It’s a Baby Bo dynasty. Katherine and Eddie Kirshner’s Baby Bo of Newport Beach became the first dachshund to three-peat as the champion of Wienerschnitzel Wiener Nationals, as the 3 ½ year old weenie overcame a slow start to pull away in the second half of the race on the way to winning the 24th running of this famous doxie derby by five foot long sausages on Saturday night at Los Alamitos Race Course.
Baby Bo, who was only 18 months when he won first Wiener Nationals title in 2017, left no doubt that he is the most dominant doxie in wiener dog racing history. He first advance to the championship final with an easy victory in the seventh of 10 trials, as he left the other hot dogs in the race smelling his trail.
After winning the 50-yard trial in the fastest time of the night of :05.89, Baby Bo was fifth at the start of the championship race, but eventually his tiny little legs powered him to a convincing win with Adam Ortega’s Too $hort finishing strongly for second place and Bryan Butler’s Levi scurrying away from the rest of the pack to cross the finish line third.
Baby Bo earned $1,000 for the win, a doghouse in the shape of a Wienerschnitzel restaurant and the title of Fastest Wiener in the West. He also cemented his place in the Hall of Fame for Weenies as the first three-time winner.
“He’s gotten bigger since last year – he’s about five pounds bigger – but he’s still fast,” said owner Eddie Kirshner. “All he wants to do is get the Frisbee that I’m holding at the finish line. We first started using a tennis ball, but then we started playing with a Frisbee and he just can’t wait to grab it.”
As a pup, Baby Bo was the runt of his litter and no one wanted him according to his owners. The Kirshners purchased him for $300.
“He was so tiny when he was a little puppy,” Kirshner said. “I could cup him in my hands.”
In the 50-yard championship race, it was the weenies Carmella Macchiato and Douglas that started the fastest from the outside part of the starting gate.
The two doxies crossed right in front of Baby Bo, who instead of barking at them showed great manners by allowing them to pass him by. Meanwhile, Levi was full of run and near the lead from starting spot number two, but was then bumped by Douglas, who at that point decided that all he wanted to do was have his tail in front of Levi.
That left room for Baby Bo to put his belly to the dirt and take off. The race was never in doubt from that point on, crossing the finish line with no other doggie around. Too $hort, who drifted out after a decent start also got going in the second half of the race on the way to earning $500 for finishing second to Baby Bo for the second year in a row. Too $hort is from Norwalk, while third place finisher Levi is from Buena Park.
The rest of the finalists were Paul and Wendy Cervantes’ Stout of E. Los Angeles, Bryan Foell and Lauren Berg’s Douglas of San Clemente, Melissa Miller’s Carmella Macchiato of Helendale, Carla Baardseth’s Frankel of Huntington Beach, Judy Myers’ Dee Gee of Redondo Beach,
Teresa Smith’s Winnie of Newport Beach and Nam Marcia’s Ombi of West Hollywood. At the age of 14, Ombi is the oldest finalist ever in the Wiener Nationals.
The Wienerschnitzel Wiener Nationals is a fundraising event for the Seal Beach Animal Care Center, a non-kill shelter in Orange County. The Wiener Nationals and SBACC have raised over $270,000 over the years. The total attendance was estimated at 7,500.
