THE popular view seems to be that Brown Panther (42) stole the Irish St Leger thanks to a clever ride from Richard Kingscote.

Sectional times suggest he won by a street simply because he was much the best horse in the race.

The pace that Eye Of the Storm set from Brown Panther was not slow. In fact it was so fast it caused the winner to run the final four and five furlongs slower than they went in either the mile and a half handicap or the Group 2 Blandford Stakes.

The time Brown Panther ran from a point just after the mile and a half start was 1.39 seconds faster than they went in the handicap over that distance. The time he clocked from a point just after the 10-furlong start was only 0.6 of a second slower than the Group 2 winner ran over that trip.

Looking back at Brown Panther’s record I see that he’s run unplaced on the three occasions he’s raced on ground where the word ‘heavy’ has featured in the official going description (in the German Derby, French St Leger and Ormonde Stakes).

Ignore those three runs and he has a spectacular record when fresh. He has in fact won all seven times he’s run 12-furlongs plus on his first two starts off a six-month break and with six-week plus breaks thereafter.