Racing News

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.

Born in Pulborough, West Sussex on June 10, 1939, Guy Harwood originally started training, as a permit holder, in 1965, before taking out a public training licence in 1966. At that point, he purchased Coombelands Farm and established Coombelands Racing Stables, which he would develop into one of the most modern, innovative training establishments in the country.

Harwood will always be best remembered as the trainer of Dancing Brave, unanimously voted British Horse of the Year in 1986, having won the 2000 Guineas, Coral-Eclipse, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and suffered a controversial defeat in the Derby. However, Harwood was by no means a ‘one-trick pony’ and in his heyday, in the late Seventies and early Eighties, he and stable jockey, Greville Starkey, formed a formidable partnership.

Together, they had already won the 2,000 Guineas with To-Agori-Mou in 1981 and the Coral-Eclipse and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes with Kalaglow in 1982. Understandably, Harwood hailed Dancing Brave as ‘very much the best I trained’ but, at the time of his retirement in 1996, he had saddled over 1,600 winners, including 30 at the highest, Group One level. Other notable horses to pass through his hands included Ela-Mana-Mou, Recitation, Lear Fan, Rousillon,

Warning and Sadeem.

Harwood was succeeded at Coombelands by his daughter Amanda, who is married to former National Hunt jockey Mark Perrett, who was once apprenticed to her father. Harwood, 81, remains chairman of Harwoods Group, the motor dealership founded by his father, Wally, in 1931, although he once admitted, ‘I’m a horse man first and a car man second…’

Born in Pulborough, West Sussex on June 10, 1939, Guy Harwood originally started training, as a permit holder, in 1965, before taking out a public training licence in 1966. At that point, he purchased Coombelands Farm and established Coombelands Racing Stables, which he would develop into one of the most modern, innovative training establishments in the country.

Harwood will always be best remembered as the trainer of Dancing Brave, unanimously voted British Horse of the Year in 1986, having won the 2000 Guineas, Coral-Eclipse, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and suffered a controversial defeat in the Derby. However, Harwood was by no means a ‘one-trick pony’ and in his heyday, in the late Seventies and early Eighties, he and stable jockey, Greville Starkey, formed a formidable partnership.

Together, they had already won the 2,000 Guineas with To-Agori-Mou in 1981 and the Coral-Eclipse and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes with Kalaglow in 1982. Understandably, Harwood hailed Dancing Brave as ‘very much the best I trained’ but, at the time of his retirement in 1996, he had saddled over 1,600 winners, including 30 at the highest, Group One level. Other notable horses to pass through his hands included Ela-Mana-Mou, Recitation, Lear Fan, Rousillon,

Warning and Sadeem.

Harwood was succeeded at Coombelands by his daughter Amanda, who is married to former National Hunt jockey Mark Perrett, who was once apprenticed to her father. Harwood, 81, remains chairman of Harwoods Group, the motor dealership founded by his father, Wally, in 1931, although he once admitted, ‘I’m a horse man first and a car man second…’

Bred and owned by Godolphin and trained by Charlie Appleby at Moulton Paddocks in Newmarket, Suffok, Space Blues was, at the end of the 2020 Flat season, rated 125 by Timeform, placing him joint-fifteenth on the list of older horses trained in Europe. Indeed, the four-year-old son of Dubawi enjoyed an excellent campaign in 2020, winning all four of his five starts, including the Group One

Prix Maurice de Gheest – his first victory at the highest level – at Deauville in August.

Space Blues ran just once as a two-year-old, making an impressive winning debut in a lowly maiden stakes race, over an extended mile, at Nottingham on November, 2018. However, after two subsequent defeats at distances beyond a mile, he was subsequently campaigned over 7 furlongs, or shorter, as a three-year-old and began his ascent through the ranks. He recorded his first Listed race success in the Surrey Stakes at Epsom in May, 2019 and, although narrowly beaten on his first attempt in Pattern company, in the Group Three Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot, rounded off his three-year-old campaign with excellent placed efforts at Group One level, in the Prix Jean Prat and the Prix Maurice de Gheest, both at Deauville.

Space Blues made a low-key return to action in the Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint, over 6 furlongs, at Meydan in March, 2020, but resumed winning ways in the Listed Spring Trophy Stakes, over 7 furlongs, at Haydock in June. He won his first Pattern race, the Group Three Prix de la Porte Maillot at Longchamp, later that month and followed up with another dominant display in the Group Two Lennox Stakes at Goodwood in July. However, the best was yet to come at Deauville less than two weeks later, when he unleashed a potent turn of foot to secure his first Group One victory. Space Blues missed his final intended engagement of the season, in the Group One Prix de la Foret at Longchamp in October, due to a training setback, but reportedly stays in training as a five-year-old.

Bred and owned by Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum and trained by Dick Hern in West Isley, Berskhire, Unfuwain was a relatively lightly-raced son of Northern Dancer who, between September, 1987 and May, 1989, won six of his ten races.

A winner of the Haynes, Hanson and Clark Conditions Stakes, over a mile, at Newbury as a juvenile, Unfuwain made his three-year-old debut in the Listed Warren Stakes, over a mile-and-a-half, at Epsom in April, 1988. He won easily, by 15 lengths, and did so again, by 8 lengths, in the Group 3 Chester Vase the following month. Consequently, he was sent off 9/2 second favourite for the Derby at Epsom. However, forsaken by stable jockey Willie Carson – who preferred 6/1 third favourite Minster Son, whom he had bred himself – Unfuwain could finish only seventh, beaten 7 lengths, under Steve Cauthen.

Nevertheless, reunited with Carson in the Group Two Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket a month later, Unfuwain, once again, won unchallenged by 15 lengths. Unfuwain subsequently finished second in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot and fourth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp; at the end of his three-year-old campaign he was awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 130. Unfuwain returned to training as a four-year-old, winning both starts – the Group Three John Porter Stakes at Newbury in April and the Group Two Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket in May, both at odds-on – before being retired to stud.