What is a Z.A.S.S.C.?
Z.A.S.S.C. stands for: Zoiboyz Annual Solo Speed Challenge
Who Can Participate?
Open to all eligible sighthound breeds recognized by AKC, FCI, UKC or other racing and coursing organizations.
Non-sighthounds purebred and mixed breeds are allowed to participate.
The classes in the non-sighthound competitions:
- Purebred
- Grouped the same as the AKC groupings.
- All American
- Also grouped in the AKC groupings that fits them the best.
A medallion and certificate will be awarded the top dog in each group.
A certificate will be awarded also to the 2nd and 3rd place dogs in each group.
Any non-sighthound breed that has 5 or more entered for the year will have their own breed medallion and certificates awarded.
Track
This is a timed precisely measured 200 yard solo sprint at the Zoiboyz Ranch permanent straight racing facility in Colorado. The electric eye positions are pinned for accuracy in re-setting.
Equipment Used
FarmTek wireless Polaris Multi-Event Timer specifically designed by FarmTek for this venue. A version of this equipment is popular at agility trials.
Setup
A precision measured 200-yard permanent straight track between electric eyes at 2 heights to enable capturing multiple heights of running hounds.
Hounds are started 6 feet before the start electric eye.
Why
KC & I lived in Germany for 10 years. For 8 of those years we were involved in racing and coursing events. The oval tracks (45 in Germany alone) were all timed − even the practice runs. These times were placed in your hound's permanent record book, called a HundePass. The HundePass included all the data you would want on a hound. Birthdate, shot and health records, dentation records, show result records, oval and coursing result records including in the case of oval racing the time for each and every run the dog did on each track he/she ran. At the end of the year Germany would publish these times in a book you could buy − what a valuable tool when you were planning to travel and look at the times of your competitors.
What was equally or even more useful to us is that you could see how offspring did in comparison to a sire or dam. How often have you wondered how a dog you own now would have compared to a hound you owned 3, 4, or more years ago? Germany has been timing events for over 90 years − what an awesome database of information.
KC & I had a dream to start a database of our own and share it with folks who wished to participate. So we started the ZASSC. It is apples and oranges to other tracks that may decide to do similar events around the country. Our track is at 6800 feet and a slight uphill, will not have the same times as say a track at sea level on any coast with a flat or slightly downhill layout. However, as we learned in Germany, once you build a database from different locations you can do some predictions if the race is clean, etc. Let me explain. Let's say greyhound Sammy runs here at 10.8 seconds as an average. Then we take him to a California setup and he runs an average of 10.3 seconds then we could deduct that the California track is running a half second faster than the Colorado track. So you can take any breed that has run here and theoretically predict his/her running time there if all things are normal. Weather, wind, heat, etc all play rolls, but not so much that you would not have a good idea.