Edwardstone at Warwick: From Kingmaker to Arkle Champion

Background and Breeding

Edwardstone is a bay gelding, British-bred, trained by Alan King at Barbury Castle in Wiltshire. He was foaled in May 2014, which makes him twelve years old at the time of writing in 2026 — a considerable age for a National Hunt horse still in training. His longevity is itself part of his story: a two-mile chaser who won the Arkle in 2022 and has continued to be campaigned at Grade 1 level through his later years is a horse built to last.

His sire is Midnight Legend, who has sired a number of good National Hunt performers. His dam's side carries staying blood, but the racing style Edwardstone showed was distinctly sharp — a quick, accurate jumper who could operate at a two-mile pace without being suited to much beyond two miles and a half at his very best.

Trainer Alan King

Alan King has trained National Hunt horses at Barbury Castle for decades and has built a consistent record of producing two-mile chasers for Cheltenham. Before Edwardstone, he trained Voy Por Ustedes, who won the Arkle in 2006, and My Way De Solzen, who won it in 2007. His third Arkle winner, Edwardstone in 2022, gave him a hat-trick of winners in the race across sixteen seasons — a record that places him among the very best conditioners of novice two-mile chasers in the sport.

King prepares his horses carefully. He tends not to over-race novices, preferring a small number of targeted runs that build confidence and form rather than a busy campaign that risks exposing a horse's weaknesses. Edwardstone's 2021-22 novice chase season reflects that approach: a measured series of runs leading to the Kingmaker, then Cheltenham.

Jockey Tom Cannon

Tom Cannon is Edwardstone's regular jockey and the Arkle win at Cheltenham was his first success at the Festival. It was a significant moment for a jockey who had spent years building a good reputation without the headline result that confirms it. Cannon's relationship with King and with Edwardstone is a long one — he has ridden the horse in the majority of his races and understands the way the horse needs to be ridden: held up, allowed to travel, and produced with a clean run at the two-out marker.

The Arkle win came after a moment of drama — Edwardstone bumped the leader Riviere D'etel at the last fence, briefly creating doubt about the result in the stands. Cannon, in those brief seconds of uncertainty, kept the horse balanced and on his feet. The result stood.

Career Overview

Edwardstone began his career as a hurdler, winning over timber before being switched to fences in the 2021-22 season. As a novice chaser he was unbeaten before Cheltenham. His Arkle win gave him a Group 1 — or in jumping terms, a Grade 1 — at the age of seven. He then continued to be campaigned at the top level, returning to race at Cheltenham and Aintree in subsequent seasons as one of the leading two-mile chasers in training.

His record of longevity — still racing at twelve, still competitive at Grade 1 level — places him in the category of horses that distinctly reward long-term owner investment. For the King yard, Edwardstone has been the centrepiece of the chasing operation for several seasons in succession.

Physical Characteristics

Two-mile chasers at Grade 1 level tend towards a particular physical profile: medium-sized, athletic, built for speed and agility over fences rather than raw stamina. Edwardstone fits that profile. He is not a big horse. He is quick between his fences, fluent through his jumping arc, and compact enough to change direction efficiently on a track like Warwick's left-handed layout.

The Warwick track, with its sharp left-handed bends and demanding fences, suits a horse of his type better than a galloping track would. Edwardstone's ability to maintain pace while turning is a specific strength that the Kingmaker course tests and rewards.

The 2022 Kingmaker Novices' Chase

Edwardstone lined up in the Kingmaker Novices' Chase at Warwick in February 2022 with his novice season building towards the Cheltenham Festival. He was already the clear market leader for the Arkle, having won his previous chases with authority. The Kingmaker was intended as a sharpener — a race that would confirm his readiness for Cheltenham while giving him the Grade 2 experience that a Festival novice needs.

