Tom Dascombe is still expecting to send Brown Panther for the St Leger at Doncaster without giving him a run beforehand.
The three-year-old, owned by Manchester United forward Michael Owen, was so impressive in the King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot that connections decided to shoot for Classic glory in the German Derby.
Although beaten into fifth having been sent off favourite, Brown Panther was far from disgraced as he cut out much of the running in bottomless ground.
Another Classic tilt on Town Moor in September is very much on the cards and the only decision connections need to make is whether to run him in next month’s Great Voltigeur Stakes – a recognised St Leger trial – first.
“You never know what is going to happen. He’s fine in himself and we’ll see. He’s in the Voltigeur but I think it’s highly unlikely that he’ll run there. I think we’ll go straight for the St Leger,” Dascombe told At The Races.
“We’re getting towards the end of his three-year-old career. There are only two obvious races for him and we either take them both in or we leave him for one.
“He’s had a hard year really. He didn’t run until Southwell in November and he was in training all winter.
“We wanted to give him a run before Chester, which was obviously one of the main aims with Chester being our local track and it’s Michael’s favourite racecourse.
“The two priorities were really Chester and Royal Ascot and obviously, that was great.
“I think really we were just caught out by the depth of the ground (in Germany).
“Richard’s (Kingscote) instructions were to bounce him out and make sure he kept his position down the rail. We didn’t want to be starting out the back.
“He jumped positive and nothing came, but I don’t mind the horses being in front.
“At the end of the day the horse did his best and was beaten four lengths in a Group One.
“It was pretty heartbreaking in the last 50 yards to get done for third, but it’s a horse race. It doesn’t mean the horse is bad, he just got beat.”
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