“James Milner is the luckiest owner – every horse he buys turns into a superstar” Michael Owen discusses the horses he trains at his Manor House stables and their famous owners
During his 17 year playing career, Michael Owen broke a litany of records, lifted a host of major trophies and was crowned as the Ballon d’Or winner in 2001.
But now, more than a decade after hanging up his boots, the former Liverpool and England striker gets his kicks out of another sporting pursuit.
Owen’s Manor House Stables is a sprawling 170-acre racing operation, south of Chester, where he houses almost 150 racehorses. Among the famous owners are former England team-mates and Premier League stars, but for Owen, the real fascination lies in the horses themselves.
Owen on his Manor House Stables
“I could name them all – every owner, every mother and father, every racing record,” he tells FourFourTwo during a guided tour of the site. “I’m a geek.”
The horse in the swimming pool, he informs us, is called Box To Box – so named because it’s owned by Owen’s former BT Sport colleagues Steve McManaman, Paul Scholes, Owen Hargreaves and Andy Townsend. Not only did they work as pundits on the box, but they were also largely box-to-box midfielders. “He’s seven years old and he’s won six races,” Owen says of the animal.
The former Real Madrid man also shows us horses owned by Sir Alex Ferguson, Anthony Gordon and James Milner. “He’s the luckiest owner,” Owen jokes of the latter. “Every horse he buys turns into a superstar, and sells for a lot of money. He’s had six horses here – I think the most he’s paid for one is about £80,000, and the least he’s sold one for is £360,000.”
In a nod to his highest individual honour, another of Owen’s horses is called Balon d’Or, with Owen reserving that name for a thoroughbred with particular potential, although self-deprecatingly admits that, yes, he’s since realised he spelt the name wrong.
Owen believes he has put around £13million into the facility since he purchased the land at the age of 23 when he was still terrorising defences in a Liverpool shirt. Even then, he knew his love for horse racing was so strong that he knew what he wanted to do once his playing days were over.
What was originally a farm was converted into stables, which have grown and grown ever since, and are now among the best in the country. Owen employs around 50 staff, many of whom work here every day and train the horses – we see some of them being taken for a gallop by riders on an all-weather track.
He doesn’t actually own most of the animals, though – the business model sees him purchase them at auctions (he estimates he’ll spend £2m to £3m to buy around 40 in the next few weeks), then sell to people who come in as owners and pay a monthly training fee. Darts duo Luke Littler and Stephen Bunting also have a horse here called Bunting Mental, but not every owner is from the sporting world.
The costs of operating the facility are not small – Owen has made huge progress over the past two decades, but needs additional outside investment to achieve his ambitions of kicking on even further and becoming one of the most successful stables in the country.
With that in mind, as well as welcoming FourFourTwo, he recently allowed the cameras in for a six-part Amazon Prime Video documentary called Meet The Owens, made by the Whisper production company that was co-founded by ex-Formula 1 racer David Coulthard.
For Owen, his post-football life is every bit as ambitious as his playing career.
All six episodes of Meet the Owens are available now to stream on Amazon Prime Video
