Brown Panther

Brown Panther (3 March 2008 – 13 September 2015) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse. During a racing career which lasted from November 2010 until September 2014 he won eleven of his twenty-eight races and competed in seven countries, namely Britain, Germany, Ireland, France, Australia, the US and the UAE: he would have raced in an eighth, Canada, but bolted before the start of the Canadian International Stakes. He attracted media attention both because of his racing achievements and because he was bred and owned by the England footballer Michael Owen.

After winning his only race as a two-year-old he won two minor races in the spring of 2011 before recording his first notable success in the King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot and went on to finish second in the St Leger. In 2012 he won the Pontefract Castle Stakes and finished a close third in the Irish St. Leger. As a five-year-old he won a second Pontefract Castle Stakes and recorded his biggest win up to that time when winning the Goodwood Cup. In the following season he had his most successful campaign, winning the Ormonde Stakes, Henry II Stakes and Irish St. Leger. He recorded his final victory in the Dubai Gold Cup in March 2015. He was fatally injured in the Irish St. Leger on 13 September 2015.

Brown Panther was a bay horse with a small white star bred by Owen Promotions Ltd, a company owned by Michael Owen. Owen has said that his interest in horse racing came from his father, who placed a small combination bet every Saturday and allowed the 11-year-old Owen to choose one of the three horses involved.

He was sired by Shirocco who won four Group One races including the Breeders' Cup Turf and was voted German Horse of the Year. Apart from Brown Panther, Shirocco's most successful offspring has been the hurdler Annie Power. Brown Panther's dam Treble Heights was a successful racemare for Owen, winning the Listed Aphrodite Stakes and finished second in the Group Two Prix de Pomone in 2003. She was descended from Marie d'Ecosse, whose half-sister Glen Line was the dam of Our Babu and the Eclipse Stakes winner King of the Tudors.

Throughout his racing career, Brown Panther was owned by Michael Owen in partnership with Andrew Black (the co-founder of Betfair) and was trained at Malpas, Cheshire by Tom Dascombe.

Brown Panther made his racecourse debut in a maiden race over seven furlongs on the synthetic fibresand surface at Southwell Racecourse on 11 November 2010. Ridden as in most of his races by Richard Kingscote, he started at odds of 9/2 and took the lead in the last 50 yards to win by a length from Flying Power and eight others.

In the early part of 2011, Brown Panther competed in handicap races, beginning with a fourth place at Kempton Park Racecourse in April. He was then moved up in distance to 1+1⁄2 miles and won minor races at Chester and Haydock Park in May. In June he was sent to Royal Ascot and was made 4/1 joint favourite in an eighteen-runner field for the King George V Stakes. Carrying 125 pounds he raced behind the leaders before Kingscote sent him into the lead approaching the final turn. In the straight Brown Panther drew away from his opponents and won by six lengths despite being eased down by Kingscote in the final strides. After the race a visibly emotional Owen said "The problem with racing is you've got no control whatsoever. I don't get nervous playing football because I can do something about it. Racing, you're just in the lap of the Gods... I was screaming, steady on Richard, I was worried that we'd got there too soon".

Brown Panther was moved up in class to contest Group races in the second half of the year. In July he was sent to Germany and started favourite for the Deutsches Derby at Hamburg but after leading for most of the way he was overtaken in the last 400 metres and finished fifth behind Waldpark. In the following month he ran in the weight-for-age Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury Racecourse and finished second to Census, a colt he had beaten easily at Ascot. Kieren Fallon took over from Kingcote when the colt was one of nine three-year-olds to contest the classic St Leger over 14+1⁄2 furlongs at Doncaster Racecourse on 10 September. Commenting on the decision to replace Kingcote, Dascombe said "it was a tough decision, but on this occasion we've decided to go for a more experienced jockey... you don't get too many chances to win a Classic". After racing towards the rear of the field Brown Panther made steady progress in the straight and finished second to Masked Marvel with Sea Moon, Blue Bunting and Census among the other beaten horses.