Photo by Kit Houghton
Last year’s winner Alan Disbery pictured with Tom Grant, Breeder Services Manager,
representing sponsors Pedigree Masterfoods

The Kennel Club, in conjunction with Pedigree, are taking over the principal role of sponsorship of the dog agility at the Olympia International Horse Show from 2005 and beyond.

To coincide with this it has been decided to extend the finals at the show to give an opportunity to the novice dogs to qualify for their very own final and also for the midi dogs and handlers to have their own final.

The Olympia International Horse Show is an extremely popular annual Christmas event and is a virtual sell-out every year for each of the performances on the five main days of the show. It is unique with its mixture of top class international showjumping, demonstration events and as featured for the last twenty-six years, the final of the Pedigree Dog Agility Stakes which has become one of the most popular events at the show.
The events at Olympia 2005 will be as follows:

Thursday 15th December 2005
Kennel Club Olympia Midi Agility Stakes Finals supported by Galloway

A semi final for this final will be held at Newton Heath Championship Show in June 2005. This competition was previously the Galloway Midi Agility Challenge and in future all heats presently run under this title will be run under the above name. The top ten dogs from the semi final at Newton Heath will go forward to the final at Olympia. The Kennel Club would like to thank Mike Afia from Galloway for his continued support of the midi agility stakes.

Friday 16th December 2005
Kennel Club Olympia Mini Agility Stakes Finals supported by Pedigree

Formerly the Pedigree Mini Agility Stakes, all heats and semi finals will be as those run presently, as will the final at Olympia.

Saturday 17th December 2005
Kennel Club Olympia Agility Stakes Finals supported by Pedigree

Formerly the Pedigree Agility Stakes, all existing heats will run as usual with the semi finals at the Royal Show and the Town & Country Festival. In future this competition will be scheduled as a senior event at all heats.

An Olympia semi final will take place as usual with thirty dogs competing during the morning of Saturday 17th December. The top eight dogs from this event will be invited to compete in the final in the Grand Ring on Saturday evening. The dogs and handlers placed ninth to sixteenth in the semi final will be invited to compete in an invitation event in the Grand Ring on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday 18th December 2005
Kennel Club Olympia Novice Agility Stakes Finals supported by Pedigree

Formerly known as the Pedigree Novice Grand National and presently a Jumping class, will now be an Agility class. As with the Saturday competitions, a semi final will be held at a venue to be announced, with the top thirty-five dogs going forward to an Olympia semi final on the Sunday morning and the top eight dogs will be invited through to the final in the Grand Ring on Sunday evening. Dogs placed from ninth to sixteenth in this Olympia semi final will compete in an invitation event during the Sunday afternoon.

Monday 19th December 2005
Kennel Club Olympia ABC Agility Stakes Finals supported by Pedigree

This competition, previously known as the Pedigree ABC Agility Stakes will continue with all the heats currently held and the present final at Newton Heath Championship Show in June will now become an Olympia semi final with the top ten dogs going forward to the finals at Olympia.

The Kennel Club would like to thank Newton Heath Agility Club for their co-operation in the move of this major agility final to Olympia.

All enquiries about Olympia 2005 should be sent in writing to:
KC Olympia Agility, PO Box 3201,RUGBY, Warwickshire, CV21 1ZT. e-mail olympiaagilty@aol.com