G-OWEN NOWHERE FAST
Michael Owen to make racing debut at Ascot… but falls off horse TWICE in practice
The ex-England striker is set to compete in the the seven-furlong race on November 24 to raise money for The Prince’s Countryside Fund
MICHAEL OWEN fell off his horse TWICE ahead of his racing debut at Ascot.
The ex-England striker is set to compete in the the seven-furlong race on November 24 to raise money for The Prince’s Countryside Fund.
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But his chances of getting around the cause might not be great judging in video footage filmed at a British Racing School session at Newmarket.
Nag-mad Owen, 37, was trotting around a circuit with other riders when he was thrown to the floor.
Owen swore as he hit the deck, with the video caption suggesting the horse was spooked by a bleep test on a neighbouring sports court.
Wearing a GoPro, Owen got back on his horse.
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But the video shows the injury-prone former striker hitting the deck AGAIN moments later.
Owen can be heard saying "good boy" to the horse as he approached the wayward beast.
Things picked up for Owen though, with a separate cut of footage showing horse and jockey hitting their straps through the gallops.
Owen, who played for Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle and Manchester United, later said: "Today was really insightful.
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"If anything, it has brought me on a lot but also put me back a couple of strides because it was the first time I’ve fallen off of a horse – twice!
"It’s made me think that they’re not machines. I’ve been doing some practice back at home and it felt very easy and I thought I would breeze it.
"Today, there’s been wide open spaces, horses you don’t know and it’s been very, very different. It’s made me think to myself that I need to do some hard work between now and Ascot.
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"We’ve learned a whole range of different skills and obviously part of that was sitting on horseback, doing a bit of walking, trotting and cantering, which were very different from what I’m used to. It was a big learning curve.”
Owen also has to pass a fitness test in order to get the licence he needs to ride.
He added: "It was a tough fitness test, it was obviously specific to what you’re going to be doing so some of it was not what I would have normally done in my career.
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"A lot of strength work and balance and posture and core, work on your thighs, so it was interesting and quite punishing at times actually.
"I found in life that a lot of things look easy on the eye. You go to a stadium or you watch on TV and everything looks quite easy, and then you try and do it yourself and you think it’s quite hard.
"Then you see the jockeys up close and what they do and it’s nigh-on impossible. It’s people at the very top of their games and very top of their sports and they are exceptional at it."
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