'I needed a good year - I'd have been dead and buried otherwise'
Lambourn correspondent James Burn talks to the thriving trainer
Everyone knows the stresses associated with training racehorses, but the perils of the profession cannot be blamed for Owen Burrows' hair falling out.
"I was riding at Huntingdon one day and Gary Lyons, a jockey who was going bald, went round the changing room," the Lambourn trainer says.
"'Yeah, you'll be all right', he said to one lad, 'You will too, you're a bit dicey', and he got to me and goes, 'You're stuffed'. I didn't know what he was on about, I had masses of hair! He gave me a complex for a couple of years, but he was right and I was only 26 when I started shaving mine."
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Published on inInterviews
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- 'You can see why people end up struggling - when you're trying to pay the electric bill, losing one ride can be massive'
- 'I've never paid six figures for a horse and never will - I learned pretty quickly you're only one phone call away from f*** all'
- 'I’ve trained some fabulous horses, worked with some excellent riders - maybe I have brought a little bit of talent to the table as well'
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- 'He must have his breakfast earlier than Willie does' - Patrick Mullins goes behind enemy lines at Gordon Elliott's yard