AMATEUR jockey Darren Edwards, brother to Gemma who is in the office at Pond House, retired from the saddle on Saturday after riding a double at Umberleigh point to point.   

He was crowned Devon and Cornwall champion rider once again and bows out having ridden 360 winners point to pointing and under rules combined.

Darren rode Maximize to win the Kim Muir at the 2004 Cheltenham Festival for dad and owner David Johnson in 2004 at odds of 40/1.  Gemma had not long started working in the office at Pond House and helped to get him the ride in what turned out to be a remarkable race.

Meanwhile, Dave Pipe says it has been a very quiet week on the runners front since last writing with just four runners and Kintaro faring best with a third place over hurdles at Bangor.  He improved from his debut at Hereford and stayed on nicely on Saturday after jumping well throughout at odds of 66/1.  

Pub Crawl hasn’t taken to hurdling as well as we had hoped just yet but he has an engine and there is definitely better in his locker. 

Behind the Curtain was badly hampered by a faller at Newton Abbot when he returned to fences and did well to finish as close as he did in fifth after this.  Heure De Gloire did not enjoy the quicker ground conditions and we will have to wait for some more rain before she runs again.  

On Friday we have entries at three meetings with Manuelito entered on the flat at Goodwood and entries at two jumps meetings, Market Rasen and Newton Abbot.  

Manuelito has done nothing but improve since we have had him and was most impressive in winning over hurdles at Ffos Las last time.  He has a flat mark of 63 from his early career with Richard Hannon and I hope he can capitalise on this when we try him back on the flat. 

He also has entries at Sandown on Saturday and Salisbury on Sunday and so is likely to take up one of these engagements.

Nibras Gold and Steppenwolf have an entry at Market Rasen after both running well at Ffos Las last time.  

Nibras Gold looked like winning on his chasing debut before being caught late on while Steppenwolf won nicely on stable debut. 

Happy Helen could make her stable debut in the juvenile hurdle.  She has recently joined us from the Michael Dods yard and while her form shows rooms for improvement, jumping could be the answer.  Her breeding suggests hurdling and a step up in trip could be the making of her as she is half-sister to the useful Mark of Gold.