Brown Panther pounces in Goodwood Cup, aims for Melbourne

Tom Dascombe has taken a leaf out of the book of his jump racing colleagues

with his handling of Brown Panther this season, with Thursday's Group 2 Goodwood

Cup the second leg of a four-race plan, and the son of Shirocco responded by

rolling to a 3 1/2-length decision. Godolphin's Ahzeemah took runner-up honors

from German raider Altano.

Brown Panther's Glorious Goodwood success followed a successful title defense

in the June 23 Pontefract Castle Stakes in his reappearance. Next on the

five-year-old's agenda are the September 15 Irish St Leger, in which he was a

near-miss third last year, and then the November 5 Melbourne Cup.

"We perhaps haven't done as well as we should with him since he won at Royal

Ascot at three," Dascombe said, referring to his six-length rout of a 12-furlong

handicap. "So we've decided to be careful and pick just a few targets in a

season, and make absolutely sure we get him right for each one, like the

National Hunt boys do, and it seems to be working.

"Just four races this year is the plan, with the Melbourne Cup the final aim,

though obviously it's one step at a time. This race was very much the plan as

his first prestige target and now we can press on from here. And the horse has

been helping us because he's maturing all the time."

"The step up to two miles helped," winning rider Richard Kingscote said, "and

I was really confident that he would love the track.

"It was a genuine pace and turning for home I was actually pretty confident.

I wanted to keep him up there because I didn't want to be caught for toe -- he

likes to be involved in a race early and then grind it out.

"He's become more straightforward to ride as he's got older," Kingscote

added. "When he was younger he could be a bit quirky. He's a horse who likes a

race to go his own way, if there's a sprint to the line and he gets left, he

loses interest.

"I was delighted after the first couple of furlongs to get a lead and I was

just a question of enjoying it for the next mile. He likes to be put into a race

early so he can boss it a bit and once he saw the gap today and put his head

through it he just took off."

Brown Panther was bred by retired English soccer star Michael Owen, who

co-owns the stayer in partnership with Andrew Black.

"There's a lot of heritage in this race and it's a fabulous race to win,"

Owen said. "It's my first time at Glorious Goodwood -- it's always been the

football season and I was normally in America or Hong Kong doing the pre-season

tours. It's my first chance to get here and it's a real honor to have a horse

that is so good and to win such a good race.

"He is full of stamina and we didn't want it to be a dawdle. Hence we were up

there in the box seat in case there was no pace. Thankfully, the leader has done

us a big favor and given us a nice lead.

"Brown Panther has galloped all the way to the line and it's a great training

performance by Tom Dascombe and a great ride by Richard Kingscote. There are

loads of people behind the scenes but a big thank you to Andy Jackson, our head

lad who rides him every day -- he said that we had never had this horse better

leading up to this race. It was a relief when he came up trumps."

Brown Panther was the opening act of a Glorious double for his sire Shirocco.

One race later on the card, Shirocco's daughter Wild Coco landed the Group 3

Lillie Langtry (aka Blackrock Fillies' Stakes) for a second consecutive year.

Formerly trained by the late Sir Henry Cecil, the five-year-old mare was giving

Lady Cecil her first Goodwood winner.

Wild Coco was having her first start since being bought by the Japanese-based

K I Farm for 985,000 guineas at Tattersalls in December. Last seen capturing the

Park Hill at Doncaster in September, she stormed 2 1/2 lengths clear of

sophomore filly Elik to open 2013 in style.

"She has been off the track a long time," jockey Tom Queally said, "but we

have been waiting for the ground and thankfully it's very, very safe. She

wouldn't necessarily want it any quicker but I was saying to Jane (Lady Cecil)

and (her sister) Sally beforehand that I wanted to keep her on the bridle for as

long as possible.

"She traveled through the race with conviction and luckily I was able to hold

her together and she did it well in the end. Even it cost me some ground going

around the others, I wanted to keep her on an even keel.

"She went on to win well at Doncaster after here last year and, at the back

our minds, we were hoping that she could be competitive in Group 1 races, given

the opportunity and the ground. The ground is the key to her.

"We needed to get her out and it's been a very pleasing day," Queally summed

up. "I hope she now goes on to better things. The owners paid a pretty penny for

her and she paid dividends today."

"It's been very frustrating this year that she has been ready to run a couple

of times," Lady Cecil noted, "but the ground had gone against her. She is quite

delicate so we have to look after her.

"Henry always loved her and when the owners paid all that money he thought it

was worth keeping going with her.

"The hope is to try and win a Group 1 with her, and the Yorkshire Oaks (on

August 22) is the obvious place to go but that will be dependent on the ground."

In the Group 2 Richmond Stakes for juveniles, the William Haggas-trained

Saayerr bounced back from a disappointing eighth in the Norfolk Stakes at Royal

Ascot to defeat Cable Bay by a neck. The top two drew 2 1/4 lengths ahead of

Thunder Strike back in third.

"I think that the step a furlong helped him," jockey Ryan Moore said of

Saayerr, "but five furlongs at Ascot is not a massive difference to six furlongs

here.

"The race panned out quite well for him. They didn't go mad for the first two

furlongs but I got a nice tow into the race for a good part of the race. Jamie's

horse (Spencer on Cable Bay) came on the outside but my horse found a bit more

and just did enough."

"He stayed on well," said Maureen Haggas, the trainer's wife. "William has

always really loved him and he ran well at Ascot but not quite well enough. It

was a bit disappointing that he wasn't closer but it's great that he has won a

nice race.

"He's always been one of William's favorite two-year-olds. We liked him since

we got him at the sales and he's a real, solid professional two-year-old. I

think that six furlongs is his trip, but his next race is William's department

really."

A son of Acclamation, Saayerr was purchased for $152,306 as a Tattersalls

October yearling. He won his first two starts -- a Salisbury maiden and a

Windsor novice -- before venturing up in class at Royal Ascot.

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