Wayne Rooney has become the latest English soccer star to get involved in horse racing after splashing out an estimated $156,000 on two colts.
The England and Manchester United striker hired top trainer Tom Dascombe to look after the horses, after the trainer led Rooney's England teammate Michael Owen's stable star Brown Panther to victory at Royal Ascot earlier this year.
Rooney, 26, named his 2-year-old colt Tomway, after his father — whose full name is Thomas Wayne Rooney — and chose the jockey silk colors pink and white.
The other horse, a yearling colt, has not yet been named. It is thought Rooney bought the animal as a present for his wife Coleen, who is regularly pictured attending horse racing events.
"I'm really excited to have a horse at Manor House Stables," Rooney told the Racing Post. "Michael showed me and my family around last month, and I was very impressed with the facilities and with Tom Dascombe.
"Let's hope mine turns out as good as Michael's good horse Brown Panther."
Owen, who is part-owner of Manor House Stables in Malpas, northern England, where Rooney's horses will be kept, wrote on Twitter, "Unbelievable interest in @Wayne Rooney new horse."
On Sunday, Rooney scored in the first minute of Manchester United's 2-0 victory over Queen's Park Rangers. He became the first English Premier League player to score in the first minute of a game three times in his career.
