Quite an honor to be the owner or trainer of a bird dog that ends up winning what amounts to the Super Bowl of field dog trials, two Eastville residents are quick to note.

That dog, Rolex, owned by Eastville businessman Fred Gray and trained by Neil Lessard of Stockley Kennels of Eastville, was a surpirse winner at the National Shoot-To-Retrieve Field Trial Association's Trial of Champions in Amo, Indiana, this spring.

Rolex, a five-year-old English pointer, earned the national championship by placing the best out of a field of 165 dogs, each of which had to be a NSTRA champion to qualify for the event.

The competition in the event was tough, according to Lessard, who handled the dog during the competition.

"I knew he was capable of it, but there's so many dogs running," he said.

It marked only the second time in 17 years of the annual tournament that a Virginia-owned dog has won the prestigious event, the last time being in 1984.

For winning, Gray and Lessard received a host of awards, including several trophies, a year's supply of Purina dogfood, a Purina jacket, a dog box, and other items.

Gray, who estimated that he attended 20 dog field trials a year, has been a member of NSTRA for five years. Lessard, who has been a member of NSTRA for eight years, left a career in construction in Virginia Beach to move to the Eastern Shore to train dogs for a living.

"That just goes to show you what people will do to move to the Eastern Shore," Gray said.