London, England: Royal Ascot will miss the star quality of Dubai Gold Cup (G2) winner Brown Panther after Michael Owen’s globe-trotting stable star was ruled out of the five-day extravaganza that starts on Tuesday.
The seven-year-old, who suffered an injury on Saturday morning, was a leading contender for the Group 1 Gold Cup, the oldest and one of the most prestigious races at the meeting.
Owner/breeder Owen tweeted: “Absolutely gutted to announce that Brown Panther injured his near-fore leg this morning and is out of the Ascot Gold Cup.”
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph earlier on Saturday, England’s fifth-leading goalscorer of all time recalled the journey he has been on with Brown Panther.
“He has helped on all fronts and taken me to places you can only dream of,” said Owen, speaking from his Manor House Stables in Cheshire.
“If you look at the great racehorses in the last few years, I couldn’t pick one I’d want to own more than him. Yes, there’s been better ones, but not many have travelled as far, won so many races and been such a flag bearer for a yard.”
Brown Panther had won at Ascot before — the King George V Stakes in 2011 — and Owen, then a Manchester United footballer, was able to be there and enjoy the moment.
But, since retirement, he says being a racehorse owner has turned his life upside down. A world of globe-spanning adventures now available to him and his wonder horse.
Owen said with childish excitement: “Brown Panther has not only taught me a lot, but he has enabled me to tour the world and be part of great events, the Melbourne Cup, Breeders’ Cup in America, big races in Canada, France and Germany.
“When you follow a horse around the world, all the great trainers and jockeys are all there, you spend an evening with them, have a meal, a drink, a chat on the plane. You’re part of that racing fraternity. He’s one in a million and I can’t bear to think of life when he’s gone and not racing any more. It’s going to leave a massive hole in our lives.”
Although Brown Panther has reached the fairly advanced age for a Flat racer of seven, his two biggest victories have been within the past 12 months, including a first at Group One level in the Irish St Leger.
The Gold Cup is the most famous of next week’s great prizes and last year all eyes were on Estimate, who was attempting to defend her title after an emotional triumph for the Queen in 2013. Around the final bend, it appeared the race was in Brown Panther’s bag before he tired and finished fourth.
“Royal Ascot was always something I could manage to get to, in my previous career there were certain dates you could always make, and Royal Ascot sits perfectly with the footballers as you get about a month off or six weeks off in the summer,” he said.
“It’s everything you expect in Flat racing, the best horses, a perfect time of year, the atmosphere about the place, the people are dressed up and having a drink, it’s everything that’s good about racing for me.”
If the Gold Cup was one ambition, a return to Australia is certainly another.
Owen says he was overwhelmed by watching Brown Panther in the 2013 Melbourne Cup. His horse finished eighth having been lucky to escape serious injury when getting a cut on a leg during the race, but it was the spectacle that grabbed Owen.
“That was just off the scale in terms of the preparation, the whole day and the way you are looked after. They have this amazing parade a day or two before the race, whereby tens of thousands of people just come out and line the streets.”
Something not even Anfield or Wembley could offer?
“The owners, trainers and jockeys just sit in a convertible car, 20 cars go along very slowly, and you wave. It sounds very basic and you’d wonder why anyone would turn up, but it just grabs the nation. Then there’s a big stage at the end where everyone gets on, you almost do an interview to a mass live audience.”
That race could be on the agenda again although a specific plan has not been made.
Owen’s passion for his horse was there for all to see when he was dealt a sad blow when Brown Panther’s mother, Treble Heights, died in foal last year. He quickly tracked down and bought her half-sister, Extreme Pleasure, from Ireland and is continuing the lineage by breeding from her at Manor House.
The stables were created from scratch by the 35-year-old in the middle of his football career, with Tom Dascombe installed as trainer and investment added by the Betfair founder Andrew Black.
Brown Panther’s success has partly been a tool to promote the business, and he might be of use to Owen in a different way in the future when he becomes a stallion.
— The Daily Telegraph
