Sep 2, 2008

Doggone it!

Local pooch places last in final;

owner blames confusing start

By Jason Green / Daily News Staff Writer

Palo Alto's great Chihuahua racing hope returned home Monday empty-handed, but ready to run again next year.

Three-year-old Chloe and her owners, Mel and Katrina Soledad, were in San Diego on Sunday to compete in the PETCO Unleashed 4th annual National Chihuahua Race finals. The Soledads said a confusing start resulted in Chloe's finish at the back of the 15-dog pack.

"That's the one thing we didn't expect," said Katrina, sounding upbeat despite the loss. "It's the most basic step in the race."

No one heard the announcer start the race, but some owners released their dogs as soon as the gate opened, Katrina said. Mel was still holding Chloe as Tiger, of Bakersfield, crossed the finish line to claim the title of "America's fastest Chihuahua."

"Mel was in shock," Katrina recalled.

Chloe was the dog to beat Sunday. She secured a berth in the main event by outrunning the competition at the San Francisco regional races in May with a record time of 1.6 seconds. Tiger covered the 35-foot track at San Diego's PETCO Park in 1.9 seconds, according to PETCO officials.

Tiger's prize: a $300 gift certificate and a year's supply of premium dog chow. It's his second championship title.

In total, roughly 2,900 Chihuahuas competed in 15 regional races for the chance to run in the finals.

Sunday's race unfolded before an announced crowd of 26,395, though most admittedly were on hand to watch the San Diego Padres take on the Colorado Rockies. Still a twitter broke out when Chloe's regional race time was flashed on the stadium's big screen.

"Everyone was, like, 'Who's this Chloe?'" Katrina said.

Although things didn't go as expected, the Soledads are already looking forward to next year's Chihuahua races. Another chance to stay in San Diego for the weekend on PETCO's dime wouldn't be bad, either, Katrina joked.

"It was fun," she said. "We hope to be back next year."

And things should go more smoothly next year, as apologetic PETCO officials promised to tweak the race in response to concerns raised by several competitors, Katrina said. Sure, the Soledads would've preferred to re-run the race, but they still walked away Sunday feeling like winners.

"We got the prize already," Katrina said, "Having Chloe."



E-mail Jason Green at jgreen@dailynewsgroup.com.



ON THE WEB

To view footage of the PETCO Unleashed 4th annual National Chihuahua Race finals, copy and paste this link: http://www.petco.com/Content/Content.aspx?PC=petcounleashed&Nav=1