Edredon Bleu at Huntingdon: Four Consecutive Peterborough Chases

Bred in France, Made in Britain

Edredon Bleu was born on 26 April 1992 in France. He was an AQPS — Autre que Pur-Sang, meaning a non-Thoroughbred National Hunt horse bred under French rules — whose pedigree combined French bloodlines with the jumping ability that French breeders have cultivated with particular expertise over many decades. He arrived in Britain with a reputation, but the early signs were not encouraging.

Richard Dunwoody, who rode Edredon Bleu in one of his first British starts — a two-mile chase at Ayr — was blunt in his assessment: he didn't think the horse was any good and couldn't even jump. This verdict, from one of the most experienced jump jockeys of the era, was not encouraging. Many French horses take time to acclimatise to British conditions, to the different rhythm of British chasing, to the harder, faster ground that tends to prevail in autumn. Edredon Bleu was among the slow acclimatisers.

What changed was time. A summer in England, steady schooling work, the gradual physical development of a horse who had been described as narrow and light when he first arrived — all of these factors worked on Edredon Bleu through his first British season, and by the time Henrietta Knight began to see the real horse emerge, the assessment was very different.

Henrietta Knight and West Lockinge Farm

Henrietta Knight was not a conventional trainer. She had come to the profession relatively late, was married to former champion jockey Terry Biddlecombe, and ran a small but exceptionally effective yard at West Lockinge in the Vale of the White Horse. Her horses were invariably well-prepared, thoughtfully entered, and given the patience that their individual natures required. She was not interested in rushing horses towards races they were not ready for.

This approach was ideal for Edredon Bleu. A horse who needed time to settle, to build his jumping confidence, to find the rhythm that British chasing requires — he was in the right place. Knight read him carefully, schooled him patiently, and waited until she was confident before asking him to perform at a level that would expose any remaining deficiencies.

When she entered him for the Peterborough Chase at Huntingdon in December 1998, she was confident. The result confirmed her judgement.

Jim Lewis owned Edredon Bleu alongside Best Mate, Knight's triple Gold Cup winner. The partnership of Knight, Lewis, and Edredon Bleu — with Best Mate as a simultaneous presence in the yard — represented one of the most celebrated ownerships in National Hunt racing at the turn of the century.

The Jockey Partnership

Jim Culloty rode Edredon Bleu in three of his four Peterborough Chase victories — 1998, 1999, and 2001. Tony McCoy rode him in the 2000 running, as part of the arrangement that gave McCoy access to Knight's horses in the period around the Queen Mother Champion Chase preparations. The two jockeys represent contrasting styles: Culloty, precise and intelligent, with an excellent understanding of how to conserve a horse through a race before asking for maximum effort; McCoy, whose relentless drive and near-supernatural ability to extract the final ounce from a horse had made him already, by 2000, the dominant force in jump jockeying.

Both worked with Edredon Bleu effectively. The horse's record in the Peterborough Chase was consistent across the jockey changes, suggesting that the quality of the performance was primarily about the horse's own ability rather than any particular riding interpretation.

What Made Him Special Over Two Miles

Edredon Bleu's jumping at his best was bold, accurate, and fast — the combination that two-mile chasing rewards most generously. The Huntingdon track, flat and right-handed, with sixteen fences to be jumped over the Peterborough Chase distance, places a premium on horses who can maintain their jumping rhythm without losing momentum. A horse who fiddles or shortens at fences loses ground that is hard to recover at two miles, where the race is over quickly and there is little time to compensate for errors.

Edredon Bleu was rarely inaccurate. He galloped into his fences with the confidence of a horse who had no doubt about his ability to clear them. This confidence was infectious — Culloty and McCoy both noted that the horse communicated a kind of certainty approaching obstacles that made riding him a particular pleasure.

His best performance over two miles was probably the 2000 Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham, where he defeated Direct Route by a short head in a finish that many who saw it still consider among the most thrilling Cheltenham moments of the modern era. The short-head margin, in a two-mile championship, between two top-class horses jumping the final fence together — it was precisely the kind of race that defines a career.

For more on Edredon Bleu's Queen Mother Champion Chase win and its connection to Huntingdon preparation, see our complete guide to Huntingdon Racecourse.

