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Dogs

Dec 23 2021

Vigow of Romanoff – The History-Making Borzoi

Vigow was undefeated in breed competition, ultimately winning 63 groups and 21 BIS

By Amy Fernandez

Originally published at The Canine Chronical Digital Edition

On March 11, 1936 AKC crowned its first American-Bred dog of the year. Ironically, the honor went to a Borzoi, then known as the Russian Wolfhound, breeder/owner/handled by the French-born Louis Murr. His Romanoff Borzoi kennel in Spring Valley, New York produced decades of winners. But none equaled the fame of Ch. Vigow of Romanoff.

Offered annually until 1939, AKC’s American-Bred competition was initiated to showcase and encourage American breeders at a time when imports dominated the ring.

Finalists were selected on the basis of group wins and Vigow defeated some heavy hitters that year including Mrs. Cheever Porter’s Irish Setter, Ch. Milson O’Boy, Marie Leary’s Ch. Anthony of Cosalta, and one of the Bondy’s best Wires, Ch. Leading Lady of Wildoaks.

Vigow repeated this feat in 1937, and remained top-ranked until 1938, eclipsing the record of his equally famous sire Ch. Vigow O’Valley Farm. His career included 38 Group Firsts and eight BIS wins, accomplishments that seemed highly unlikely when Murr acquired him in 1929.

Then in deplorable condition, Murr purchased him solely for his dazzling pedigree, which melded perfectly with the breeding program he had been constructing since 1920. Bred to a third generation Romanoff bitch, Vigow justified Murr’s hunch. The litter yielded four champions including two BIS winners.

Murr’s Romanoff bloodline was founded on stock tracing directly to Borzoi imported by Joseph Thomas for his legendary Valley Farm kennel in nearby Connecticut. The undisputed superstar among them was Vigow’s grandsire, Ch. Bistri of Perchino, bred by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaievich and imported to America in 1903.

Despite growing popularity since the first Borzoi arrived from England in 1899, quality and type were conspicuously scarce, nothing like the powerful, graceful coursing hounds Thomas envisioned. He knew what he wanted. Finding it was another story. After visiting kennels in America, Canada, and Europe he was equally disappointed by Russian Borzoi until he ventured thousands of miles to a kennel in the remote province of Tula. There he found over 300 Borzoi personifying the type he imagined with long beautiful heads, great bone and muscle, deep chests, excellent feet, and gorgeous coats.

They represented three decades of dedication for Grand Duke Nicholas, uncle of Russia’s last Czar. Once common, Russia’s grand hunt kennels disappeared in the wake of economic and social upheavals. Perchino was an anachronism, but creating it had required more than royal money and connections. For decades, Russian Borzoi were heavily crossbred to Greyhounds. Purebred specimens became extremely rare.

Thomas returned with stock from two remaining strongholds of working type, Perchino and Woronzova, including Bistri and Raskida, sire and dam of his superstar Ch. Rasboi O’Valley Farm, took BOB at Westminster four consecutive years. Within a year, Valley Farm Borzoi annihilated the competition. In little over a decade, Thomas achieved his ambition of reinstating genuine Borzoi type. His well-timed imports also ensured the perpetuation of crucial bloodlines after Imperial Russia’s demise. He was instrumental in founding the Russian Wolfhound Club of America and authored the breed’s first American standard. His meteoric rise was matched by his abrupt departure from the breed. “The Valley Farm Kennels produced hundreds of high-class borzoi; indeed, twenty-five years ago it would have been difficult to find from one end of the country to the other an American-bred borzoi that wasn’t chock-full of Valley Farm blood – a stream of lineage that had its direct source at the fountainhead of all that was good in Russia.” (AKC Gazette, Oct. 1931) Valley Farm stock seeded key bloodlines including Romanoff.

AKC Judge Mr. Louis Murr

Murr’s involvement with Borzoi commenced in 1914 and he registered his Romanoff prefix in 1922. In 1931 he relocated his growing kennel to ten acres in Spring Valley. He converted a hillside barn into the main kennel, built dozens of spacious pens and paddocks, but preferred allowing his dogs maximum freedom. Vigow was a living testament to his belief in premium food and unlimited exercise. Romanoff maintained 40 adults and bred about 75 puppies annually. Rarely kenneled, they generally lived in large groups. Famed for their rock hard condition, Murr also believed that this unrestricted, natural environment encouraged steadiness and minimized fighting.

