Michael Owen has performed at many of the world’s grandest stadiums but he still took time to stand and stare at Santa Anita on Friday morning as he absorbed its vast grandstand and setting below the San Gabriel mountains for the first time. “It looks fabulous,” he said, after a slow turn to record a 360-degree video of one of the world’s most beautiful tracks. “I’d heard it was a great view, but I didn’t expect it to be so big and the stand to be so long.”
Owen does not really know what to expect when his horse Brown Panther takes to the turf on Saturday evening either. Brown Panther is the former footballer’s favourite horse, one of the first that he bred himself and also the first to win him a race at the sport’s highest level when he ran away with the Irish St Leger in September. He has been successful at Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood too.
His assignment in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, however, is different to anything that Brown Panther has tried before and he arrives in California after an unfortunate experience in Canada two weeks ago, when he got loose and bolted before the start of the Canadian International at Woodbine and had to be scratched from the race. Owen, who was making a flying visit in order to see Brown Panther compete, left disappointed.
“You don’t get on a flight to Canada for a few hours there if they’re not close to your heart,” Owen says. “I bred him myself and raced him throughout his career and he holds a very special place [for me]. You don’t often get a horse that can take you to places like this, so, when he does run, I’ve got to try to make the most of it.
“Those are the ups and downs of racing and you’ve got to take the downs to appreciate the ups. He just boiled over at the start and there’s different rules and regulations over here than there are at home. With the music playing and the trumpets going and parading after parading, he just boiled over. It was unfortunate but we lived to fight another day and it’s all erased now that we’re here and looking forward to the next one.
“I don’t know what to hope for really. We’re aiming high, I suppose, and it’s not his ideal trip and it’s quick ground, so the conditions aren’t really in his favour. But he’s classy and coming in on the back of a great win in the Irish St Leger. It’s such a huge event that we’ve got to give it a shot.”
Owen has become something of an ambassador for racing among the general sporting public and his interest in the sport, both personal and financial, continues to grow. “Everyone has their own likes and hobbies,” he says. “My job has been football all my life and that’s my hobby and profession too, but racing is my main hobby outside of football and it’s been a gradual buildup.
“I first started getting interested when I was 14 or 15 and it’s grown from there really. I took the plunge into owning horses and into Manor House Stables [in Cheshire, where Brown Panther is trained by Tom Dascombe] and developing it over the last 10 years. It’s become a business too, so it’s even more important that we do well and get the results. We started the season with just over 90 horses, so it’s growing quite well and hopefully it will continue to grow.”
Owen has been allowed a weekend off from his job as a football pundit with BT Sport to see his horse run in the Turf but, while the view from the stands is memorable, that will probably be all he brings back. The reality is that Brown Panther is more likely to finish last than first in a race that suits speed rather than stamina, never mind trouble a top-class 12-furlong horse such as Flintshire (10.22pm), the Arc runner-up.
Dank (7.43pm) should give Britain a winner in the Filly & Mare Turf, while Mustajeeb (11.40) has looked in excellent shape this week and can beat Toronado in the Mile.
The best may well be saved until last for British fans, however, as Toast Of New York (12.35am), in many ways the most unlikely horse Europe has ever sent to the Classic, has a much better chance than his price might suggest. He has the build and action of a horse who should act on dirt and form which puts him right in the mix already.
.png?w=600)
