Following his retirement from the training ranks in 1996, John Edwards switched his attention to bloodstock and, in the early Noughties, acquired Longstone Stud in Co. Tipperary, which he set about restoring to its former glory. Edwards quickly established himself as a shrewd operator and several promising young horses he bought were sent to his son-in-law, Tom George, who is married to his daughter Sophie and a successful National Hunt trainer based in Slad, Gloucestershire.
Edwards began his own training career as assistant to Gerald ‘Toby’ Balding in the early Sixties, before taking out a public licence, in his own right, in 1967. He will always be best remembered as the trainer of Pearlyman, who won the Grand Annual Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in 1986, before landing back-to-back victories in the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1987 and 1988.
However, in his long, illustrious career, Edwards sent out a total of twelve Cheltenham Festival winners from his Herefordshire base. Pearlyman aside, highlights included the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup twice, with Good Prospect in 1980 and Broomy Bank in 1984, the Festival Trophy twice, with Again The Same in 1980 and Dixton House in 1989, the now-defunct Cathcart Challenge Cup with Observer Corps in 1989 and the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase with Monsieur Le Cure in 1994.
Edwards was also responsible for Yahoo who, despite being sent off at 25/1, looked all over the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1989, only to be caught on the run-in by the legendary Desert Orchid. He also missed out on a Grand National winner, when Little Polveir, whom he had trained to win the Scottish National two years previously, was bought privately out of his stable and transferred to Toby Balding just six weeks before his victory at Aintree in 1989.