Roger Owen

Roger Owen

Article by Alan Trout 

It took Roger John Owen more than three years to ride his first winner but he did then make progress, ending his career with seven victories. He was based with Shaftesbury, Dorset trainer Mrs Ann Finch, who supplied all of his seven wins.

He had his first ride on October 16, 1971, when Domburg Assault finished sixth of 15 runners in the Charminster Handicap Hurdle at Devon & Exeter. Another course in that county was where Roger rode his first winner, when Catherine Star proved too good for eleven rivals in the Mile End Maiden Hurdle (Division 1) at Newton Abbot on Easter Monday, March 31, 1975, beating Castell Memories by three lengths.

Nearly a year passed before Roger scored again, but at Taunton on March 25 Singing Saint ran on well to take the Pitminster Novices’ Hurdle (Division 2) from Sandy May’s mount Brandenbourg. Just two days later Roger scored again when Precipice Star was a comfortable winner of the Frobisher Novices’ Hurdle (Division 3, Part 1) at Devon & Exeter. 

There was then a shorter gap before his next success which came at Kempton Park on November 17, 1976, when the six-year-old St. Barnabus overcame a mistake at the last flight to win the St. Margaret’s Novices’ Selling Hurdle by three lengths. 

Singing Saint won for him again when taking the lead on the flat to land the Portman Handicap Hurdle at Wincanton on March 10, 1977. They returned to the same course the following month, on Easter Monday, and were rewarded with another victory in the J. H. Cobden Handicap Hurdle. Sandy May was again the runner-up, this time beaten as neck on 4/1 joint-favourite Rio.  

Another of Mrs Finch’s charges, Spratzl, gave Roger his last win when taking the Newton Abbot Challenge Cup (Division 3, Part 2) at that course on May 19, 1977. He had no further success, his last ride being on Romantic Reason, unplaced in the Holly Tree Junior Novices’ Hurdle at Taunton on December 27, 1978. 

Roger Owen’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Catherine Star, Newton Abbot, March 31, 1975

2. Singing Saint, Taunton, March 25, 1976

3. Precipice Star, Devon & Exeter, March 27, 1976 

4. St. Barnabus, Kempton Park, November 17, 1976 

5. Singing Saint, Wincanton, March 10, 1977

6. Singing Saint, Wincanton, April 11, 1977

7. Spratzl, Newton Abbot, May 19, 1977