(Deb) SITTING in the break room at Queens Park Rangers training ground as I wait for star striker Charlie Austin, who is grabbing a quick bite after a morning spent practising the skills that have made him the Premier Leagues top English goalscorer, the clubs press officer tells me this will not be like any of the other interviews he organises. Normally I step in after 20 minutes and say ‘last question, he tells me, but Charlies so keen to do this interview Ill just let you chat away about the horses for as long as you like. That sums up Austins passion for racing. After a meteoric rise through the English leagues - he was playing in the ninth tier aged 18, just seven years ago - he is now being talked about as a future England international; demands upon his time have never been greater and media calls are, frankly, a bit of a chore. Yet when we sit down together Austin - whos likely to feel at home at Loftus Road with fellow player Joey Barton and manager Harry Redknapp both racing fans - makes plenty of the running as we launch into a long, animated chat about racing, beginning with his visit the previous day to Michael Owens impressive Manor House Stables in Cheshire. Its the first time Ive been there and its an incredible facility, Austin says. Its got everything. Theyve got Polytrack gallops there, a woodchip gallop theyre just putting in, grass gallops, so the facilities there are brilliant. Hes got a solarium and a pool, I saw a horse swimming for the first time yesterday - its incredible to see it. Austin, like Owen, is a racehorse owner, and although his interests in the sport are minor compared to Owens elaborate and well-established operation they are growing rapidly. In a matter of just a few months he has gone from his first shares in a couple of horses to launching, just before Christmas, his own racing ownership business. The new company, Excel Racing (excelracing.co.uk), was set up jointly with business partner Paul Fisher and leases and sells shares in Flat and jumps horses. It already has six representatives based with Warren Greatrex, William Muir and - as of last week - Eve Johnson Houghton. Shares have sold fast and both men have big ambitions to expand the operation. So far, so familiar, one might think - there are numerous celebrity-endorsed companies offering similar services. What makes Excel Racing different? Well, for starters Austin is aiming his companys services at one particular group - the young. When one of our horses, Miss Sophierose, won at Worcester, in the parade ring beforehand the other syndicates were all people 15 to 20 years older than us, Austin explains. Paul and I thought about it and spoke it through with Warren Greatrex and William Muir. We said, look were the youngest people in the yard, its quite obvious - at Warrens yard were the youngest people by ten or 15 years - and he said hed like to have younger people in the yard, but how do I attract them? And it just came to us - why dont we do it? I really think racing needs to attract a new generation and I know there are racing clubs around, but there are none specifically for the younger generation and thats what Im trying to do. Im not trying to be arrogant and say come with me, its nothing like that. I was once young and dreamed of owning a racehorse and this is designed to be what I would have liked then. Its not just for young people, he stresses. North Germany [another Excel horse based with Greatrex] has eight owners and the youngest is 27 and the oldest 64 - so were not just going for the young, but its the younger generation and if you want to come in and mix with them then youre welcome. Given racings long struggle to get the young interested in the sport the presence of one of the Premier Leagues brightest new stars acting as cheerleader will be widely welcomed. And although even the modest sums charged by Austins new operation (£125 a month for a five per cent leased share in an unnamed Equiano colt, for example) will put it out of the reach of many young people, there will be plenty others tempted by the idea of getting into racing with a bona fide football star as a partner. Austin is particularly enthused at the prospect of sharing the enjoyment of being an owner with more people. When Miss Sophierose won the first time at Worcester, the feeling I had when she won, Ive only experienced that feeling when Ive scored in football, he says. I cant explain to you what its like scoring a goal and I cant explain what its like cheering on your horse past the winning post. The enjoyment I had seeing my horse go past the post was incredible. I want all our owners to have the feeling I had when my horse won. Owning and selling racehorses may be a new passion for Austin but racing has been part of his life for decades. I lived in Hungerford, which is close to Lambourn, and my granddad lived in Lambourn, so Id see the horses there, and he always loved to have a bet so I slowly got into it and then started going racing when I was older, he says. When I was watching racing I would look at owners in the parade ring, from the outside, and I always wondered what it would be like to own a horse, what it was like to speak to the trainer and jockey in those little clusters before the race, what were they saying? Now Ive had the opportunity to go and do it and its great. Austins journey from Hungerford lad dreaming of being the other side of the parade ring fence to Premier League superstar with a string of racehorses is true Roy of the Rovers stuff. Not too long ago, it looked as if his football career was going nowhere fast. Aged 18, having been released by his first club Reading for being too small (ironically he is now 6ft 2in), Austin was turning out in English footballs ninth tier for hometown side Hungerford Town. Even at that level, he was scarcely making an impact. I almost quit the game, says Austin. I was about 18 and I was playing non-league and it wasnt really going anywhere so I thought thats it. Austins fortunes began to change in 2008 when his family moved to Bournemouth and the young striker joined semi-pro Poole Town. Working as a bricklayer to supplement his wages, Austin was a revelation, scoring 46 goals in 46 appearances. From there, a rapid ascent up the football pyramid followed, moves to Swindon Town and Burnley coming before his 2013 switch to QPR and promotion to the Premier League l ast season. It has been a stunning rise and the press, naturally, has lapped up the rags-to-riches fairytale of it all. But Austin is keen now to move beyond the cliches. A couple of years ago I would have pinched myself thinking where I am, he says. Now I want to be known as Charlie Austin professional footballer, not Charlie Austin, someone who was a bricklayer. Dont get me wrong, I will never forget where I come from, but Im a professional footballer and I want that to continue. Now many are talking about Austin - Premier League player of the month for December - as a candidate for Roy Hodgsons England. With 13 goals this season he is the leagues third top scorer, five ahead of the next best English player. Austin, however, will not be drawn on such speculative chatter. Its nice to be talked about but for me I cant listen to that, he says. Ive got a job to do here at QPR. Ive scored 13 goals this season and I need to score as many goals as possible and try to keep us in the Premier League because that is what were all paid to do. Whatever happens in the future, six months down the line, Ill worry about that then. Likewise, Austin is not making any concrete plans for his racing interests, but he admits his trip to Owens stables got him thinking about what the future could hold. Id never thought about that sort of set-up until yesterday, he says. Which is mad, because it was my first time there. I just said to Michael, ‘What made you do this? What was the idea behind it? and he said, ‘Charlie, I owned ten horses at the time and it was more of a hobby kind of thing, and one day I got a bill for the training fees and for one month it was £20,000 and I just thought, I need to make a decision here: do I carry on doing this as a fun hobby and shelling out £20,000 a month or do I try and get somewhere, put my horses in and get a trainer? And he told me he got a barn and 20 horses in there - so he had his ten and he got family and friends and a few other people to build it up. Now hes got 86 horses there in training and theyre looking for a good season. Yeah, maybe Id look at doing something similar. Its a long time away and Paul and me had never looked at the bigger picture. Im not counting my chickens and saying thats what were going to do, because theres a long way to go, but youve got to have a goal at the end and if you can get anywhere near what Michael Owens done . . . Austin trails off, silently contemplating what the future might bring. There is, of course, an enormous gulf between having a handful of horses and the Group 1 set-up Owen has up in Cheshire. But then again, theres a enormous gulf, too, between humble Hungerford Town and the bright lights of the Premier League.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 19:08:47 +0000