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If attendance at the Wiener Dog Races is any indication, the events of the July 11 Hot Dog Night drew big crowds.
Twenty dogs went head-to-head in the 16th Annual Wiener Dog Races. One dog withdrew before the race started.
Luverne Area Chamber organized the 57th annual event.
“That’s the most wiener dogs we’ve had in quite a while,” said chamber director Jane Wildung-Lanphere.
A dachshund named “Romeo,” owned by Karen Mulligan of Powder Springs, Georgia, took the “fastest dog” title.
Lanphere estimated about 600 people watched the race while sitting on the two moveable bleachers parked along the shade-tree-lined Freeman Avenue.
Another 200 stood along the designated area for the annual beauty pageant followed by the dog races.
Twenty-one dogs and their owners participated in the 12th Annual Wiener Dog Beauty Pageant.
The judges selected “Louise” as the winner of the female dog category. Owners Wendy and Ava Alexander of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, dressed the dachshund in a Wonder Woman costume.
Taking the male category was Ethan Olander, also of Sioux Falls, who dressed as Harry Potter with his dog Walter B. Wiener as Harry’s pet snow owl named Hedwig.
Hundreds of people walked the four blocks of Main Street for the Hot Dog Night lineup of activities.
They enjoyed the more than 15,000 hot dogs given away at this year’s 57th annual event.
“The weather (temperatures in the lows 80s) was perfect,” Lanphere said. “It wasn’t humid.”