Country trainer Karen Owen might work with racehorses for a living, but she wasn’t exactly thrilled when daughter Madeline declared her intent to become a jockey.
“I must say, we weren’t really happy she wanted to become a jockey but it couldn’t be avoided. She was just so keen,” Karen Owen said.
“When she was at school she was riding work every morning before school, and even during her HSC she was riding work because she was adamant she wanted to be a jockey.
“She is very strong willed. I get a bit of the blame for that because I was a really competitive event rider.”
Despite her initial trepidation, Owen is immensely proud of Madeline and has become one of the young apprentice’s biggest supporters.
It was Madeline who delivered Karen her first metropolitan win aboard Fays Angels at Warwick Farm in August, while earlier this month, mother and daughter combined to snare their hometown Taree Cup with Sound And Vision .
It is that gelding who will carry their hopes in Saturday’s $160,000 Country Classic (2000m) at Rosehill, a race that only jumped on the radar after the seven-year-old’s Taree triumph.
“We weren’t actually planning on the Country Classic, we were just hoping to get him fit and well enough to be running over 2000 metres,” Karen Owen said.
“When he won at Kempsey two starts ago, we thought maybe we will have a go at the Taree Cup.
“We wouldn’t have expected he’d go that well there, and then when he ran so well in the Taree Cup, it was a logical progression two weeks later to the Country Classic.”
Owen currently has eight horses in work at Taree, all trained out of the paddock.
Visits to Sydney are rare, although that has changed a little over the past 12 months thanks to Fay’s Angels, who along with her Warwick Farm win has run competitively in the Adrian Knox Stakes and ATC Australian Oaks.
Madeline does the majority of her riding on country and provincial tracks, although she has recently linked with top Sydney trainer Anthony Cummings to whom she is on loan.
Both mother and daughter are chasing their first Saturday city win with Sound And Vision and while hoping for the best, Karen Owen is realistic in her expectations.
“It would be great, but it will be quite a strong field so we just hope he can go there and run well,” she said