About Owen

I was born into racing as my father had worked in it all his life. He was Head Lad for David Nicholson for 12 years & ran Martin Pipe’s 2nd yard for about 5 years also

 

I rode for 7 seasons as a conditional jockey, having over 500 rides and more than 40 winners. Thankfully it looks like I’m a better trainer than I was a jockey!! 

 

Once I hung up my boots, I was assistant trainer for Sean Woods in Newmarket. Unfortunately, after about 7 months he moved to Hong Kong to train.

 

That was when I was very lucky to join Sir Michael Stoute, where I was his assistant for 12 seasons. During those 12 years I was very fortunate to work with some of the best thoroughbreds on the planet! 
Whilst there, Sir Michael had 3 Derby winners, an Arc De Triomphe winner, Breeders Cup winners and many other Group 1 winners (too many to mention!!).  My time there was invaluable, I learnt so much from Sir Michael. 

It was there that I first met Sheikh Hamdan. I built up a good working relationship with Angus Gold and Richard Hills over the years. When Sheikh Hamdan was looking for a private trainer I was asked if I’d be interested and the rest as they say is history!

I moved down to Lambourn at the beginning of 2015 where I had a year under the tuition of the legend, Barry Hills, with the plan for me to start training in 2016.

 

I have now held my trainers licence for 8 years and in that time we have had over 200 winners, including over 25 at Group level and 6 Listed races. 

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In 2020 I had my first Royal Ascot winner with Hukum, who went on to win the Group 1 Coronation Cup in 2022 and The King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 2023. Minzaal won the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup in 2022 and Anmaat won the G2 Prix Dollar in the same year, followed by the Group 1 Prix d'lspahan in 2023. In 2023 and 2024 Alflaila won back to back Group 2 York Stakes, making him the first horse to achieve this feat. Overall in the last 5 years we have operated at an 18 to 19% strike rate.

 

I’ve been married to Lynn for more than 15 years, who has been a great supporter and huge part of my success throughout my career. We have 2 children, Cai who’s 15 and Emily who is 11.