The First Peterborough Chase, December 1998

Edredon Bleu arrived at Huntingdon for the 1998 Peterborough Chase as a six-year-old who had begun to fulfil the promise that had been obscured by his difficult early acclimatisation to British conditions. Henrietta Knight had been building towards this moment through patient preparation, and the December fixture at Huntingdon was the examination that would confirm whether her horse was ready to compete at Grade 2 level.

The Peterborough Chase field in 1998 included established two-mile chasers of the type that make the December race the significant step towards Cheltenham that it is intended to be. Jim Culloty rode Edredon Bleu with the confidence of a jockey who had been schooled on the horse and understood his jumping style. The race proceeded in the manner that would become familiar over the following three years: Edredon Bleu jumped accurately and quickly, maintained his position through the race, and asserted decisively when Culloty asked him to extend.

He won. Knight noted the smoothness of the performance — a horse who had required patience now showing that the patience had been justified. The Peterborough Chase was the first significant public evidence that Edredon Bleu was a serious two-mile chasing prospect.

The Second Peterborough Chase, December 1999

The 1999 running confirmed what 1998 had suggested. Edredon Bleu returned to Huntingdon in December as the defending champion and the expected favourite, and he dealt with the field with the same efficient, jumping-based authority that had characterised his first win. Culloty rode him again, the partnership now well established and mutually confident.

By the end of 1999, Edredon Bleu had won the Peterborough Chase twice in a row. The December fixture at Huntingdon was becoming his property. Knight and Lewis knew they had something exceptional: a horse who combined reliability with quality, who could be prepared specifically for the race each December and produce a performance of consistent excellence.

The Third Peterborough Chase, December 2000

The 2000 Peterborough Chase came after one of the most dramatic performances of Edredon Bleu's career. In March of that year, at Cheltenham, he had won the Queen Mother Champion Chase by a short head from Direct Route — a finish so tight that the watching crowd could not be certain of the result until the judge's announcement. Tony McCoy had ridden him for the Champion Chase, and the same arrangement saw McCoy take the mount for the 2000 Peterborough.

Three wins in a row at Huntingdon. A Queen Mother Champion Chase on the CV. Edredon Bleu was now one of the most accomplished two-mile chasers in Britain, and his December presence at Huntingdon had taken on the quality of an annual institution.

The Fourth Peterborough Chase, December 2001

The fourth consecutive win in December 2001 completed a record that had never been achieved in the Peterborough Chase before and has not been matched since. Jim Culloty returned to ride in the 2001 running, and Edredon Bleu won for the fourth successive year.

Four wins. 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001. The same horse, the same track, the same December racing, the same result. Henrietta Knight had prepared him for each running with a careful preparation that reflected the specific demands of the Huntingdon course — its flat right-handed configuration, its sixteen fences, the particular rhythm it rewards. Her consistency of preparation matched the horse's consistency of performance.

The Peterborough Chase record book records Edredon Bleu four times in a row. It will likely record him that way indefinitely. No horse has come close to matching the sequence since.

For more on how the Peterborough Chase fits into the early-season jumping calendar, see our Huntingdon betting guide.

Four in a Row: The Sequence in Full

The defining achievement of Edredon Bleu's connection to Huntingdon is the sequence itself. Four consecutive wins in the Peterborough Chase is not a figure that describes four similar races strung together — it is the record of a horse returning to the same venue each December across four years and producing a quality performance against the best two-mile chasers of the season. Each year the field changed, the conditions varied, and the context shifted. Each year the result was the same.

Racing seasons have a rhythm of their own, and the December Peterborough Chase became part of the established rhythm of a specific era in British jump racing. When Edredon Bleu was in training and fit, the early winter saw him pointed towards Huntingdon. When he arrived at the course, connections and spectators knew what the expected outcome was. Four times, the expected outcome occurred.

This kind of sustained excellence at a specific venue is rare. Horses who win the same race three or four times are not common at any level of the sport — the combination of consistency, fitness, good fortune with the draw and conditions, and the ability to beat different fields each year is difficult to assemble. Edredon Bleu assembled it four times.

