My mum is beside herself... and my wife is asking me ‘Why do it?’
MICHAEL OWEN on becoming a jockey
IT IS a moment Michael Owen and his wife will never forget. In the grounds of the couple’s home in January 2004, the horse Louise was riding suddenly reared, causing an horrific fall.
She was lucky to escape lifechanging injuries, suffering a fractured pelvis. Owen was at her bedside, skipping Liverpool’s 2-0 FA Cup win over Yeovil that weekend.
Now she has questioned her husband’s sanity as the former England striker prepares to ride as a jockey in a charity race at Ascot next Friday.
Owen, who runs his own racing stables at Malpas in Cheshire, says: “Listen, I know I’m stupid. I’d probably had a couple of drinks when I agreed to do it.
“My mum is still beside herself and telling me not to do it and my wife, who had a bad fall herself, is asking, ‘What are you doing’? In my 37 years I had never sat on a horse – and never been allowed to because of football. I suppose that was one of the drivers for doing it because whenever people come to my yard or whenever I talk to people I get asked, ‘Do you ride?’ Everyone assumes I do.
“But while I know a lot about the business and know a lot about everything to do with horse racing I suppose, I had never put one leg either side of a horse until five months ago.
“I was asked to ride in a charity race and thought, ‘Well, it’s one way of trying to get fit and getting down to a good weight’ because, as we all know, when we retire it is not so easy when you are not doing much.
“I’ve lost about 16lbs so far and I’ve got to shed another seven pounds with just eight days to go.
“And of course there was the charity aspect for the Prince’s Countryside Fund as well. I did the London marathon a few years ago. As soon as
I retired, I thought, ‘I can’t be playing golf and eating pies on my couch. I need to get off my backside, get running and give myself something to wake up for’.
“At the moment I’m thinking, ‘Why the bloody hell did I do it?’ because I’m not eating and I’m having to get out on these half-ton machines that basically want to bloody kill you!
“It’s not easy at all. It’s not like a riding school!”
Typically, Owen does not just want to get round the seven-furlong Prince’s Countryside Fund charity race at Ascot – he wants to win it.
And that is why he has chosen a lively horse.
“I’ve been gradually progressing from a six-year-old calm-ish horse to a younger and younger one,” he says.
“The problem is I’ve decided to ride a horse, Calder Prince, with, let’s say, a bit of a ‘kink’ to him.
“He’s a bit of a hard puller. He’s really keen to get on with it. But he’s the best one for the job. I don’t just want to take part, I want to feel as if I can compete.
“I was never as nervous as this in my football career. But I went to Wolverhampton for a race horse gallops behind closed doors on Wednesday. We were in big open spaces, the horses can go anywhere he wants, but I had to control him and give him direction, so that was a huge confidence booster.”
BT Sport pundit Owen will be back in his day job tomorrow running the rule over Manchester United’s clash with Newcastle and is backing Red Devils striker Romelu Lukaku to end his barren run, even though he describes Rafa Benitez as “a master tactician”.
After scoring 11 in his first 10 games for United, Lukaku has gone seven appearances without finding the net.
But Owen says the Belgium striker has no need to press the panic button, especially as midfielder Paul Pogba is closing in on a return after two months out.
“He won’t be panicking that his powers have waned or anything like that,” Owen says.
“It’s just a matter of time before he’s scoring again like he was at the start of the season. Anyone would be foolish to think otherwise.
“He has a long record of scoring in the Premier League – it’s not as if he has had a fluky season or a fluky three weeks.
“He has a history of scoring lots of goals, with his head, his left foot and his right foot.
“And he will be up there with the top goalscorers at the end of the season. Pogba is on the way back as well. He is so creative and that bodes well for Lukaku.”
I’m sat on a half-ton machine that’s out to kill me