on Tuesday – in 2018.

A livestock overseer on a fine Merino operation near Colac, Bree said a passion for dogs had led her to turn work into play.

“I work on farm, I’ve just got a passion for dogs and I work dogs every day; I’ve got six dogs in the main team,” she said.

“We’re constantly working together, so we just have a little extra fun doing this on the weekend.”

And the ‘fun’ does not stop at Sheepvention – Bree and her team are headed to Deniliquin on Tuesday night before hitting the National Utility Championships at Nyngan on Thursday.

Sheepvention saw some outstanding competition and extremely close results over the three days of trialling – second place in the championships saw a tie between Hopkins River Colin with handler Renae Reynolds and Jindi Groot with Adam James, and just 10 points separated first and sixth places in the encourage, while the novice saw a single point separate first and second.

Wallacedale’s Trevor Chown and partner Rose Facchino had a ‘Kraken’ start at Sheepvention’s dog trials, taking out first and third place in the encourage event and earning a place in Monday’s Novice Final.

At just 18 months old, the star of Sunday’s Encourage, Kraken Shine, took the title by just two points over Brad Watt’s Beltana Bunny, but finished her run almost a full minute ahead.

Also up there in the results, Kraken Weapon found his stride in the yards, taking out third place in the Encourage and stepped up for a fourth in the following day’s Novice.

And while Shine’s litter mate, Kraken Sonny, made it a double for the kennel with second place at Ballarat, he couldn’t quite get the hang of Sunday’s course.

“They can’t all have good days, but we’re really happy with how the dogs went and looking forward to taking Weapon back for the Novice Final,” Trevor said.

Six-time Victorian Yard Dog Championship winner and renowned breeder and trainer, Joe Spicer, had a great day in the yards with All States Betts and a one-point win in the novice.

After campaigning the dog for some time, Joe took him to the Australian Championships around three years ago where he was beaten by a single point in the maiden.

“I ended up winning the first novice with him about three months ago with a really good, tough trial at Mount Hess, where you needed a dog with a lot of force, so now he’s out of the novice and up into the improver open class,” Joe said.

While Joe purchased the dog outright only a year ago, Betts’ make-up is familiar to him, with New South Wales bloodlines on the sire side, but at least four generations of Joe’s own Go Getta bloodlines in his dam.

“He’s a partial outcross sire, quite often that sire doesn’t breed on unless you breed back to the same lines, but he’s been a revelation to us in that every pup and every litter has been good and quite consistent – good pups with all-round ability, great temperament – good to get on with, plenty of force but not too much aggression,” Joe said.

He congratulated second-placed Josh Latty and Kamarooka Jack, who were down by three points after the first round and top scored in the second.

“The whole Latty family are great stockmen, they’ve been around for a long time,” Joe said.

“Josh is a professional second or red-ribbon man with that particular dog, he’s come second two or three trials in a row, so he’s knocking on the door and it won’t be long before he gets that win.”