There was a time in the not too distant past where trainer James Owen would have been mulling over the point-to-point fixture list as opposed to the Cheltenham Festival running order.
Life, however, has changed dramatically for the 45-year-old Newmarket handler since taking out a trainer’s licence in 2023.
No longer is his focus on running a successful pre-training business, alongside training point-to-pointers and Arabian horses, but instead on establishing one of Britain’s most exciting dual-purpose yards.
While Owen is still closely connected to the grassroots element of jump racing alongside having ambitions of being crowned ARO (Arabian Racing Organisation) champion trainer for the seventh time, he now finds himself in the care of several live Festival contenders.
And, unlike many of those he will be competing with next week, in Wimbledon Hawkeye he has a horse that holds legitimate Classic aspirations once the Flat season rolls into town, but for now the challenge facing Owen is all about trying to break his Festival duck.
He said: “We have come a long way in a short space of time thanks to the massive help from my owners like Deva Racing, but above all the Gredley Family, who have sent me some nice horses.
“Unfortunately we don’t have room for the pre-trainers any more, but they have done us really well, however we have six or seven Arabian horses, and we will try and win the championship again.
“Before all this I would have been looking at what we could run at places like High Easter, and elsewhere, at this time of year, and we still do that, but we wouldn’t have been as focused on Cheltenham as we are now.
“It is a lovely team we are taking to Cheltenham and they have all got chances, but obviously East India Dock in the Triumph Hurdle is our stand out one.
“It is full on, but I’ve got a great team, and they are all as hungry as I am, but most importantly I’m supported by a good wife.”
There are few contests at this year’s Festival where the British trained runners appear to hold the upper hand over their Irish counterparts, however one in which they do is the JCB Triumph Hurdle, a race in which Owen will saddle favourite East India Dock.
And the father-of-two believes the Golden Horn gelding, who is so far three from three over hurdles, is the one they all have to beat in the Grade One prize on Friday, where he will bid to give joint-owner Bill Gredley a 92nd birthday to remember.
Owen said: “He has done nothing wrong for us. He has won two trials there on both the Old and New course and he has been equally impressive in both. He really loves his jumping and he looks a million dollars. Sam (Twiston-Davies) came in earlier this week and rode a little bit of work on him, while he had a jump on Wednesday.
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"He doesn’t show a great deal at home, and he just does enough with the horses he works with, but when you school him hardly anything can keep up with him as he is just so quick from A to B.
“He is workmanlike and gets the job done, but hopefully he can keep turning up on the raceday. Lulamba is obviously a lovely horse, while the likes of Palladium and Hello Neighbour ensure it will be a very good race, but for me he is the one to beat on form."
Last year a setback robbed one-time Royal Ascot winner Burdett Road of an attempt at Festival glory in the very race East India Dock will attempt to capture.
However, the five-year-old, who bagged the Greatwood Handicap Hurdle at the track earlier this season, will now get his chance to shine at the meeting on Tuesday when taking on the best in the business in the Unibet Champion Hurdle.
Owen said: “The drying ground is going to be a plus and having gone through it all, me and Tim (Gredley, joint owner) decided that the Champion Hurdle is the right race to run him in.
“Immediately after the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton we probably felt the County Hurdle was the one to go for, but we have changed our mind. The Kingwell was a little bit messy and I just felt he was wheel spinning on the ground, and Sam (Twiston-Davies) felt the same.
“This is going to be competitive, but there is going to be a lot of pace on which will suit us. It will be so exciting to have a runner in the Champion Hurdle. We are going in there as an underdog, but I’m really looking forward to watching him run.
“We know it will be hard to win, but he has got a great each-way chance. It is lovely to be going there with him this year having missed the Triumph Hurdle last season.”
A certain swagger about him
Contesting a novice contest on the all-weather at Southwell is not the usual prep for a race at the Festival, but Owen believes taking that route with Liam Swagger has put him cherry ripe for his tilt at the Hallgarten And Novum Wines Juvenile Handicap Hurdle.
He added: “Again the drying ground will help Liam Swagger. He has done very well over hurdles, but he struggled to carry the double penalty at Newbury.
“He came back in after spending a bit of time back at the Gredleys stud and he had a prep race on the all-weather at Southwell where he bolted up. He looks fantastic and all being well he has got a good chance. He has solid form to his name and hurdling has manned him up a bit.”
Liam Swagger is joined in the race by stablemate Lavender Hill Mob, who up until this point has failed to hit the heights expected of him.
However, Owen feels that the switch to a big field handicap could help him fulfil his potential as a hurdler.
He added: “I ran Lavender Hill Mob at Huntingdon the other day to try and ensure that he gets in, but we were disappointed with him. He has come out of that race fine, and if he gets in, he will run. We will use a lad called Jamie Brace, who has done very well for me.
“He schools fantastically at home, and he works very well, but he has been disappointing. He has got the size, and scope, and everything you felt that would make him a hurdler.
“Maybe he just needs a big field to carry him along. I think we will bury him in and ride him to be carried along. If Jamie can land him there late then he would be very well handicapped if it all clicks together.”
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Not just there for a day out
Tasting success is one thing, but sharing it with friends is a totally different experience.
And Owen hopes One Big Bang can deliver such a result in Thursday’s Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle.
He said: “One Big Bang is great, but it is that old cliche with him in that he is a chaser in the making. Drying ground we thought was a worry, but he is actually not a slow horse and a strong gallop and a strong test will suit him. We will stick with Jamie on him as he can claim weight off the horse.
“It is lovely to be going there with a new syndicate, and most of them are friends from point-to-pointing and he will give them good fun at Cheltenham. It is absolutely fantastic for them to be going there, not just for a day out, but with a horse that has a chance of nicking some prize money.”
On paper, finishing sixth, beaten 29 lengths is not the sort of form that would lend itself to having a second tilt at a race at the Festival.
However, Owen expects Grozni to prove a different proposition in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Amateur Jockeys’ Handicap Chase than 12 months ago with conditions coming right for the nine year old.
He added: “Grozni needs a few to come out, but I’m sure it will thin out a bit. He actually ran in the race last year on that wet ground and he ran on to finish sixth. I’ve never had him in a better place and Alex (Chadwick) will ride him again. We have changed a couple of slight things and his headgear will be changed to blinkers.
“We’ve kept him over hurdles as the owners had a great day there last year and we wanted to get back there. I feel we have got a bit in hand, but it is just a case of whether we have got enough. I think on spring ground he is a good each-way player."
It seems absurd to think of Allmankind as a stayer over fences given his bull in a china shop approach to life in his younger days, but the nine year-old will be to show his appetite for a test of stamina St James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase.
And although the Sea The Moon gelding, who will run under Owen’s wife Jenny, does not quite possess the same zip he once did, his connections are optimistic of a big run following two recent point-to-point successes.
Owen said: “He was a lunatic when he was younger, and I know that as we had him here pre-training as he used to run off the end of Warren Hill, but to be fair he has mellowed a lot.
“He was getting bored in the field and Tim decided that as he was not an old horse we might as well run him over hurdles. However, he had lost that speed and it was Tim’s idea to go pointing which I came around to.
“When he ran at Horseheath, which is a real stayers track, he looked beaten two out, but he stayed all the way to the line. We then went to Higham, which is a speed track, and Saint Calvados came to take us on. They went hammer and tongs around there, but Allmankind flew down the last straight.
“I’d say he would need the drier ground to see out that extended three-and-a-quarter-miles. It is going to be that last stretch that will be the question, but it is lovely he is going back there with two wins under his belt.
“We’ve had a few runners in the race, but he is the best chance we have had of winning it as he is the class act in the race.”
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