In 1938, the AKC Blue Book of Dogs called Romanoff Borzoi Kennel, “one of the largest on this continent, if not the largest; one of the best, if not the best.” Murr routinely piled six to eight Borzoi into his car for, undoubtedly lively, drives to shows. Shown 72 times, Vigow was undefeated in breed competition, ultimately winning 63 groups and 21 BIS. This total might have gone higher. Unfortunately his career abruptly ended at age five when he was killed by a kennelmate.

Murr went on to produce other notable winners, taking two of them to Westminster group wins in 1942 and 1943. He is best remembered as a popular all breed judge. He judged 19 Westminster assignments between 1925 and 1971 including his 1969 BIS award to Ch. Glamoor Good News, owner/handled by Walter Goodman. Numerous important American bloodlines like Tamboer and Majenkir have been founded on Romanoff stock.

Posted by admin on Jul 19 2013. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

I would like to share the above article about Vigow of Romanoff  and Louis Murr,   Vigow  was the most famous borzoi our country ever knew up until 2018 when the borzoi bitch “Lucy” broke all of his records, “Lucy” , the same borzoi bitch who is the grand-daughter of Blyss Kennel’s “Mikhailya”, through her son, “Magnus”, or “Max”, as some people refer to him.   I also want to share Vigow of Romanoff’s story with you by posting this article and photograph on my website.

There is another reason I would like to post this article on my website.  Luis Murr was the mentor of my mentor, Karen Staudt-Cartabona, and on more than one occasion she has quoted him in discussions of borzoi when club members and friends were gathered at shows or club meetings or a dinner.  My husband, Bob, and I were greatly privileged to have Karen as a mentor and friend, especially since she was a student of Louis Murr,.   Karen greatly revered him and instilled the same reverence of him in us all.  She got the idea for the design of her kennel from him, and it accommodated a very large number of borzoi, ideal for breeding a line of a large breed of dog.  But, I always remembered a brief remark she made in passing over dinner one night, in talking about a visit to O’Valley Farms and speaking with Louis Murr, and commenting about what she liked when she saw a particular borzoi.   She related that he rebuked her saying it is not important what you like, but what is correct, to the standard.  Through Karen Staudt-Cartabona,, my mentor, to whom I owe so much, my kennel goes back to Louis Murr.  It is ironic that a bitch of our line defeated Vigow’s long held and respected record.  It goes without being said, we used Karen’s stud dog for “Mikhailya’s” breeding. 

Although my husband is gone, and I no longer have borzoi, my passion for the breed is undiminished.  I am grateful to the clubs and friendships I am blessed to have because of twenty years of owning borzoi and being loved by them.

May I add the following words, because in life there is always change and often with change comes loss.


A million words won’t bring you back, I know because I tried;

Neither would a million tears, I know because I cried.

Written by admin · Categorized: Borzoi, Dogs

Apr 06 2021

The days after Easter at Blyss

It was just Easter on Sunday, and on Saturday, I spent the day with my son and his wife at the home of his wife’s parents with the baby, my grand-daughter, Piper Starling.  It was a fun day because  I got to hold the baby a lot, and she likes me to hold her.  In addition to that, many people have commented that of everyone there, she resembled me the most, even some Facebook friends commented on the resemblance.  She is very verbally precocious and charming.  My son made a delicious leg of lamb, and I bought a very special decorated cake for Easter in the shape of an Easter egg from the very creative, upscale bakery in Summit, Natale’s.  On Sunday, I was invited to an Easter dinner with my sister and her family, including her son Logan, who happens to be my God-son, whom I love very much.  I had not seen Logan in about two years due to the COVID quarantine.  It was a lot of emotional stimulation and excitement for one weekend.

I posted pictures from both days on Facebook, happy pictures and posts.  I have not been well since my sudden, forced separation from my last boyfriend of one year on Valentine’s Day weekend.   Last week would have been our first anniversary of meeting face-to-face, a joyous occasion, allowing us to be in quarantine together.  I have to ask myself why I am such a loser in my relationships with men.  It is the ruination of my happiness and my life.  I wish it would just end and be over because I cannot take the pain and the loneliness anymore.  The last one swore we would be forever so I am shaken to the core this time.  He has since ghosted me.   I don’t know how someone does that.