The race, run at Warwick in its customary mid-February slot, attracted a competitive field by the standards of a novice Grade 2. Edwardstone won it decisively. His jumping at Warwick was accurate and his turn of foot when asked was enough to put the race to bed before the last fence. Tom Cannon had the horse where he needed him at the top of the straight, and the response when Cannon asked the question was immediate.

The manner of the win was as important as the result. Horses going to Cheltenham need not just to win the trial; they need to win it in a way that identifies clearly what they can do. Edwardstone's Kingmaker performance identified a horse that was jumping with confidence, travelling well in a competitive Grade 2 field, and producing acceleration when required. All three qualities were things Cheltenham would test in the Arkle. All three were present at Warwick.

What the Warwick Track Tests

Warwick is a left-handed circuit, relatively compact by the standards of the bigger National Hunt tracks. The fences are fair but demanding — they need to be met correctly rather than skipped, and a horse that is sloppy at its fences on the left-hand turn will get into trouble on the bends. The track's shape rewards horses that jump accurately and efficiently while maintaining their momentum through the turns.

For a two-mile novice chaser with Cheltenham ambitions, the Warwick test is specific and useful. Cheltenham's Old Course — the Arkle course — is also left-handed and demands jumping accuracy at pace. The profile of the two tracks is different, but the qualities needed are similar: clean jumping, good balance through the bends, and the ability to accelerate in the home straight over the final two fences.

Edwardstone's performance at Warwick suggested he would handle Cheltenham's demands. Trainers and jockeys who know both tracks said so at the time. The Arkle confirmed it.

The Kingmaker's History as an Arkle Trial

The race has sent a string of subsequent champions to Cheltenham over the years. Flagship Uberalles, who won the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1999 and 2000, won the Kingmaker. Voy Por Ustedes, Alan King's second Arkle winner, also ran at Warwick before Cheltenham. Long Run, who went on to win the King George VI Chase at Kempton, appeared in Warwick's novice programme. The Kingmaker's Grade 2 status gives it just enough weight to attract the very best novice two-milers in the country, and the February timing, roughly four weeks before the Festival, makes it the ideal final major trial.

The 2022 edition, with Edwardstone as its star, sits in a long line of Kingmaker performances that went on to be vindicated at Cheltenham. When the Arkle result arrived — Edwardstone, four and a quarter lengths, authoritative — the Warwick form had been confirmed. See our Warwick Classic Chase guide for the other major race that defines the Warwick jumping calendar.

The Arkle Trophy 2022

Edwardstone arrived at Cheltenham for the Arkle Trophy in March 2022 as the market leader. He was sent off at 5/2 favourite in a field that included strong Irish opposition. He travelled smoothly throughout, moved to challenge at the top of the hill, and led approaching the last. The bump at the final fence with Riviere D'etel created a moment of tension. Cannon held the horse together. Edwardstone won by four and a quarter lengths from Gabynako, with Blue Lord a length and a quarter back in third.

It was Alan King's third Arkle win. It was Tom Cannon's first Festival winner. And it was the natural endpoint of a novice season that had announced itself at Warwick in February.

The Kingmaker Win in Context

The Kingmaker performance in February 2022 is a quiet, workmanlike entry in the record books. Warwick on a February afternoon, Grade 2 novice chase, result as expected. Those are the surface facts. What the race meant was more than the result: it told the racing world that Edwardstone was right and ready for Cheltenham. The confidence with which he jumped, the ease with which Cannon held him together through the Warwick bends, the acceleration when asked — none of it was the performance of a horse about to be exposed at the next level.

For those who had followed the Alan King yard through the winter, the Warwick win was confirmation of what they had seen in Edwardstone's earlier runs. It was not a surprise. It was a piece of evidence in a pattern that was building towards March.

The Arkle Drama at the Last

The moment at the last fence in the 2022 Arkle — Edwardstone bumping Riviere D'etel in the air, the crowd noise shifting from support to uncertainty for half a second — is the detail that people who watched the race remember. Edwardstone was five lengths clear and essentially home. The bump unsettled the sequence of events but not the outcome. Cannon, an experienced pilot of two-mile chasers, steadied the horse on landing and held him together on the run-in.

