U-FLI Tournament of Champions 2026: entry deadline, format and Purina Farms

The electronic entry period for the U-FLI Tournament of Champions 2026 closes on Friday 4 September. Full payment is due by that closing date, and U-FLI is not accepting mailed entries. If your club is planning to race, leave enough time to check eligibility, registrations and the classes each dog will enter rather than treating this as a last-minute form job.

The event is officially titled The 2026 1-TDC Flyball Tournament of Champions, Presented by U-FLI. It runs from 23 to 25 October 2026 at Purina Farms in Gray Summit, Missouri. That makes it a North American event, though it is worth following wherever you race. It is a useful window into another rule set, race format and club culture.

This is an independent Flyball Hub guide, not an organiser notice. Details below come from U-FLI's official championship page and rule book and forms index, checked on 3 September 2026. Start at the championship hub linked in the sources section for current instructions. The entry portal linked from that page returned a not-found page when checked, so this guide does not link or rely on it.

The entry deadline and what to do now

Electronic entries opened on 3 August and close on 4 September. Payment must be made in full by the close of entries. There are no mailed entries, so teams should use the route currently provided through the official championship hub and contact U-FLI if that route is unavailable or unclear.

Before submitting anything, check that the club, participants and dogs are registered with U-FLI and in good standing. The championship page also says a club needs at least two U-FLI events on separate weekends in the 18 months before entries close. U-FLI may consider exceptions when asked, but a club should ask the organisation rather than assume an exception applies.

There is one simple limit that deserves a team discussion early: a dog can enter no more than two classes across the full weekend. It is easy to see several Friday options and a championship class, then realise too late that a dog's proposed schedule does not fit. Build the dog-by-dog plan first, then confirm the teams and payment.

For readers who are new to the sport, what is flyball? explains the four-dog relay before you start reading race formats and class names. The rules and race format guide is useful background too, but the event rules take priority here.

Fees for the 2026 weekend

The published fees are in US dollars. These are entry fees, not a full weekend budget, so leave room for travel, accommodation, food and any site costs that U-FLI confirms separately.

The Friday choices can be useful for teams that want focused racing before the main championship days, but enter with the two-class limit in view. A dog scheduled for a Friday class and the Tournament of Champions has reached its maximum for the weekend.

Fees, available spaces and operational instructions can change. Keep the championship page bookmarked until payment is accepted and your team has its written confirmation.

How the weekend format works

Friday is set aside for Dream Teams, Pairs Championships, Singles Championships and Test Flight. That is a different day from the main Tournament of Champions, not a published promise of a particular start time or running order.

Saturday begins the Championship and Variety Championship Time Trial Round Robins used for initial seeding. Summit Series Standard also runs on Saturday. Tournament of Champions teams have at least four races in a 4-of-4 format that day. To progress to Sunday, a team needs a qualifying clean or breakout time.

Sunday brings the final Championship and Variety Championship round robins, followed by final placement races. Summit Series Standard continues. A Sunday Tournament of Champions line-up must be the same as the Saturday line-up, so captains need to be clear about availability before the first championship race. This is not an event where a fresh dog can be added to reshape the Sunday team.

The distinction between Championship, Variety Championship and Summit Series classes matters. Do not use this guide to infer divisions, match-ups or a final programme. No verified final running order or division list was available when this guide was checked. Those details should come from U-FLI once published.

Rules and eligibility

The championship page says normal U-FLI rules apply unless the event rules state otherwise. U-FLI's current rule book index links to U-FLI Rules and Regulations version 3.5, updated on 23 January 2025 and effective from 1 February 2025. Read the championship instructions alongside that rulebook, especially if your club normally races under another body.

That is relevant for teams travelling between organisations. NAFA, the British Flyball Association, the Australian Flyball Association and U-FLI share the basic idea of relay racing, but an event's own rules, entries and class conditions are the ones that govern the weekend. A familiar domestic routine is not a substitute for the organiser's current paperwork.

For team preparation, turn the eligibility requirements into a small written check. Confirm club event history, each person's registration, each dog's registration, good-standing status, selected classes and the Saturday line-up. That is less glamorous than practising passes, but it prevents a difficult conversation after an entry has been paid.

Getting there and staying nearby

Purina Farms is in Gray Summit, Missouri. The official championship page is the source to use for venue instructions, RV booking information and organiser updates. Purina Farms' public calendar did not visibly list this event when checked, so it is not used here as confirmation.

If you are taking an RV, the published reservation deadline is 5 September. Requests after that date depend on availability. That gives competitors just one day after entries close, which is a good reason to sort the practical side now rather than after the racing plan is settled.

The championship page also lists accommodation blocks at PineMark and the Holiday Inn Six Flags. Their listed cutoffs are 24 September and 3 October respectively. Check the official event information before booking, and check directly with the accommodation provider for room availability and current terms. This guide deliberately does not repeat room prices because they can move independently of the event.

For the drive, make the normal dog-sport plan boring and dependable. Work out when dogs will get a quiet break, where water and food will be packed, who holds registration information and who has the race-day kit. Training articles from Flyball Hub can help turn the weeks before travel into a focused list, rather than trying to fix every part of a team at once.

What spectators and followers can expect

The confirmed programme is enough to understand the shape of the weekend, but it is not a spectator timetable. Friday has the individual and small-team classes, Saturday sets the early championship picture, and Sunday carries final round robins and placement races. It does not tell us the order in which particular teams will race.

There is no verified official livestream, live results source or final running order for this guide. There is also no confirmed division list. That is worth saying plainly because social posts can look authoritative while still being old, incomplete or shared without context.

If you cannot attend, use the official championship hub as the starting point for any new links and notices. If you are travelling as a supporter, check with U-FLI before setting expectations about public access, daily start times, parking or viewing areas. None of those details should be guessed from a previous event.

When results are published, a proper recap can name winners, placements and fast times from an official source. Until then, the useful thing is to understand what the event is and keep a saved link to the organiser's page.

Keep the useful lessons after the event

Tournament weekends produce notes that are easy to lose: what helped a dog settle after travel, whether a warm-up was too long, where a pass started drifting, and what kit was missing from the vehicle. Write them down while the details are still clear.

Flyball Hub features give teams one place to keep event preparation, dog notes and post-event lessons together. A short note after a racing block is more likely to help the next training session than a message buried in a busy group chat.

The result matters, but a championship weekend can also show where the next gain lies. Keep the useful observation, turn it into one training job and revisit it before the next event.

Sources checked

• U-FLI Tournament of Champions championship page, checked 3 September 2026
• U-FLI rule book and forms index, checked 3 September 2026