James Owen
Trainer
Newmarket-based James Owen has rapidly risen from relative obscurity to become one of the most prominent dual-purpose trainers in the country. In a little over two years, he has trained 250 winners and counting at a phenomenal strike-rate, and is now a regular at all of the biggest fixtures, from Royal Ascot to the Cheltenham Festival and everywhere else in between.
Raised in Oxfordshire and the son of point-to-point trainers, James went on to enjoy a successful career between the flags as a jockey, riding 128 winners and clinching the East Anglian Champion Jockey title on nine occasions. He supplemented those successes with more than a dozen winners under rules before making the transition from riding to training by establishing himself at Green Ridge Stables, on Newmarket's Hamilton Road, in 2014.
Initially focusing on pre-training, point-to-pointing and Arabian Racing, James won the Arabian Racing Organisation (ARO) trainers' title no less than six times and prepped the likes of future Gr.1 Derby hero Desert Crown. A change to the BHA rules meaning that trainers could house both thoroughbred and Arabian horses saw James become the first ARO trainer to take out a BHA licence towards the end of 2022, and he celebrated his first winner when Father Of Jazz won a 2m novice hurdle at Kempton for the Gredley Family in May 2023.
The link-up with the Gredleys quickly bore more succulent fruit, and James would go on to train 38 winners at a 23% strike-rate during the 2023/24 NH season, highlighted by the Gr.2 win of leading juvenile hurdler Burdett Road at the Cheltenham November Meeting. The same horse would star again during the campaign just gone, winning the Greatwood Handicap Hurdle and finishing third in the Gr.1 Champion Hurdle as James sent out 60 winners at a 20% clip.
Other standout performers over the jumps for James so far include the dual Gr.2-winning juvenile hurdler East India Dock, Listed winner and Cheltenham Festival-placed Liam Swagger and the Listed-winning mare Opec, while his ability to transform lowly rated cast-offs from other stables into veritable winning machines is already the stuff of legend. There are far too many individual success stories to name them all, but James’s work with the likes of Enthused, Jackpot Cash, Mermaids Cave and My Gift To You all underline his exceptional ability to get the very best out of inexpensively sourced material. He has made a lightning start to the 2025/26 NH season and is on course for another career-best total of winners.
Not content with simply conquering the world of jumping, James also turned his attention to the Flat at the start of the 2024 turf campaign. A thrilling debut season saw him train 63 winners and enjoy Listed success with the aforementioned Burdett Road and Gr.2 glory in the Royal Lodge Stakes with high-class two-year-old Wimbledon Hawkeye. He has already equalled that total midway through this year, with highlights including Ambiente Amigo’s win in the Listed Nottinghamshire Oaks and a lucrative victory for East India Dock in the Chester Cup.
In addition to all the successes listed above, James has already trained dozens of winners for Deva Racing under both codes, including the likes of Destinado, Kinetic, Khangai, Forever Proud, B Associates and Tara Iti, to name just a few.
Now overseeing a string of around 100 horses, James achieved the rare distinction of finishing 15th in the NH trainers’ championship last season, whilst also occupying a top-20 position in the equivalent Flat table. Such a rare feat is a measure of the stable’s growth in a short space of time and this talented trainer will continue to flourish.
