A GREYHOUND that was in every respect the classic mould of a champion. His sire was Mutton Cutlet by Jamie out of Miss Cinderella and was born and raised at Major McCalmont’s famous Cotswolds kennels.
Whelped in March 1921, Mutton Cutlet contested the Waterloo Cup in 1923, 1924 and 1925 and showed speed and courage without being able to reach the final, though he ran up for the Waterloo Plate in 1924. In 1926, he was brought by Tom Morris, keeper of the Irish Stud book, and put to stud in Ireland at a fee of 10gns. During the first two or three years he served just a few bitches but, by the time the dog died in November 1934, he had sired 522 winners on the track and coursing field.
He was the sire of, among others, Valiant Cutlet, Beef Cutlet and Mr Moon, each of them an important sire in their own right.
Beef Cutlet was the sire of the magnificent Junior Classic and Juvenile Classic, Loose Lead and Laird’s Cutlet, while Mr Moon was the sire of the great Ballynennan Moon. These were all outstanding greyhounds.
Future Cutlet was another of Mutton Cutlet’s first-class sons and, although his sire was as English as they come, this son was born and bred in Ireland and purchased for £600, a very large sum in 1930, by W.A. Evershed to race at the newly opened Wembley Stadium. He was trained by Sidney Probert and entered for the 1931 Laurels, which he won in the then fast time of 28.52sec.
He was then only two years old and it was decided that his Derby entry should be delayed until the following year. He was, however, entered for the Cesarewitch over 600yds at West Ham. Here, too, he was successful in the last Classic of the season and so had won two Classics by the time he was two and a half years old. And the best was still to come.
In 1932 he won Wembley’s Spring Cup and, in spite of his two Classic wins odds of 100-1 were quoted against his winning the Derby and he went close to proving the bookmakers totally wrong.
In the final, however, he met the northern flier Wild Woolley, and from the time the traps opened it was a race just between these two star greyhounds with Wild Woolley getting the verdict by a neck; the pair ten lengths in front of the others as they crossed the line.
When winning his heat for the 1932 Derby, Future Cutlet set a new track record at White City with a time of 29.62sec for the 525yds course. He also held the record for Wembley over the same distance and, in his heat for the 1931 Cesarewitch, had set a new national record for the 600yds course. Entered in the 1932 Cesarewitch, he set a new world record of 33.78sec in his semi-final.
By the time he contested the 1933 Derby, Future Cutlet was four years and three months old, and with Wild Woolley again taking part and the new flier, Beef Cutlet, running brilliantly, it was not thought that Future Cutlet could make amends for his failure of the previous year.
But again he ran brilliantly, this time along with Beef Cutlet, the two crossed the line almost together. The result was given in favour of Future Cutlet by a neck. He was the oldest dog ever to win the Derby and there was no worthier winner. Later that year, in the Wimbledon Champion Stakes, it was Beef Cutlet who got the verdict by a short head and there was virtually nothing to separate the two.
At the end of that summer Future Cutlet was retired and, before his own death, Mr Evershed set up a trust fund for his champion so that he would live in luxury for the rest of his life. Though Sidney Probert thought him a highly strung dog, difficult to train, Future Cutlet was only once unplaced during his entire career. He was probably the fastest trapper before Ballyhennessy Seal, and Captain Brice, racing manager at Wembley thought him ‘the best looker of them all’.
He was a beautifully proportioned dog who never gave anything but a stylish performance. He won four Classics in England over a period of three years and no other greyhound had then ever achieved that feat over so long a period.