Roddy Owen (foaled 1949) was a British-bred, Irish-trained

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...

racehorse who won the 1959

Cheltenham Gold Cup The Cheltenham Gold Cup is a Grade 1 National Hunt horse race run on the New Course at Cheltenham Racecourse in England, over a distance of about 3 miles 2½ furlongs ( ...

. After winning several good steeplechases in Ireland he was aimed at the major British races in the 1958/59 National Hunt season. He finished a close second in the

King George VI Chase The King George VI Chase is a Grade 1 National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Kempton Park over a distance of ...

and then started second favourite for the Gold Cup in March. He relished the heavy ground came from a seemingly impossible position at the second last to defeat a strong field which included Linwell,

Kerstin Kerstin is a female German and Swedish given name; it is the Scandinavian version of Christina. Notable persons with this name include: *Kerstin Alm (born 1949), Finnish politician from the Åland Islands * Kerstin Anderson (born 1994), American ...

and

Pas Seul In ballet, a variation (sometimes referred to as a pas seul, meaning to dance alone) is a solo dance. In a classical grand pas de deux, the ballerina and danseur each perform a variation. Examples * ''La Bayadère'' – Gamzatti, Nikiya * ''Copp ...

. He finished fourth to Pas Seul in the following year's Gold Cup at the age of eleven.

Background

Roddy Owen was a bay gelding bred in England, and exported to Ireland as an unbroken five-year-old. He was sired by Owenstown, a high-class stayer whose wins included the

Irish St Leger The Irish St Leger is a Group 1 flat horse race in Ireland open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at the Curragh over a distance of 1 mile and 6 furlongs (2,816 metres), and it i ...

and the

Ebor Handicap The Ebor Handicap is a flat handicap horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at York over a distance of 1 mile 5 furlongs and 188 yards (2,787 metres). It is ...

. His dam Desla's Star was a distant descendant of the broodmare Gondola, a half-sister of the

St Leger The St Leger Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Doncaster over a d ...

winner Gamester. During his racing career Roddy Owen was owned by Oliver Plunkett, 12th Earl of Fingall and was trained at Newbridge,

County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...

by Danny Morgan who had won the Gold Cup as a jockey on

Morse Code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

in 1938. The horse was named after Captain Roderick Owen, an amateur jockey who won the

1892 Grand National The 1892 Grand National was the 54th renewal of the Grand National horse race that took place at Aintree near Liverpool, England, on 20 March 1892. Finishing Order Non-finishers References 1892 Grand National Grand National ...

Racing career

Early career

Roddy Owen developed into a high class steeplechaser in Ireland, finishing third in the 1956

Irish Grand National The Irish Grand National is a National Hunt steeplechase in Ireland which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run at Fairyhouse over a distance of about 3 miles and 5 furlongs (5,834 m ...

and winning the Leopardstown Chase in 1958. He made his first appearance at the Cheltenham Festival in 1957 when he ran unsuccessfully under a weight of 167 pounds in the National Hunt Handicap Chase.

1958/59 National Hunt season

After winning one of his first two starts of the 1958/59 season Roddy Owen was sent to England in December 1958 for the

Kempton Park Racecourse Kempton Park Racecourse is a horse racing track together with a licensed entertainment and conference venue in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, England, 16 miles south-west of Charing Cross, London and on a border of Greater London. The site has of ...

. He appeared to be an unlucky loser, recovering from a bad mistake four fences from the finish and being beaten only a head by Lochroe. After a poor run at

Leopardstown Racecourse Leopardstown Racecourse is an Ireland, Irish horse-racing venue, located in Leopardstown, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, 8 km south of the Dublin city centre. Like the majority of Irish courses, it hosts both National Hunt and Flat racing. Th ...

on his next start Roddy Owen's regular jockey Bunny Cox voluntarily gave up the ride and recommended

Bobby Beasley Bobby Beasley (26 August 1935 – 9 January 2008) was an Irish jockey and horse trainer. Background Beasley was born in London in to an Irish racing family. His father, Harry, also known as "HH" Beasley, was an outstanding flat jockey and rode ...

as a replacement. The 1959 Gold Cup was run on heavy ground on 6 March and attracted a field of eleven runners after the likely favourite Saffron Tartan was withdrawn on the morning of the race. Another notable absentee was the American Champion Neji who had sustained a leg injury a week earlier. Taxidermist, the winner of the Whitbread Gold Cup and the

Hennessy Gold Cup /Ladbrokes Trophy The Coral Gold Cup is a Premier Handicap National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run ...

was made the new favourite with Roddy Owen next in the betting on 5/1 whilst the other runners included Linwell,

and Lochroe. Beasley tracked the leaders but as the field approached the final fence he appeared to have no chance as he was four

lengths Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Intern ...

adrift of the leading trio made up of Pas Seul, Linwell and Lochroe. The raced completely at last obstacle when Pas Seul fell, almost bringing down Linwell, who in turn collided with Lochroe. Roddy Owen, racing on the inside, was able to avoid the chaos and swept past Linwell and Lochroe to take the lead. Linwell made a recovery and reduced the deficit but Roddy Owen stayed on well to win by three lengths with Lochroe another ten lengths back in third place.

Later career

In the 1959/60 National Hunt season Roddy Owen was again aimed at the Gold Cup. After finishing second on his seasonal debut at Gowran Park in October he was beaten by Kerstin in the Imperial Leather Chase at Manchester Racecourse in December. He faced eleven opponents at Cheltenham on 10 March. He was still in contention when hampered by the fall of Kerstin at the last and finished fourth behind Pas Seul, Lochroe and Zonda. He stayed in training for the following season and finished third to Zonda at Leopardstown in November.

Assessment and honours

In their book, ''A Century of Champions'', based on the Timeform rating system, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Roddy Owen an "average" Gold Cup winner.

Pedigree

References

{{Cheltenham Gold Cup winners 1949 racehorse births Racehorses bred in the United Kingdom Racehorses trained in Ireland Thoroughbred family 19-c Cheltenham Gold Cup winners Cheltenham Festival winners National Hunt racehorses