After a cracking start to the current point-to-point season Shropshire’s Huw Edwards has confirmed his place among the sport’s leading riders.
With ten winners he lies joint-second in the men’s championship alongside reigning champion James King and spotting clear leader Josh Newman, while tomorrow at Leicester he has a good chance of landing a hot-looking Dick Saunders’ Novices’ Hunters’ Chase, a race that commemorates one of point-to-pointing’s finest and most famous riders and is sponsored by a group of enthusiasts linked to the Pointing Pointers podcast and forum. In that contest Edwards rides Jeux d’Eau, who is trained by girlfriend Laura Richardson at his family home near Shrewsbury.
Jeux d’Eau won the prestigious Lady Dudley Cup last season as a six-year-old for owner David Heys, and he returned to Chaddesley Corbett to beat high-class Premier Magic in late December. He has also been beaten, but not disgraced, in two runs in hunters’ chases.
Edwards, 24, is optimistic of a good effort tomorrow, saying: “His jumping let him down at Warwick [when third in a hunters’ chase last month], but he’s done plenty of schooling at home since. He didn’t run a bad race, but a mistake three out cost him, and the good to soft ground was not ideal. Tomorrow’s race is set to be run on soft to heavy and that ground should suit him.
In the thick of things - Jeux d'Eau (no.6 Huw Edwards) on his way to victory at Chaddesley Corbett in December (Ce)
“I’d be lying if I said we hadn’t thought about going to Cheltenham, but it’s probably a year too soon. Let’s see how the Leicester race works out.”
Born and raised near Shrewsbury, Edwards says he was “spoilt for ponies” as a child when hunting and the Pony Club were on his riding agenda. His father, Simon, holds a permit and trains pointers, and he and Richardson use separate barns but share gallops and schooling fences.
Huw’s season opened with a bang in November when he rode a four-timer at Knightwick on the opening day, the quartet all being trained by Hannah Roach from Joe O’Shea’s Cheshire yard. That partnership has since ended, and O’Shea has returned to training pointers.
On Saturday the two men team up when Gracchus De Balme tackles Haydock’s Walrus Hunters’ Chase (4.25), a race the trainer has won four times. Edwards claims a 5lb riders’ allowance, which currently looks a steal for an amateur who is displaying skill and confidence in the saddle.
Owner David Heys gets a hug from trainer Laura Richardson after Jeux d'Eau's Chaddesley victory (Ce)
Twenty-four hours later he heads to Yorkshire’s Sinnington meeting at Duncombe Park where he rides Ideal Du Tabert for Heys and Richardson. The seven-year-old was second to well-regarded Mumbo Jumbo (winner again since) at Chaddesley Corbett in December on his debut for the yard and then scored at Sheriff Hutton.
Edwards says: “The season could not have started any better, but while I’ve thought about winning the men’s championship you have to be realistic. I don’t have the ammunition, but if I could finish in the top four or five I’d be very happy. I rode 19 winners last season including hunters’ chases [13 in point-to-points] and it would be nice to beat that.”