Latest News

By Greg Prichard

November will be a month to remember for Taree trainer Karen Owen and her apprentice jockey daughter Madeline Owen, who combined to score again at Taree races on Monday.

Seething Chuck was sent out for the Ken & Deb Muller Benchmark 58 Handicap over 2000m with a plan to take cover behind a couple of rivals in the run and allow the horse to settle down that way.

Seething Chuck (Madeline Owen) lands the prize at Taree. Image by Trackside Photography

But like all good jockeys, Madeline remained flexible and with the early pace very slow she allowed the six-year-old gelding to amble across to the lead going out of the straight the first time and after going along at a good pace she then eased back a fraction to give the horse a mid-race breather.

Then, passing the 800-metre mark, vastly-experienced jockey Darryl McLellan sensed something had to be done to shake the race up if the leader was to be beaten and he took off on Lucky Creed from second-last in the seven-horse field.

But Madeline and Seething Chuck reacted well to the situation and when she urged the horse to increase the pace again he held on to the lead and in fact began surging away.

Seething Chuck, a $5 chance in the betting, was two lengths clear entering the home straight and kept going in fine style to win by 1.1 lengths from Casino Bear ($8), with Lucky Creed ($6) ending up third.

The Owen stable is not a big one and the trainer must carefully pick and choose races for her horses in a bid to get winners and she has done that superbly over the last few weeks in particular.

Karen produced Sound And Vision to win at Kempsey on November 10 and then the same horse to win the biggest race at her home track - the $100,000 Taree Gold Cup - on November 19.

Now the third winner has come during this run of success and Karen has only had seven runners in that period of time. That’s a winning strike-rate of 42.8% over an 18-day period.

Madeline doesn’t ride all of Karen’s runners, but she does ride most of them and their strike-rate as a combination over the 18 days was even better. They combined five times for the three wins and a strike-rate of 60%.

Obviously no trainer or jockey expects to continue producing figures like that over an extended period, but it’s great while it lasts and serves as hard evidence of what those involved are capable of in what is a tough game.

“Yeah, it’s been great,” Karen said. “I’ve only got eight in work at the moment. It generally ranges from six to 10. Keeping them sound and fit and finding the right races is the key.

“We train at our property out near Wingham and float them to the track for work. Keeps them happy and they seem to do well.

“I’m mainly happy for Maddy that we’ve had these winners because she doesn’t get a lot of opportunities, but she rides well.”

Seething Chuck is owned by long-time clients of Owen’s, Alec and Lea Leopold. Seething Seb is another of theirs that Owen trains. They are both out of the mare Seething Duck, which the Leopolds also own.

“They’ve been great supporters of mine, probably the first clients that I had,” Owen said. “They’ve stuck with us and it’s always great to win a race for them.

“They bred the mare, Seething Duck. She’s retired at our place now. She had six or seven foals and they all won. The Leopolds look after all of their horses, they’re great owners.”

View the full results with race replays for Taree here