Epinard's Celebration of the Best Medallions

Awarded to the top ten dogs at the WRA National race meet.

I have spent my life in many different venues with whippets, but racing is my first love. It gives me pleasure that I cannot even begin to put into words. I had long wanted to document my love of whippet racing with a meaningful and permanent award at the Nationals. My dream began to take shape shortly before the start of the new millennium, when I started working with an artist, Mary Ann Dabritz of Portland, OR, on a prototype medallion.

We went through many failed designs, but finally settled on heads modeled after two whippets owned by Gloria Stochek (Goble): FC Chaparral's Bialy B Gone, CD, ARM, ORC, FCh, SC, CGC, AV (a daughter of the great Lyth York, ARM, SORC) and Whillo B Spirit, JC (a South African import). These whippets displayed a bit of the English influence and a bit of the American influence that I wanted to capture.

I first commissioned the bronze medallions for award to the Top Ten in the NAWRA and the NOTRA Nationals, held together in 2001 in Squamish, BC, and have continued to award them every year since. With the merger of NAWRA and WRA in 2018, the medallions will now be awarded by WRA and NOTRA. The double head medallion, originally awarded to the high combined score only when the NAWRA and NOTRA Nationals were held together will now be awarded to the high combined score at the WRA and NOTRA Nationals, I will provide these trophies for the rest of my life and hope that WRA and NOTRA will continue the tradition after I am gone.

I hope the recipients will enjoy these trophies as much as I enjoy giving them. All winners will have the option of purchasing from the artist, a sterling silver version of the trophy as a medallion, pendant or belt buckle.

Lynne Underwood

Epinard Whippets, Walnut Creek, CA