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Brown Panther will go straight to Melbourne Cup

Brown Panther was an impressive winner of the Goodwood Cup
Brown Panther was an impressive winner of the Goodwood Cup

Brown Panther will not have a prep run in Australia before the Melbourne Cup at Flemington on 5 November.

An impressive winner of the Goodwood Cup before being forced to miss the Irish St Leger with a temperature, the five-year-old ran a perfectly satisfactory race when fifth over an inadequate ten furlongs in a Goodwood Listed race late last month.

Tom Dascombe's inmate, who is jointly-owned by Michael Owen, will make the trip to Australia next Thursday, but will not have an outing before the main event.

Dascombe said: "He's in Newmarket (in quarantine) at the moment. He worked yesterday, everything went very well, and his flight is booked for a week today.

"He won't be having a run beforehand once he gets to Australia, he'll be going straight for the big race."

"He worked yesterday, everything went very well" - Tom Dascombe

The Cheshire handler also confirmed stable jockey Richard Kingscote, who was replaced by Kieren Fallon on Brown Panther for a brief period before regaining the ride, will be on board in Melbourne.

Dascombe said: "Richard (Kingscote) is going out to ride him and I'll go out a week before the race.

"We're all looking forward to it."

Kerrin McEvoy will partner the Willie Mullins-trained Simenon when he makes his Australian debut at Caulfield on Saturday.

Runner-up in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot before narrowly beaten in the Lonsdale Cup at York, the six-year-old last month made the journey to Australia in the hope of getting a run in the Melbourne Cup.

As he is not guaranteed a starting berth, Simenon lines up in the Herbert Power Stakes over a mile and half in the hope of getting the penalty that is likely to get him into the race.

McEvoy, who enjoyed a successful stint in Europe for Sheikh Mohammed's operation before relocating to his homeland, will be chasing back-to-back wins in the Herbert Power after guiding Alain de Royer-Dupre's French raider Shahwardi to victory 12 months ago.

The jockey told www.news.com.au: "You can't put them all in the same box, they are different horses.

"The French train a little bit differently to the Irish and Shahwardi had a bit of ping in him when he got here.

"I'll have to see if Simenon has the zip to be competitive over a mile and a half and we won't know that until the day."

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