Brown Panther has been ruled out of Sunday’s Irish St Leger at the Curragh with illness but the Melbourne Cup is still a hope if he recovers in the next few days.
Owned and bred by former English football great Michael Owen and trained by Tom Dascombe, the five-year-old spiked a temperature on Thursday.
He failed to eat anything during the entire day and Dascombe had no choice but to rule his Goodwood Cup winner out of a trip to Ireland this weekend.
“Unfortunately, he won’t be running on Sunday,” Dascombe said.
“We’ve had him out for a canter this morning and he seems fine, but he didn’t eat for some reason and we can’t take any chances.
“It’s disappointing, but these things happen. Things could be worse, we’ve still got a horse left and we’ll just have to see how long it takes him to recover and aim for something else.
“He’s in the staying race at Ascot on Champions Day (October 19) and the Melbourne Cup and both are still options for him.
“If he is going to go to Australia, he doesn’t have to go into quarantine until September 26, so we’ve got a few days for him to recover.”
