Racing veterans: Malcolm Windass & Luttons Kyle
On Sunday afternoon, Luttons Kyle completed his 200th race at Doncaster. It was his last race – probably!
The white and blue son of Superior Product and Swift Bluebay began life as Swift Barnabas, and as the prefix implies, he was bred by self exiled Geordie Ian Greaves in Monasterevin.
Kyle was still contesting A5 in race 200 having never been higher than A3 after joining the track in February 2018. In other words, he has run less than once a week during that four years and five months. But durability seems to come from his breeding. One half brother had 162 races, another had 129 while half sister Swift Vanessa managed 100 including reaching a TV Trophy Final.
Owner and trainer Malcolm Windass said: “Kyle has never been injured and he has such a lovely gentle nature. He has well earned his retirement and he will come into the house with me. We keep all our old racers; I never sell them.”
In fact the racing kennel will decrease by one to 17, while the number of golden oldies goes up to nine.
Long term Greyhound Star readers will be familar with Malcolm. Now 84, and around greyhounds since he was 13, he regularly appeared in the newspaper in our coverage of the independent tracks . He raced ‘anywhere I could get a quid on’ throughout Yorkshire, up to the North East, Ashington, Easington and Wheatley Hill and as far south as the Midlands venues of Coalville, Hinckley and Long Eaton.
He landed the Whitwood Derby in consecutive years and even had a finalist in the Star’s Independent Greyhound of the Year awards.
Malcolm said: “That would have been Elteen Heather, who ran on the flaps as Rab. We eventually switched him to NGRC racing and he broke Scurlogue Champ’s track record at Brough Park and then the marathon record at Sunderland.
“He was just short of 17 when he died. He was really kept alive by my late wife Joyce who cooked chicken for him every day. The one morning we went into him and he had died peacefully in his sleep.”
The fact that Luttons Kyle is a white and blue is no coincidence.
Malcolm said: “I always loved blues (even when nobody else wanted them). At one stage we had 35 dogs in the kennel and 22 of them were blues.”
Malcom lost Joyce ten years ago, after a protracted illness, and was struggling to keep going.
He had a full kennel, was opening the kennel at 5.30am and often not back at the kennel after racing until 11pm. By the time the dogs had been fed and let out, it was often 1am before he got to bed.
It wasn’t sustainable. Then by chance, Linda Pickles arrived on the scene.
She said: “I used to show Borzois and originally thought about getting a show greyhound. Then I thought about a retired greyhound. I went to look at one with Hull Greyhound Rescue, but he was only young and didn’t really respond to me. But then I saw a brindle called Tigger, who was one of Mal’s and I decided to take him home the same day.
“I decided I would like to see Mal’s kennel and unfortunately it was just after his wife had died. The dogs were in lovely condition but the kennels weren’t good, particularly with cobwebs. He asked if I wanted to work with the dogs but I told him that I don’t like dog racing.
“Because he was so kind to the dogs, I continued to help out and go racing with him. He tried to persuade me that I would enjoy racing and he took me to a flapper track. I wasn’t impressed to be honest. And then he took me to Doncaster, and that was ten years ago now.”
So why the change of heart?
Linda said: “I watched greyhounds on TV years ago and wasn’t sure how well the dogs were looked after. But when I saw how Mal treated them, I changed my mind. It isn’t so long ago that he spent £5,000 on a dog just ot get it right. All his dogs, the racers and the retireds are treated just the same, even down to the knuckle bones they are given as a treat every week.
“The thing is, although I was into show dogs, I think many of them are treated far worse than greyhounds. My dogs were allowed to run free in the woods, but because everything has to be so perfect for showing, some show people wouldn’t let their dogs off the leads in case they damaged themselves. And lots of breeds aren’t fit for purpose. They can barely walk. You certainly can’t say that about greyhounds.
Malcolm is the first to admit that without Linda’s support, he wouldn’t be able to keep racing though it appears ther could be some dissent in the kennel about Luttons Kyle’s plans.
So is he definitely retired?
Malcolm says: “Yes, his racing days are over. . . . . . . . .unless, he looks as though he is really missing it and I might just give him the odd race to keep him happy . . . ”
Linda replied: “Oh no he isn’t! I was counting down the days until his 200th race. He is such a lovely gentle dog that I wouldn’t want to risk anything happening to him. If Mal tries to take him out racing, I’ll take him out of the kennel and hide him.”
We will leave the final word to Malcolm:
“He is six and I’m 84. Don’t you worry, he’ll outlive me.”
