Owen hoping Wimbledon Hawkeye serves up a win
Published 1:34 pm Sunday, August 24, 2025
Trainer James Owen’s team of Ryan King (from left), Owen, Ciaran O’Shea and James Doyle celebrate after Wimbledon Hawkeye gave the stable its first group win in last year’s Group 2 Juddmonte Royal Lodge at Newmarket. (COURTESY)
FRANKLIN – Britain’s James Owen has accomplished a lot in his young training career, winning important races over jumps, on the flat and with Arabian horses. Now he’s taking a huge step with his first American runner as Wimbledon Hawkeye competes in Saturday’s $3.5 million DK Horse Nashville Derby Invitational at Kentucky Downs.
Owen, a former amateur rider, is in his third full season of training thoroughbreds racing on the flat, along with jumpers and Arabians in a stable exceeding 100 horses.
“We have a great team built up,” he said recently from England via WhatsApp. “It’s going great. I had a runner in the (Epsom) Derby this year. I had a runner in the Guineas. But to come over with a live chance in a foreign country in one of their best races is fantastic.
“(Wimbledon Hawkeye) backs up his runs. He’s been very solid and consistent. He’s a very sound athletic horse; he could be ridden in any kind of way. I think he ticks a lot of the boxes. I don’t know what boxes you’ve got to tick, but I have no worries about him traveling. He eats every night. He trains every day. He’s not flashy. He just does his job. If I told him he was coming, he’d be looking forward to it.”
The Grade 3 Nashville Derby, even without the $1.5 million purse enhancement reserved for Kentucky-bred horses, is America’s richest turf race outside the Breeders’ Cup. The full $3.5 million provides the opportunity for the stakes to pay off as the second-richest race held at one track in America behind only the $5 million Kentucky Derby. Just its $2 million base purse matches that of the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
Entries will be taken Monday for the 1 5/16-mile Nashville Derby, one of five stakes on Saturday’s card. NBC will broadcast live the Nashville Derby, along with the $2 million Never Say Die Ladies Turf Sprint (G2) and the $2.5 million The Mint Kentucky Turf Sprint (G2), in a 3-5 p.m. CT show originating at the track.
Kentucky Downs’ all-turf meet runs this Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Sept. 4, 6, 7 and 10.
Wimbledon Hawkeye — who races in the name of The Gredley Family, headed by the father-son duo of Bill and Tim Gredley — won Newmarket’s Group 2 Juddmonte Royal Lodge last fall, followed by a third in the Group 1 William Hill Futurity Trophy Stakes at Doncaster. The colt dropped a nose decision in his last start, a Group 2 race at Goodwood, whose up-and-down configuration should make Wimbledon Hawkeye feel right at home at Kentucky Downs.
“He coped with Goodwood very well last time out, when he just got beat in the Gordon Stakes,” Owen said. “So it’s hugely exciting for me and my team. We haven’t been training long. We’ve had a couple of Arabians run in Europe, but this will be our first international runner. The horse is going to come over with a massive chance. He was a very good 2-year-old, winning the Royal Lodge, my first group winner on the flat. He’s unfortunate not to have that win on board (this year), but he’s been very solid and run very well, picked up prize money everywhere he’s run.”
Owen noted that last year’s British-based Nashville Derby winner Bellum Justum also was runner-up in the Gordon Stakes. International star Frankie Dettori — whose eight wins during his first Kentucky Downs meet last year included the Nashville Derby on Bellum Justum — will ride Wimbledon Hawkeye on Saturday.
“I think that’s why we’re quite keen for Wimbledon to do it,” Owen said. “We’ve always been looking to travel with Wimbledon Hawkeye. When we got invited, we were like, ‘Oh yeah. This is ideal.’ It’s a fantastic purse. His owner is looking forward to going over there. They have a long association with Frankie Dettori, Tim’s good friend, and Frankie has ridden a lot of winners for the family. So it’s lovely to get Frankie on board. He’s going to know a lot more than we are, so I’m sure he can point us in the right direction.”
In five starts this year, Wimbledon Hawkeye has three seconds and a third. He also was a close fifth in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. Distance will not be a problem; the colt’s last three races have all been at 1 1/2 miles.
“He’s not ground-dependent as well,” Owen said of the firmness or softness of a course. “Fingers crossed, he’s got a good profile for the race. He’s got a very good mind, too. It’s going to be great.”
Wimbledon Hawkeye is from the first crop of the Kitten’s Joy stallion and $530,828-earner Kameko, who was bred by Calumet Farm. Kameko was the beaten favorite in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) at Keeneland before retiring to stud in England. As a British-bred, Wimbledon Hawkeye is not eligible for the Kentucky-bred purse supplements in the Nashville Derby’s $3.5 million purse. He still, however, will compete for $2 million.
“This is definitely the biggest purse he’ll run for,” Owen said. “It’s still a lot of money.”
The European horses are clearing quarantine at Churchill Downs’ Kentucky Import Center in Louisville. Wimbledon Hawkeye was among five European-based horses going out for light training Sunday morning underneath the Twin Spires. The others: Khaadem (back in the Turf Sprint after finishing second last year), Cheshire Dancer (Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf), Lady Ilze (Ladies Turf) and Flatten the Curve (Bowling Green Gold Cup).
Wimbledon Hawkeye was accompanied on the trip by Owen assistant trainer Ryan King, with Laura Pearson, a jockey in the United Kingdom, riding the colt in training.
King said Wimbledon Hawkeye is an unassuming horse in the stall but seems to grow after he’s tacked up. “When he goes to the races, boy, does he come alive,” he said.
King said the stable had 60 horses when he started with Owen.
“We just acquired a new yard in Newmarket now and we’re up to about 150 horses,” he said. “Very exciting. Hopefully we’re on to bigger and better horses now, so we’ll start climbing up the ladder. Stuff like this is great.”
Tennis enthusiasts will understand the colt’s name, with the Hawk-Eye technology system used at Wimbledon to enhance officiating and for ball tracking.
