Owen spends more than £460,000 in one day on new racehorses for stable

Michael Owen spent more than £460,000 in one day buying new horses for his successful racing stable.

The former Liverpool and England striker was very active on the first day of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale where five lots were knocked down to his team.

Since retiring from football, Owen has invested time and money in another passion, horse racing, establishing Manor House Stables in Cheshire. Owen won his first Classic with Brown Panther, a horse he also bred, when he captured the Irish St Leger in 2014 and secured his richest top level victory in August this year when Glacius, trained by Hugo Palmer, captured the £550,000 Saratoga Derby in the US.

Owen, Palmer and bloodstock agent Ed Sackville were in Ireland on Tuesday looking for future talent to join his 135-horse stable.

They came away with five yearlings including the day’s top lot, a son of 2,000 Guineas winner Chaldean, who was bought for £180,000. The team also secured two colts by Mehmas, one by New Bay and a filly by Starman.

Palmer said: “What excites me about Chaldean is that he, like Frankel, was a champion two-year-old.

"This sale has been so good to me as a trainer – my first stakes winner came from here, and then there has been Galileo Gold, Hawksmoor, Adaay Of Scarlett and Sale Shark. I love the fact that we can come here and feel that we can buy any horse in the ring, which we can’t really do at any other sale.

“It means we feel that we can buy the horses we think are the best – we are coming here with a good chance.”

Owen told Tattersalls: “We bought a couple of Mehmases. The one we bought for €125,000 was vert very nice, just looked a strong, typical son of the stallion.

“We’ve had luck with Mehmas here before with Adaay Of Scarlett who has run really well this year for us. It’s always nice to go back to a proven source and we just loved him as a horse. He looks fast.”

Palmer has trained 44 winners of £1.3 million in Britain this year, including successes at the Epsom Derby meeting and Glorious Goodwood. Last year the stable had 70 wins and a prize-money haul of £1.5m.

Owen said: “We’ve been flying along. It’s nice. We are up on prize-money more so than winners, which is obviously good.

“We have tried to target the festivals a little bit more and some bigger races and everything’s going nicely. Every season we sort of try to make another step so we are already preparing for next season now.”

Reflecting on his yard, he continued: “It’s been a long time in the making. I bought it as an old arable farm about 23 years ago, put in a gallop, a little trotting ring and 20 boxes, and off we went.

“It’s unrecognisable compared to back then. We’ve got all kinds now and are still wanting to develop, still wanting to make it bigger and better.