There are a number of people, Judy Rasmussen, Jim Pickering, John Gunn, Glenda Brown on the Golden side, Julie Cole and Linda Harger with Chessies, who consistently title these minority breeds. On top of that there are a number of Goldens and Chessies running right now with multiple all age placements and wins, some have titled, some are close, to these people QA2 is meaningless and not worth noting. It's just different perspective, not judging or bad mouthing those people who are proud of their QA status, I remember when I would kill to have a qualifying greenie.
Every year about two Goldens and one Chessie out of 100 plus dogs qualify for the National Amateur, I think those stats match up pretty well with the ratio of dogs entered in field trials nationwide. I actually think Goldens beat those odds on placements. I remember a trial some time ago, 85 dog open, 12 got to the last series and four of them were Goldens, three happened to be FC or AFC. Two placed, second and fourth.
I don't know about the National Open, if this is an off year or the minority breeds don't do as well there. I do know that Goldens held their own in Nationals back in the 40-50s. What we have missed with Goldens the past 20 years, is that one dominating dog that people expect to win every time it runs. Right now it comes as a shock, and reason for jubilation when a Golden wins a trial. Back when Zeke was running, and to a lesser extent Beau, these dogs were expected by the Lab people to be in there at the end each weekend, the way you weren't surprised with Ammo or Chopper to name a couple.
Ps, I know I must have left a lot of names off my list, this is just off the top of my head, apologies to all I forgot.