The son of a Cheshire farmer, William Parker Dutton had originally intended going into law as a career. He became articled to his Uncle, a Cheshire solicitor, but, by then, was already being hailed as one of the best amateur National Hunt riders in the country.
He had won the 1925 Foxhunters' Chase at Liverpool on the bay gelding Upton Lad; he had also recently passed his final law examination with honours.
Then he was offered the mount on no-hoper Tipperary Tim, a tubed, parrot-mouthed plodder who, realistically, had no business being in the National of that (or any other) year (1929).
Accepting the ride, he chose to take the widest route because 'I found the going was soundest on the far side where there was not even footprint'.
This tactic kept him out of trouble, yet he was still astonished to find his was the only horse still standing after jumping the last. Tipperary Tim won by a distance.
Maybe side-tracked by this win and possibly without enough thought, William threw his lot in with racing, abandoning a probably lucrative career in law. His days as a jockey were not memorable, and, in 1931, he began training at Hednesford, Staffordshire.
Despite his Grand National win, he became a better trainer than jockey: he sent out the giant Limber Hill to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the flying two year old Pappa Fourway to win 12 races including the July Cup and the King's Stand Stakes: he also trained another fast two year old, Bright Boy's, who won 16 top class sprints.
William had a major Flat success when Sandiacre won the 1957 Cesarewitch.
Sadly, William died just one year later. He was just 57.