Part 2 of the Show blog series.
Cats are judged against the 'Standard of Points' for their breed. This covers things like ear shape & set, eye colour & shape, firmness of body, colour, markings and many other things.
They also get points for temperament and condition.
The different breeds are divided in to 6 Sections (Long Hair, Semi-Long Hair, British Type, Foreign Type, Burmese Type, Siamese & Oriental). Asians sit in section 5 with the Burmese & Tonkinese (and now the Suffolk as well). Each section is divided in to Breed Classes, as well as Adult, Neuter and Kitten. The breed classes go down to quite a low level of detail - for example Boop shows in the 'Asian Smoke/Shaded & Tipped Burmilla Neuter' class, if Zori did shows, he would be in the 'Asian Tiffanie Neuter' class. All cats who enter are judged in their own breed class (except for some exceptional circumstances where the owner may choose to only enter them in a title class - I'll explain that a bit more later), it is the foundation for the whole show.
Foundation - Breed Class
This is one of the first classes to be judged on the day as it's important to move on to the next stage. Once all of the Breed classes for a section have been judged, the winners of each class are put on to 3 sheets - one each for Adult, Kitten & Neuter. A judge then looks at all the breed class winners and chooses the 'best of the best' for that section and you get a Best Adult, Best Kitten, Best Neuter. Another judge (usually) will then pick between these three to determine who is Best in Section - which leaves 6 cats. These 6 are then taken up to the 'fancy' pens to be judged against each other to determine who is Best in Show.
Note: There are a couple of other ways of doing this that are used by some shows, but this is the most common one.
At the same time, cats are competing for Titles. The structure works in the same way whether your cat is an Adult, Neuter or Household/Pedigree Pet.
Collecting titles starts in the breed class, where the cat that wins the class can be awarded a Challenge Certificate. Once they have collected 3 certificates from 3 different judges, they will be awarded the title "Champion" (Adult), "Premier" (Neuter), or "Master Cat" (Household/Pedigree Pet). Once they have a title, they will enter the breed class as 'Best of Breed Only'. This means that they can't come first in the class as they've already gained the title, but they can win Best of Breed and advance through the show as above.
A titled cat will then begin to enter in to the title classes.
The next title is 'Grand' Champion/Premier/Master Cat. Again, you need 3 certificates from 3 different judges at 3 different shows, but this time you're competing against all the cats of the same breed at that level (so for Asians, all the cats at that level across the 4 different Breed Classes).
The next level is 'Imperial Grand' Champion/Premier/Master Cat which takes 5 certificates from 5 different judges at 5 different shows, and is judged across all the cats at that level within your section (so for Asians, all the other Asians, Burmese, Tonkinese & Suffolks).
Side note: This is where Boop is up to, that's why she is Imperial Grand Premier Cagaran Xochitl
Finally, once your cat is at Imperial Grand level, they compete in the Olympian classes. The Olympian classes are split in to Male, Male Neuter, Female and Female Neuter (and Household & Pedigree Pet). They include all cats with an Imperial Grand status across all 6 sections of the show competing against each other.
Once a cat gets 5 Olympian certificates from 5 different judges at 5 different shows, they are given the status Olympian Bronze, then same again for Silver and same again for Gold. Olympian Gold Imperial Grand (Champion/Premier/MasterCat) is the highest title a cat can achieve outside of special shows like the Supreme (more on that in another blog).
I hope this all makes sense, it's certainly not easy to put together in simple language but feel free to comment on this blog if you have any questions.
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