‘Taking part doesn’t count in my eyes, you’ve got to win’: football’s Michael Owen targets top of racing’s Premier League
Michael Owen is bringing the same ambition that drove him to the top of the footballing world to his racing stables. H&H caught up with him ahead of the launch of new docuseries Meet the Owens
When you say the name Michael Owen in the equestrian world, people are just as likely to think you mean the five-star event rider as the former England and Liverpool star striker.
But the footballing Michael Owen has, in fact, been obsessed with horses since he was a child.
“My mum used to ride horses, and every time I played football on Saturdays, my dad would stop by on the way home at the bookies and have a 50p bet,” Michael explains.
“So we would watch the horses that he bet on on Saturday afternoon, and I just got into it from watching it. The colours, the animals, everything about it.
“So it was obviously in my blood somewhere. That just grew and grew and, by the time I was 18, I was so into it – and I could afford it – that I bought my first racehorse. What followed over the next few years... I was addicted to it, loved it.”
“Horses were obviously in my blood somewhere. I was addicted to it, loved it”
michael owen
At the age of 23 and at the peak of his playing career, Michael bought Manor House Stables, an old dairy farm in Cheshire where his racing outfit is still based today. It gave him security that when his short footballing era was over, his life would still have the thrill of following a passion.
“I thought I’m going into this business, and when I retire from football it gives me something I’ll have to get up for and enjoy and it couldn’t have gone any better,” he says. “It’s just perfect, it made retiring easy to stomach, it gives me a purpose in life.”
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“That was 23 years ago, [starting with] 10 horses and two members of staff; now we’re 135 horses and 50 members of staff, winning races all over the world.”
But Michael’s interest in racing has metamorphosed over the years, sparked by betting and being enriched as he experienced the full prism of the sport. But the horse has always remained central.
“The horse underpins everything: the beauty of the horse, the athlete, the speed, everything about it, underpins it,” he says.
The Manor House string returns from exercise – “we have the best facilities,” says Michael
Twenty years ago, if you asked Michael, he’d have had a different focus to now.
“I’d say, ‘oh, I love having a bet’, trying to pick out a winner and work out the puzzle of the distance, the trip, the handicap system, all these different things.”
But as the years have ticked by, Michael has started to apply his own experience of sport science and training to his racehorses.
“This is my background, so I’m listening to all the science and thinking, ‘that will make our horses go faster, that will make our horses recover quicker, that will prepare them better’ – I’d be quizzing the trainer, quizzing the vets.
“And I’m fascinated by the business side: growing a business, surrounding yourself with really bright people in their specialist fields, I love it, Iove it. I love every stage, and could tell you another 10 things I love about the horses.”
One big pivot has been his social life.
“I used to be pretty quiet, pretty focused on football,” he says. “If I went racing I just wanted to sit in a quiet corner of a box and read my Racing Post and watch the racing. I didn’t really want to go into the crowds and mingle, and get beer spilt on me – it just wasn’t me at the time.
“But as I’ve developed, as I’ve got older, I’m the most sociable person there, always last at the bar – well hopefully first at the bar, because that’s more generous!”
“I used to sit in a quiet corner and watch the racing, I didn’t like mingling in the crowds and getting beer spilt on me. Now I’m the most social person there”
michael owen
One of the many aspects that brings him joy is naming his horses.
“That’s one of the lovely things about owning a horse, you get to choose the colours the jockey wears, you get to name it,” he says.
“I’ve named so many over the years. My first ever horse was Talk To Mojo. My brothers and sister are called Terry, Andrew, Leslie, Karen, so T-A-L-K, my dad’s Terry Owen, I’m Michael Owen and my mum’s Jeanette Owen. I thought I’d combine all the family.
“The second horse I owned was Etienne Lady because I scored my famous goal against Argentina aged 18 in St Etienne.”
He recalls the day he named the foal that would become arguably his greatest horse so far, Brown Panther.
“I owned the mother and when he was foaled, the stud manager phoned me and said ‘you’ve had the baby, it’s a colt, come and see it’. They bring him out the stables, he puts his head down and looks, and the way he walks, he sort of stalks, and I said ‘he’s like a panther, there it is, there’s the name, Brown Panther’.
This prowling foal ran in the Breeders’ Cup, the Melbourne Cup, won at the Dubai World Cup meeting and Royal Ascot as well as the Irish St Leger and Goodwood Cup.
“He went on to be one of the best horses about, the pride of my life, just an exceptional horse. He danced every dance on every corner of the globe. He was just amazing.”
Michael Owen’s home-bred Brown Panther, winning the Irish St Leger
His footballing background is integral. Michael describes himself as the “chairman” of Manor House, with the trainer – Hugo Palmer – the “manager”. The jockeys and horses he likens to his “players”. Everyone has their role. In the same way his managers never told him “how to score a goal”, he leaves the training to the experts.
“I was born to play football, but I wasn’t born to run a business, so I’ve had to learn on the hoof,” he says. “I know my business, I think I know what works, but I don’t train the horses myself, I don’t treat the horses. I don’t tell the riders [how to ride], and I don’t ride the horses myself.
“That’s one thing that I’ve learnt from football, surround yourself with the best people and put round pegs in round holes.”
“Taking part doesn’t count in my eyes, you’ve got to win”
michael owen
Michael won golden boots, the FA Cup, and the Premier League in his former career, how far do his ambitions reach now?
“Manor House is in the Premier League, but we’re like a Leicester City, 16th or 17th in the league,” he says. “Ten years ago we were 88th. We’re young, hungry and upwardly mobile.
“Where can we go? I know where I want to go and I’ll not stop – ever – from achieving that. And that’s probably my biggest fault and also my biggest positive, I will live and die by that.
“Because if you don’t risk, you don’t challenge yourself, then you will just be another one of the 400 yards and I don’t want to be a partaker. Taking part doesn’t count in my eyes, you’ve got to win.”
How to watch Meet the Owens
Meet the Owens is a six-part documentary series following former England striker Michael Owen and his family, including dressage rider Gemma Owen, as they run a horse-racing business and manage their home life.
UK/IRE: Stream via Amazon Prime Video in the UK and Ireland.
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Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.