But I have my beloved Kensey, who makes me very happy.  She is always there for me with her emotional support.  Moreover, I will be attending the spring dog shows, both locally on the first weekend in May, and in Ohio, where the Borzoi Club of America will be holding its specialty show during the last week of May.  These are reasons for joy.  I will be among friends and their borzoi, and being happy.  I will see many people whom I only see at this show, and it will warm my heart.

If only my boyfriend had not abandoned me in February, this could have been such a happy time.   He is a hard hearted person, one has to have a heart of stone to act the way he acts, knowing how much I loved him.  But we can only be who we are, and that is who he is.  People do what they want to do.  He needs to be free of the ties that bind in a relationship whereas I need to be held close and loved. And I still love him so much I could die of it.

Written by Lorene · Categorized: Borzoi, Dogs, Family Lilfe, Friendship, Grief, Love, Morals&Ethics, Travel

Mar 30 2021

Remembering Bob and Opal at Blyss

This month, March, is the tenth anniversary of my husband, Bob’s, death.  I find myself recalling him a great deal, what we were doing when we learned he was sick, and how little time we had left together, of  how he was robbed.  He had another great love in his life, greater than his for me, that being his two sons.  They were just entering adult life when he died.  He did not see them grow into young men, get married, and have children of their own.  I think he would have truly enjoyed that.  I believe he would have found the thrilling bliss in that that I found with the borzoi, although he did love his borzoi, too.  For me, I learned I never really knew what love was, never having had it growing up as a child.

My childhood was an ordeal of survival behind enemy lines, with parents ruling the house like they were Gestapo agents, imprisoning their children, ruling them with what can only be described as a rule book that grew thicker with every passing day.

Their favorite adages were: Spare the rod, spoil the child; and, You should only kiss your children when they are asleep.  They did not notice that their three children were growing up despising them and being totally self destructive.  They were too busy being angry all the time, with one another, and their offspring.    Somehow, sadly, we survived.

I understand Bob had a happy childhood, with laid back and easy going parents.  He, and all his siblings, always appeared to have smiles on their faces.  My siblings and I were profoundly emotionally disturbed, and did not wear smiles well.  We looked rather ghoulish with smiles on our faces, so we practiced looking in mirrors trying to look intelligent or serious instead.  It seems particularly sad that  I, who am so damaged, am left alive while Bob had to die ten years ago.  I feel so sorry for him that he had to miss so much happy, quality, family time.    I know how precious it is, but I had to learn about it from borzoi.

Borzoi taught me about love, human love.  I thought I loved Bob when I married him, but I had been made too damaged by my mother to be able to love anyone again.  It was fun and easy to love the borzoi.  When I look back at my old photographs with them, I don’t recognize myself.  I look so healthy, and am always beaming in a huge smile I cannot diminish.  In January, 2005, we  bought Opal.  I became manic with joy.  Eighteen months later she died, and I crashed into a devastating depression and have never been the same again.  I cannot forget what I lost when she died, my greatest loss, my heart itself, my joy that only she brought me.   I have read accounts like this by  other people sometimes on FB, not often, because usually people have multiple borzoi and the others help the owner get over the loss.  However, sometimes, a kennel will have one of those very extraordinary borzoi that transcends who and what it is, and when the owner writes about it, I recognize and understand what has happened to them.

Somehow, I am learning to love and smile, because I have grown from that place.  In the process, I have learned that Opal made a difference in my life, by enabling me, after almost 15 years, me to experience love and joy again.  I do not mourn her, I celebrate her, every day.  I was the luckiest person in the world to have had her.  I believe we will be reunited upon my death.  Opal is my definition of heaven.  Someday, when she comes up to me and looks up, and then hit me with her paw, like she used to, then, she will never be far away again.

Written by Lorene · Categorized: Borzoi, Depression, Dogs, Family Lilfe, Friendship, Grief, Love, Opal, Suburban Landscapes, Suburbs

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