Tally ho! Michael Owen pal gives hunt the elbow

AS MICHAEL Owen’s daughter, Gemma, seeks romance on Love Island, I hear the former England striker’s new horse-trainer partner is ringing the changes at one of the country’s most opulent stately homes.

For Manderston, which is headed up by Adrian, 4th Lord Palmer, is breaking its bond with Berwickshire Hunt, reputedly the oldest hunt in Scotland, after 124 years.

To the shock and sadness of members, I can reveal the hunt has been asked to move its hounds elsewhere. The Berwickshire Hunt declines to discuss its eviction, but I’m told that the instructions were given by Lord Palmer’s son and heir, Hugo, 41 — an acclaimed horse trainer now forging a new partnership with Owen, at Owen’s Manor House Stables in Cheshire.

‘The hunt received a notice to quit in a very short time, by September 1,’ a hunt supporter tells me, explaining that Hugo took over the running of Manderston and its estate a while ago. ‘Apparently, there are plans for development.’

Currently preparing for Royal Ascot in two weeks, where he has three runners, including the much-fancied Dubawi Legend, Hugo is too busy to comment.

But a friend tells me: ‘Manderston is a coveted wedding venue but it costs hundreds of thousands a year to run. Hugo has to make it work economically.’

The hounds, he adds, were in kennels at an attractive farmhouse on the estate — a property which could bring in much more rented out commercially than the peppercorn rent paid by the hunt.

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