He was, quite literally, destined to be a dog’s dinner.

But injured horse Oscar Flyer was saved from the queue at the slaughterhouse and has been amazingly nursed back to winning ways by Huddersfield woman Valerie Welton.

Mrs Welton, who was brought up in Almondbury, teamed up with her son Sam, an amateur jockey, and daughter in law Caroline to nurse Oscar Flyer back to health over the last 12 months after saving him from the abattoir.

Caroline drove hundreds of miles from Yorkshire to save the horse from a queue at a slaughterhouse in Taunton, Somerset, and paid £300 to the man who was about to turn him into dog food.

Oscar repaid that kind act on Sunday, when he made his first appearance in racing colours and amazingly won the South Durham Farmers three-mile point to point race at Mordon, near Sedgefield.

“It was astonishing”, said Val, who is married to former Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce chief executive Keith Welton.

“It was his first outing and he did ever so well with Sam in the saddle.

“It has been a long hard road and he’s had a lot of care and attention over the last 12 months, since we saved him from the slaughterhouse. Now we hope he can have a long and successful racing career, as he is only eight years old”.

Oscar Flyer was put into a horse sale in Exeter in 2013 after suffering a bad leg injury. He did not reach the reserve price but was bought by a local slaughterman and destined to be put down.

The Weltons’ daughter in law Caroline had been at the sale and thought he may deserve a second chance.

Mr Welton said; “She rang me later and asked for advice so i told her to go for it. She rang the slaughterhouse and was told she could have him, but he had to be picked up immediately as he was in the lorry heading for the abattoir.

“Caroline and Val brought him home and he’s been at our smallholding near York ever since”.

Mrs Welton added: “We had his leg scanned and the vet said the damaged tendons had repaired, although not very well. We started feeding him up and from last September we had him out working.

“The Mordon race was his first one and he was in a field of 11 horses. Sam rode very well and he won by about half a length.

“His win earned us £150 but I dread to think how much time and money we have lavished on him”.