Reality exceeds ambition for the breeders of Edwardstone

“We only wanted to breed a Point-to-Pointer.” This was the ambition for Robert Abrey and Ian Thurtle when they sent the mare Nothingtoloose, an average performer between the flags, to Kayf Tara.

The mating resulted in a colt whose ability they could not have imagined, and who they named Edwardstone, after the Suffolk village where Robert first lived, and where their horses still spend their summers, returning to Ian in the winter months.

Robert, a farmer, and Ian, who has a composting business, Greencomp, in partnership with Simon Stearn, are neighbours in the same village near Thetford, and both have been staunch supporters of hunting and Point-to-Pointing from an early age. Robert started hunting with the Essex & Suffolk, and Ian the Dunston Harriers, before both became involved with the Suffolk Hunt and served on the Point-to-Point committee.

The sport, they feel, has changed considerably from the one with which they grew up, due in part to the separation from hunting, and the seeming desire to adopt the Irish system of racing in late autumn/early winter in order to showcase horses for the sales market. “We’ve never been like Ireland, and I don’t think we ever will,” states Robert, who is saddened by the dwindling number of small trainers, many of them from the farming community.

“With so much work to do on the farm it can be difficult to get horses ready so early,” he continues, adding that another consequence of the early start makes it hard for courses to find the requisite manpower to prepare the racing surface.

Robert’s first introduction to Point-to-Pointing was attending meetings with his grandfather when he was still at primary school age. “He wasn’t horsey at all, but enjoyed the fact that the bar was open all day!” he laughs. He admits that his own riding career, which yielded two winners, falls into the less-than-distinguished category. He had his first ride at the age of 35, “only because nobody else wanted to get on my horses!”

Ian, though, enjoyed success in the saddle in a variety of disciplines. He travelled the length and breadth of Britain to compete with show-jumpers, including for outside owners, and where racing was concerned he trained and rode (as did his sister Pat) for one of East Anglia’s best-known stables, that of Paul Rackham. His first foray on a racecourse was in a Novice Hurdle at Huntingdon for Derek Weedon, for whom he worked as a teenager. He had several rides under Rules – “I was very light, and not many amateur jockeys could do a low weight.” That proved more of a disadvantage in Point-to-Points, when he had to carry at least two stone of lead.

Robert and wife Jane’s son Matthew, who is now farming, enjoyed a couple of successes between the flags before losing a battle with the scales, but daughter Becky has had no involvement with racing apart from having ridden out at home. Ian and wife Jeanette’s daughters, though, have inherited their father’s equestrian genes. Alice works in nominations and marketing at Tweenhills Stud, and Katie is in charge of communications for trainer Charlie Fellowes in Newmarket.

In 2009, Robert and Ian watched a strapping four-year-old mare named Nothingtoloose, owned by Ian’s show-jumping colleague, international Roland Fernyhough, make a winning debut at Cottenham, and they purchased her for £22,000 when she went through the ring at Doncaster two months later. They were originally joined in the ownership by the late Major Richard Wilson, whose colours were familiar to East Anglian followers through the exploits of the Abrey-trained Cosmic Sky.

“Exploits” was perhaps an apt description. “He was a lovely-looking horse with lots of ability, but he was a complete fruitcake,” Robert remembers. “The first time he ran, he wouldn’t load afterwards, and we eventually took him into the gents’ toilets and backed up the lorry into the opening!”

Having shown nothing in five outings for her new owners, it was decided to retire Nothingtoloose to the paddocks, along with her stable companion Forget The Ref, a seven times winner between the flags for Robert and Ian, partnered on every occasion by Rupert Stearn. The owners were no strangers to breeding success, although in Ian’s case it was with half-breds for show-jumping, while Robert favoured Suffolk Punches.

*Photo – Forget The Ref and Rupert Stearn

The modest duo are finding it hard to believe that these two mares have helped them become players on the National Hunt stage. With Robert having given up training, it was decided to send Forget The Ref’s daughter, Midnight Referendum (by Midnight Legend), and Nothingtoloose’s son, Edwardstone (by Kayf Tara), to Alan King, to see if they might be capable of winning a Bumper. If not, they would return home to ply their trade on the Point-to-Point circuit.

“We didn’t know Alan, but we wanted someone we could deal with professionally to start with, rather than as a close friend, and we knew he’d tell us what he thought.” They did have a link with the trainer, however, as at that time Amy Stennett, Jane Abrey’s goddaughter, was working at the King yard.

Midnight Referendum duly won her Bumper, and went on to land two Hurdles and two Chases, the second of which was her swansong, the Challenger Series Mares’ Chase Final at Haydock. She is now in foal to Nathaniel.

But it is Edwardstone who has put connections’ names in lights, although early impressions were none too favourable. “He was a really awkward horse. He was so big that he looked like a hunter who should have been pulling a milk float!” was Ian’s assessment. He was broken as a two year old by Amy and Pat Owens, before they started training, and sent two years later for the final touches to Harriet Ong (nee Hall), who is involved with breaking all their thoroughbreds.

Edwardstone’s victory in the Grade 1 Arkle Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham in March earned him the award for the season’s champion two mile Novice Chaser at the McCoys, and earlier this month he was voted the top overall Novice Chaser at the Racehorse Owners’ Association awards’ evening. “That was very humbling and a great compliment, to think that the ROA members had voted for him over so many other deserving horses.” The members’ judgement has been vindicated since, the eight-year-old having scored an outstanding victory in Sandown’s Grade 1 Tingle Creek Chase.

Despite the fact there are offspring of the two mares waiting in the wings, Robert and Ian are taking nothing for granted. They are well aware that just because they’ve got a good horse now doesn’t mean they will always dine at the top table, and like all true horsemen know that triumph and tragedy are never far apart, as was evinced last year when they lost Forget The Ref just before she was due to foal to Walk In The Park.

Although they can now afford to send their mares to the most sought after stallions, nothing else has changed. Edwardstone is due to run in the Desert Orchid Chase on December 27th, but four days later his owners will be seen out in the fields at Horseheath supporting East Anglian Point-to-Points, as they always have. Win or lose at Kempton, Robert and Ian should be prepared for a lot of congratulatory comments and hand-shaking, with maybe the offer of a drink or two!