Former England ace Michael Owen announces plans to ride in charity race at Ascot

Former England star Michael Owen plans to make his riding debut in a charity race at Ascot later this year. The ex-Liverpool, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Newcastle and Stoke striker will line up in the Prince's Countryside Fund Charity Race on November 24 as he seeks to realise his dream of riding in a race. Owen, along with his wife Louise, owns Manor House Stables in Cheshire from where Tom Dascombe has trained since 2009. The Owens have enjoyed plenty of big-race success with the handler, most notably with the ill-fated Irish St Leger winner Brown Panther.Owen is already in training for the seven-furlong event, having only ridden a horse for the first time this year.He said: "It has been a long-term ambition of mine to learn how to ride and race, but as a professional footballer it was not possible. Now I have set myself the target of competing in the Prince's Countryside Fund Charity Race at Ascot."It's a brilliant cause and I can't wait to get started; it is going to take a lot of hard work over the next few months, but I am really looking forward to it."The Prince's Countryside Fund was founded by the Prince of Wales in 2010 and it provides over £1.5million in grants to projects across the UK each year, as well as running its own programmes such as The Prince's Farm Resilience Programme.Owen is the latest high-profile sporting name to try his hand in the saddle, after dual Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist Victoria Pendleton embarked on a campaign that ultimately led to her riding at last year's Cheltenham Festival.