Vigow of Romanoff the largest borzoi ever bred on American soil. Simply put, most authorities of the time considered Ch. Vigow von Romanoff, to whom the judges threw their most elaborate bouquets. The largest borzoi ever bredīut it was Vigow’s son, Ch. After a year with Murr, Vigow landed in the record books as the first borzoi to win a Best in Show. The cream colored Vigow O’Valley Farm was not in the best condition, but Murr could see the Thoroughbred underneath. Murr’s most notable Valley Farm sire came in 1929. It was only when he made the arduous journey to Perchina (also called Perchino), the hunting lodge of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, that he found an “old-type” borzoi source on which to build his Valley Farm line. Thomas had gone to England and Russia in search of good borzoi stocks, only to be disappointed by the crude, poorly constructed animals he was shown.
Like most great breeders, Murr chose his foundation carefully, with a particular focus on blood from the famous kennel Valley Farm in nearby Connecticut.
There he perfected a family of dogs whose quality and achievements are still remembered nearly a century later.
5 Don’t show a dog unless you absolutely believe in itĪ short Basque immigrant with a conversely plus-sized personality-he reportedly had a tendency to get into skirmishes with judges whose decisions he disagreed with-Murr discovered the borzoi (known as Russian wolfhounds until 1936) after serving in World War I Having served in the US Army, Murr began his kennel in a brownstone in Greenwich Village, New York City, where he also owned an antique shop, eventually obtained his real estate license and moved his kennel north to Spring Valley, New York.