Signet Otis landed his first Category One competiton at the third attempt on Monday night. Having narrowly failed to land the British Bred Derby and Blue Riband, trainer/breeder Kevin Hutton was quietly confident of the dog’s chances in the British Bred Stakes even prior to the first round.
But there is a ‘story behind the story’ and who better to tell it than the man who reared the litter from three months to schooling age, John Mullins. The Suffolk based handler had his own success when litter brother Signet Goofy.
John actually reared eight of the litter, a ninth bitch, Magical Gem has won two of her last three races in Ireland. The unknown tenth member of the litter has been previously referred to by Kevin as ‘having not made it due to a deformity’. At 10 months old the youngster developed a debilitating arch in his back.
John said:”That would be Archie who I always thought would be the fastest of the litter. He was re-homed as a pet by one of our volunteers here, Avril.
“What Kevin has never mentioned is that even though Archie was never going to race, he paid the many thousands of pounds in veterinary bills to make sure Archie could have a good life. You should see Archie now, he absolutely flies around the field.”
There is one final strand to the story, a combined effort by Messrs Hutton and Mullins to send out a message to Rab McNair.
Despite the fact that all the KSS Syndicate’s Kings and Queens were born in Kent, the Menace of Mauchline continues to insist that all his pups are ‘Scottish bred’.
The response from the English breeders?
