Michael Owen

There's plenty of synergy between top-class football and racing, proves Michael Owen as his Manor House Stables continues to churn out winners under trainer Hugo Palmer. Martha Terry pays a visit to the striker's Cheshire base

- Martha Terry

It’s not often you can empathise with a Golden Boot-winning footballer. But when Michael Owen was a teenager, like a pony-mad kid, he used to dream up horse names.

“Once a week, me, my mum, dad, girlfriend – now wife – would go to the local hotel and sit in the Jacuzzi thinking of horse names,” he says. “I’ve named them after kids, parents, football occasions, funny things my dad would say – whatever!”

Michael’s interest in racing was piqued as a child when his dad would let him make 50p bets on Saturdays. He bought his first horse at 18, freshly back from the World Cup in 1998, where he scored a stunning solo goal against Argentina in St Etienne that people still talk about today. The filly’s name? Etienne Lady, and she was a winner too.

Within five years, while he was playing for his first club Liverpool, Michael had set up his own yard, Manor House Stables in Cheshire, starting with 10 horses on an old dairy farm. There have since been success stories galore – in Group Ones, the Breeders’ Cup, Classics, Royal Ascot and dozens at Chester, his local track. Michael forayed into breeding too, with his home-bred Brown Panther turning out to be one his most prolific winners, the Dubai Gold Cup in 2015 crowning his 10 victories.

It showed remarkable foresight for a young footballer to invest his millions into a passion that would not only satisfy his cravings for elite sport, but provide a fun and commercial business to motivate him during a player’s long retirement from the game.