The 2018 field trial season is now “officially” over with the announcement of a 2018 World Cup champion on Saturday. Congratulations to Triple "B" Kennels on winning the World Cup with Bond's Isabella (Hoehner's Superman II x M&S Bella).
To keep in touch with the houndsmen and continue to make the Masters Leaderboard recognition program as competitive and interesting as possible, the leaderboard committee would like to welcome suggestions for 2019 that may be viewed as fair to all competitors across the country. If anyone has any suggestions they want the committee and Masters BOD’s to review and consider for 2019, please submit them, in writing, below this post, before DECEMBER 31st and we will collect and discuss them.
Thanks,
2019 Leaderboard Committee
Clif Parker
Kelly Parker
Chris Graham
Shane Painter
Larry Bird Saucier
Brandon Whisenant
David Futch
Mike Carr
Terry Walker


Proposals already submitted and pending review for 2019:
1. Proposal to require at least 1 member of a kennel to judge a minimum of one “leaderboard” eligible 2-day or 3 or 4-day Masters, National, or July National affiliated field trial during the course of the calculated year for their Kennel to receive KOY award prizes at the end of year.
a. i.e. - Kennels finishing in the Top 20, who don’t have at least 1 “registered” member judge a leaderboard eligible affiliated field trial during the course of the current year, will not be eligible to receive any year end KOY awards or prize money.

2. Trials signing a “Franchise” Trial agreement can be upgraded in either class, independently, AA or Derby, if that class achieves the minimum number of entries required for the specified region the trial is being hosted. If a trial in VA, NC, SC etc., signs an agreement and the derby class has entries over 150 and the AA doesn’t, then the derby class gets upgraded to 4A and the AA doesn’t and remains a Grade 3.

The Leaderboard has certainly created new dynamics to field trialing. Some good and some bad. The Leaderboard has helped a great many association and has added a strong edge of recognition among fox hunting's fiercest competitors. I commend the Leaderboard committee for it's willingness and openness to ask for input from associations, frequent judges, and hunters. My suggestions are:

1.) Do away with $1/dog "franchise agreements." It makes no sense to penalize an association that falls just short of the 150 AA dog requirement, but yet still contributes more to the Leaderboard than the average association in order to be Leaderboard eligible. Every association should be charged the same fee and the bump up in grade should only be dependent upon the amount of hounds entered. Increase the Leaderboard fee from $30 to $100 per trial. Then only will a trial receive a bump up in grade if the have 100 or greater derby dogs or 150 or greater all age dogs.

2.) The current entry factor brackets are illogical and inconsistent. The current brackets skip from 25 dogs to 100 dogs then to 50 dogs. I suggest the following:

300+ = 1.40
250-299 = 1.30
200-249 = 1.20
175-199 = 1.10
150-174 = 1.00
125-149 = 0.90
100-124 = 0.80
75-99 = 0.70
50-74 = 0.60
0-49 = 0.00

If a trial cannot attract at least 50 hounds then it does not meet the requirement to recognize a champion and should not be Leaderboard recognizable either. Eight hour trials should not be recognized or should at least be required to be judged the full eight hours.

3.) I fully support the suggestions already submitted, and I encourage the Leaderboard committee to fulfill their mission and report Leaderboard standings frequently and accurately. The Leaderboard is growing and is likely becoming increasingly burdensome and tireless for Clif to report and answer all Leaderboard complaints. However, with the amount of money contributed to the Leaderboard, associations and hunters are owed standings posted publicly monthly.

4.) Lastly, but most importantly, our heritage is becoming increasingly scrutinized. With every year that passes, our fights in the legislature are becoming greater and greater. I challenge the Leaderboard, the Masters Corp., field trial sponsors, and all associations to support their respective state and regional hunting dog associations. The Southern Hunting Dog Alliance, Virginia Hunting Dog Alliance, North Carolina Wildlife Preserve Association, Missouri Hunting and Working Dog Alliance, and many more are working diligently to protect our heritage. Let's help them out!

All the best and happy hunting,
Todd Miller

Reduce the number of field trial placements from the Top 10 HGA or GTP that can count towards the year end final total in Kennel of the year (KOY) from an individual facility or outside hunting ground from 6 to 4. This would require kennels to place at a minimum of 3 different facilities to be capable of fulfilling their maximum of 12 trials for any given year and compete or be recognized as the best kennel in the country.

a. i.e. for year end grand totals and award recognition, only 1/3 or 33% of the maximum of 12 eligible trials can be counted and retained from an individual facility or outside hunting ground. For kennels or individuals to receive points for their 12 trials, they would have to place no less than 4 times at Creedmoor, 4 times at Manning and 4 times at Swainsboro, GA., etc.

This does not apply to SOY and DOY. They would remain at 6 per facility.

Only count hunts that post the results on Masterfox only. It is easy to copy and past and add to other web sites and Facebook. I believe this would help Cliff in figuring the points.
We are now in a digital age where are most hunters have smartphones was very good camera capabilities and there are always pictures on the internet of the results so it would be easy for any of the hunters that participated in the hunt that are wanting to ensure they get their Hound of the Year side of the year a **** of the Year points supposed to results in one spot.