The Queen Mother Champion Chase Connection

The 2000 Peterborough Chase sits within the broader story of Edredon Bleu's best season. In March, he had won the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham by a short head from Direct Route — a finish that involved two superb horses jumping the last together and running to the line with every reserve committed. Tony McCoy, who rode him in both the Champion Chase and the 2000 Peterborough, described the horse as one who communicated courage: a horse who never backed off when the race became physically demanding.

The Champion Chase win, the Peterborough hat-trick becoming a four-timer in subsequent months — these two events bracket Edredon Bleu's finest period. At Cheltenham he proved himself against the best in the country over two miles at the championship level. At Huntingdon he showed, four years in a row, that his quality was not seasonal or situational but structural — built into the horse at a level that December Cambridgeshire conditions could not diminish.

The King George: Proving the Range

In December 2003, no longer the horse who had dominated the early seasons of the new century but still physically capable of a serious performance, Edredon Bleu lined up for the King George VI Chase at Kempton at 25-1. The King George is run over three miles — a mile longer than the distances at which he had made his name. Jim Culloty was back in the saddle.

He won. The 25-1 winner, the short head at Cheltenham, the four Huntingdon victories — the full career of Edredon Bleu describes a horse of exceptional quality and durability, whose range across distances proved wider than his specialist two-mile reputation had suggested.

But it is the December record at Huntingdon that remains his most specific achievement. The Peterborough Chase belongs to him in a way that few races belong to any horse, and the four victories that make up that ownership are the defining image of what he was.

The Retirement and What Remained

Edredon Bleu was retired in 2005 after a ten-year career spanning 57 races and 25 victories. He spent his retirement at Letcombe Regis with former jockey Graham Thorner, cared for with the attention due to a horse of his stature. He died in September 2018 at the age of 26.

His prize money total across his career was £731,000. The emotional wealth he generated at Huntingdon — the December anticipation, the familiar performances, the sense that a great horse had chosen this specific track as his own — is beyond any easy calculation.

What the Four Wins Mean for Huntingdon

The Peterborough Chase is Huntingdon's signature race. It carries Grade 2 status, it attracts horses from the major training centres, and its December position in the calendar gives it a specific role as a test and a stepping stone before the January-to-March period when the season's major prizes are decided. For Huntingdon to host the race that produced four consecutive wins for the same horse — a horse of Edredon Bleu's quality — places the course in a defined relationship to one of the sport's memorable careers.

Racecourses carry their histories in their winners' lists. When the Peterborough Chase past winners are examined, Edredon Bleu appears four times. The other horses who have won the race twice — and very few have — appear twice. The solitary four-timer stands apart, and it stands at Huntingdon's most important race meeting.

This matters in practical terms as well as historical ones. When trainers and connections consider the Peterborough Chase as a target, the frame of reference for what the race can produce includes Edredon Bleu's record. The race is not simply a useful early-season Grade 2 — it is a race that has been won four times by the same champion. That is not an ordinary distinction.

The Henrietta Knight Era

Henrietta Knight's extraordinary spell of Peterborough Chase dominance — eight wins in ten years between 1998 and 2007, with Edredon Bleu accounting for four, Racing Demon for two, and Impek and Best Mate one each — is unlikely to be repeated. The combination of a trainer whose methods were perfectly suited to the December race, a stable that routinely produced two-mile chasers of exceptional quality, and an owner in Jim Lewis who provided both the horses and the patience to develop them — these elements came together in a way that was specific to a particular decade.

For Huntingdon, the Knight era at the Peterborough Chase represents the richest period in the race's history since it was established in 1969. And within that era, Edredon Bleu stands as the defining horse — the one who won four times and set the standard by which all subsequent Peterborough Chase performances are measured.

A Horse Worth Remembering

Edredon Bleu died in 2018 at the age of 26. His death was noted with real sadness in the racing press — the ITV Racing website ran a tribute, the Racing Post published a longer appreciation, the community of people who had watched him and followed him through the Knight-Lewis years remembered him as a horse of character as well as ability.

At Huntingdon, his name appears in the race records that any serious follower of the Peterborough Chase will encounter. The four consecutive entries, appearing in different years but always the same winner, are the clearest possible statement of what Edredon Bleu was.

He was the horse that belonged to this race. Four wins. No equal. A record that Huntingdon holds with the certainty that it is permanent.

For more on how Huntingdon fits into the jump racing calendar, see our history of Huntingdon Racecourse.