Trained by Tom Amoss for GoldMark Farm, Mylute, was bred by long-time NCHA member Mike G. Rutherford, Houston, Tex., whose son, Mike Jr., 53, of Buda, Tex., is a well-known non-pro competitor.

“I was close to 30 when I started riding cutting horses,” said Rutherford Jr. “I traded a Thoroughbred mare for a cutting horse. Ann Riddle and my dad picked her out for me. He used to have cutters and has been looking at horses for so many years that I really trust him.”

One of Rutherford Sr.’s star homebreds, now a member of his Kentucky-based Manchester Farm broodmare band, is the Seattle Slew daughter Lakeway, winner of four Grade 1 stakes races: the Santa Anita Oaks, Mother Goose, Hollywood Oaks and Las Virgenes. Rutherford also bred Cara Rafaela, 2006 broodmare of the year and dam of Bernardini, world champion 3-year-old and 2006 Preakness winner over Barbaro, who suffered a fracture during the race that led to his untimely death.

Mike Rutherford Jr.’s first significant win came in 2000 aboard Dual Flo in the NCHA Non-Pro Super Stakes. But 2008 proved a banner year for him as well, when he showed two 4-year-olds, Magnifi Cat and Smart Taz Trouble, as a finalist in seven limited age event finals, as well as 3-year-old Quite The Fat Cat, as a finalist in the NCHA Non-Pro Futurity.

In addition to her Texas connections through Rutherford, Mylute also carries the colors for her dam’s sire, 20-year-old Valid Expectations, the perennial leading sire in Texas. Valid Expectations stands at Lanes End Texas in Hempstead.