The three-day event was run annually at Great Altcar in Lancashire, England, from 1836 to 2005 and it used to attract tens of thousands of spectators to watch and gamble on the coursing matches.
The first winner of the Waterloo Cup was a bitch named Milanie, owned by Lord Molyneux, the eldest son of the Earl of Sefton, on whose land the contest was run on the plains of Altcar.
The first supreme champion in the sport of coursing was Lord Lurgan's greyhound Master McGrath, who won the Waterloo Cup three times, in 1868, 1869, and 1871.
The 2005 event, held on 14–16 February, was eventually won by a dog called Shashi, bred by Ernest Smith, and owned by him with Albert Shackcloth and Michael Darnell.
Trained at Malton, North Yorkshire, by Jonathan Teal, the winner beat Hardy Admiral, owned by Diana Williams, in the final.