Pontefract ‘rehearsal’ helpful as Brown Panther charges clear

It was the horse’s first triumph since landing the King George V Stakes at the Royal meeting, though Brown Panther was a creditable second to Masked Marvel in Doncaster’s St Leger.

Owen, who would have hoped to have been part of the England team in Euro 2012 quarter-final action last night, was instead at Pontefract to watch the horse pull remorselessly clear of a select four-runner field under Kieren Fallon.

It was fitting that a quality race should also have been rewarded by a massive crowd at Pontefract.

“We’ve got a lot of faith in him and we know he’s a top-class horse,” said Owen, who was recently released by Manchester United.

“We were beginning to scratch our heads as it (Chester) was the second time that he’d disappointed first time out. He also disappointed first time out at Kempton last year.

“We had a little two-week period around the Chester May meeting where a couple of our horses were running flat, so we had put it down to that.”

The horse is trained in Cheshire by Tom Dascombe, who took the horse to Pontefract recently for a confidence-boosting racecourse gallop.

“It’s nice to see him back in business. Tom brought him here for a racecourse gallop a couple of weeks ago,” added Owen.

“Kieren said the horse felt back to his best. He’ll probably be better on better ground but he handles softer ground better than most as well. We’re back on track and we’ll have to try and look through the programme book to aim a bit higher.”