By Will Lefebve

This veteran racing correspondent is beginning to wonder, seriously, if rookie trainer James Owen is so utterly brilliant at his job that he could walk on water, such is the continuing phenomenal success of his mixed bag of Flat racers and jumpers in 2024.

The 44-year-old new kid on the block - he saddled his first ‘real’ racecourse runner less than two years ago - was at it again on Sunday with a 13-1 twin strike on Plumpton’s opening card of the season, just five days after grabbing a Brighton flat race double.

A highly satisfactory 2,500 paying customers on Family Raceday enjoyed fine competitive action in humid conditions, and they celebrated two winners apiece for both Newmarket trainer Owen, and the tallest member of his profession, 6ft 5in Chipping Norton-based Charlie Longsdon.

Owen, regarded nowadays as Mr Versatile, landed successive races - in his absence - with Rogue King and Enthused, and now boasts an extraordinary record of 87 winners (plus 65 seconds) under both codes from 504 runners, an amazing strike-rate in such a competitive business.

Before taking out a full licence, Owen had speculated in pre-training and preparing Arab-breds from his Suffolk base (he was champion Arabian racing trainer five times) and, besides his current mixed string of nearly 40 inmates, for good measure he still looks after a handful of both Arab-breds and point-to-pointers.

Victory for odds-on Rogue King in the juvenile hurdle was achieved without jockey Sam Twiston-Davies breaking sweat - “STD” had earlier partnered father Nigel’s Dameofthecotswolds to an easy verdict in the opener - but punters had the pick of two Owen raiders in the 2m handicap hurdle, Enthused or Addosh.

And it was the longer-priced of the pair, 13-2 Enthused and stable amateur Alex Chadwick that came through powerfully to deny long time runaway pacemaker Carrigeen Kampala, with Owen’s other contender Addosh looking a certain future winner as she and Lilly Pinchin charged home fourth of the eight runners.

There was in fact a strong East Sussex flavour to the Owen raid because, while the trainer stayed away (perhaps he was in a swimming pool testing out my “walking-on-water theory!”) the two successful geldings were driven south and saddled by Eastbourne-raised Joe Akehurst.

“I worked down here for Gary Moore for five years and rode a few winners”, recalled Akehurst, now operating his own thriving equine transport business in Newmarket and regularly delivering racecourse runners for several HQ handlers.

Longsdon struck in the day’s final two races. First, Paul O’Brien drove Alien Storm to victory in the 4.20, before the talented Lilly Pinchin somehow miraculously survived a final jump howler in the finale on The Dark Edge, surrendering the lead briefly to eventual runner-up Greatness Awaits (it does!) as she nearly exited over her mount’s hindquarters. But “Lilly the Pink” kept her cool to regain the advantage for a decisive verdict.

The season’s leading conditional rider, teenager Freddie Gingell, clinched his 51st career success on his uncle Joe Tizzard’s Dorset raider Belgarum with a 21-length romp in the opener.