The inquiry board briefly went up. Punters who had backed Edwardstone were watching the stewards' room announcement rather than celebrating. The result was allowed to stand. The margin — four and a quarter lengths — had made the bump academic even as it happened. A horse that wins by four lengths while bumping a rival at the last has quality to spare.

Tom Cannon's First Festival Winner

The Arkle result gave Tom Cannon his first Cheltenham Festival winner. Cannon had ridden plenty of good horses and had been competitive at the Festival in earlier seasons without winning. Edwardstone was the horse that delivered the result. The partnership between jockey and horse — built over a series of runs across the season — produced the right result at the right time.

For King, the win was his third Arkle and gave him a specific distinction: three Arkle winners separated by sixteen years, across three generations of novice two-mile chasers. Voy Por Ustedes in 2006, My Way De Solzen in 2007, and Edwardstone in 2022. The Warwick-to-Cheltenham route had worked all three times. Consistency of method, three different horses, three identical outcomes at the Festival.

Edwardstone's Longevity

One of the quieter achievements in Edwardstone's career is that he was still racing at Grade 1 level into his twelfth year. Most National Hunt chasers peak between seven and ten and either retire or drop down the grades as they age. Edwardstone, having won the Arkle at seven, continued to be a competitive and active top-level two-mile chaser in subsequent seasons. That longevity reflects the care of his training, the horse's constitution, and the soundness of legs that can carry a horse safely over two-mile fences year after year. The early campaign — the Kingmaker at Warwick, the Arkle at Cheltenham, the measured preparation — was built for a long career, and that is what materialised.

Warwick's Claim on the Arkle Story

The Kingmaker Novices' Chase at Warwick has sent horses to win the Arkle Trophy on multiple occasions. Edwardstone is the most recent, and among the most emphatic. His four-and-a-quarter-length win at Cheltenham in 2022 was not a close-run thing. It was the performance of a horse in command of his field, executing the race the way his preparation had been designed.

That preparation ran through Warwick. The Kingmaker was the final major exam before Cheltenham, and Edwardstone passed it with evidence of clear quality. For the racecourse's identity, a direct line from Warwick to the Arkle is a valuable one. Warwick is not a racecourse with the prestige of Cheltenham or Sandown, but it holds a specific position in the two-mile chasing calendar as the place that tests and confirms. Edwardstone's year confirmed that position.

Alan King and the Warwick-Cheltenham Pipeline

Alan King's three Arkle winners — each of whom used a Warwick novice race as part of their preparation — demonstrate that the pipeline between the two courses is a deliberate training strategy rather than a geographical convenience. Barbury Castle in Wiltshire is not far from either course, but that is not the point. The point is that King knows what Warwick tests and he knows what Cheltenham requires, and he has found ways to connect the two repeatedly.

For future Arkle seasons, the Kingmaker at Warwick will continue to attract the best British novice two-milers with Festival ambitions. The roll of honour from the race — Flagship Uberalles, Long Run, Edwardstone — makes the Kingmaker one of the most reliable trial races on the February calendar. Our Kingmaker Chase guide details the race's history and the form lines that make it worth studying carefully each February.

What Edwardstone Means for Warwick

Warwick is a course that serves its region — the West Midlands racing public — with consistent quality throughout the National Hunt season. It is not a Festival venue or a course that hosts the sport's biggest events. But it hosts the Kingmaker, and the Kingmaker produces Arkle winners. Edwardstone's victory in 2022 gave the course its most recent claim on a Cheltenham headline, and the Warwick faithful who watched his Kingmaker win had every reason to believe they were watching a potential champion on his way to Cheltenham. They were right. For a full picture of what Warwick offers across the season, see our Warwick history guide.