18 September 2009 South East stalwart Sheriff's retires
by Carolyn Tanner
NICK PEARCE: has retired stable star Sheriff's Friend
photo: Brian Armstrong
Sheriff's Friend, one of the South East area's most outstanding Pointers in recent seasons, has been retired, a decision which was taken after his lacklustre run at Penshurst at the end of April.
All his 18 Pointing victories, the first of which was in 2002, have been for owner Simon Tindall, but his finest hour came the following season when he won the Weatherbys Chase John Corbet at Stratford, partnered by his then handler Jenny Gordon's husband Chris.
For the past two campaigns he has been trained by Nick Pearce (pictured left), and this year he gave Hayley Moore, daughter of licensed trainer Gary Moore, her initial success between the flags.
The 14-year-old is remaining in Nick's care, and in addition to being regularly hunted as he always has been, he has already embarked on a new lifestyle, having been ridden twice a day during the summer as a lead horse for the youngsters in Nick's yard. He recently finished fourth in the Retraining of Racehorses class at the Edenbridge Show, and has also won a local working hunter class. According to Nick, he has lost none of his enthusiasm, and is due to make his team chasing debut within the next fortnight.
Nick is not short of ammunition for the coming season, with a possible 17 to carry Simon's familiar colours, including nine maidens, eight of which are home-bred. Nick is also currently qualifying the exciting prospect Simonsberg, who was travelling strongly in this year's John Corbet when coming to grief four from home. Simonsberg will continue to be trained in Ireland by Ian Ferguson, but a British certificate will give connections more Hunter Chase options this side of the Irish Sea. In whichever country he runs, Nick will be taking the reins for all his outings, commencing with a probable debut in an Irish Point in the autumn.
