The Breeding History of the Racing Whippet goes back beyond the 1850s.
The Whippet has held a great association with the Mill Towns of Lancashire and the Coal Mining areas of the North. The Pit villages of Durham, Northumberland, Yorkshire and Cumbria. This little versatile dog was admired by many and his popularity soon spread around the world.
It is argued that the origin of this breed was originally bred as a multi-purpose dog a provider of food for the table in hard times. In Yorkshire, Pit villages the Whippet earned the name snap dog. The other duties were a family pet and excellent ratter often referred to as the poor man’s Greyhound.
The breed is reputed to be originally bred from the Greyhound for speed and the Terrier for gameness.
This only scratches the surface as the smooth-coated Whippet was not the ideal hunter. The breed has too thin a coat and poor feet. Unsuitable to rugged terrain. There are some exceptions to the rule but not many. This brought the Whippet Breeders to introduce more breeds into the mix depending on what his intended Whippets were being bred to the task. If hunting the Collie was introduced for Intelligence and better feet. This brought in the undesirable trait of the Ring tail or Gay tail including feathering on the tail and legs. It was originally thought the first Terrier introduced was the Manchester Terrier however time has proven both the Bedlington and the Bull Terrier were also introduced bringing even more undesirable traits. Broken coated and extra muscle mass.
It’s about now when you are thinking, how did this mixed breed ever get accepted into the Kennel Club in 1890. Nevertheless, it was and the Whippet Breed Standard was set and the refinement was ahead of the early Kennel Club Breeders and the Show breed was born.
The Whippet Racing breeders of the early years had only one thing on their mind. Speed and they set about following their own route often taking no heed to the breed standard the Kennel Club set out.
During the two World Wars as we can expect Whippet Racing was on a much-reduced scale. Breeding after these times was again resumed at a pace. Whippet Racing between the 50s – 60s began to flourish. Promoter based tracks began to spring both in the North and South of the Country.
