Owen: 'I feel safe on the horse, as long as he doesn't do something stupid'

That's the great thing about families: you can always rely on them. No matter how parlous the circumstances, they can always be counted on. What they can be counted on for, however, is an entirely different matter, as Michael Owen found out when he announced he was going to learn to race-ride and become a jockey for a day in the name of charity.

He may have been expecting solidarity, even compassion, support or empathy, but what he got in the lead-up to Friday's seven-furlong test at Ascot in aid of The Prince's Countryside Fund was something rather different.

"My mum was fuming at me but now has reluctantly accepted she'll have to go through the worst two minutes of her life," explains the whole-hearted 37-year-old, used to a more positive reaction to his sporting exploits.