When the one-time boy wonder of English football retired in May, the reason offered was an inability to play at an acceptable level.

In Melbourne on Sunday, Michael Owen revealed another, far more important reason for hanging up the boots that had made him one of the greatest players in soccer's greatest league.

Owen gave football away so he could watch his horse Brown Panther run in the Melbourne Cup.

"I retired three or four months ago so I could get to events like this, so I could enjoy Brown Panther and other horses I've got," Owen said.

It is also likely that his descent from football's stratosphere, chronic injuries and his failure to make the run-on XI at his final club Stoke City had something to do with it.

But as he watched Brown Panther in training for Tuesday's Cup, Owen, 33, was saying all the right things.

Brown Panther is the best of Owen's 90-or-so racehorses and he runs in the Cup as one of the live chances in the most open Cup in a decade.

Owen arrived announced himself to the football world in May 1997 when he scored on his debut for Liverpool.

In his first full Premier League season he became the League's top scorer, repeating the feat the following year and was Liverpool's top goal scorer for seven successive seasons.

Owen subsequently played for Real Madrid, Newcastle and Manchester United before finishing at Stoke.

It was during his second Premier League season at the age of 18 that he bought his first racehorse, and, as he says, "it's obviously snowballed since then."

"I own my own racing yard and I have about 90 horses," he said.

As he did in football, Owen moved quickly to the highest level in racing, a sport that he finds far more nerve wracking than playing for England.

"I never suffered with nerves throughout my football career," he said.

"When you're the one doing it you feel in control and almost have your destiny in your own hands.

"But at the races you say goodbye to the trainer and jockey and the horse trots off down to the start, you've got no control."

Brown Panther is clearly Owen's best horse and he has the satisfaction of having bred the son of Shirocco.

A winner at Royal Ascot as a three-year-old by six lengths and of the Group Two Goodwood Cup two runs back, Brown Panther's racetrack earnings of a mere $486,000 shows the attraction in sending a horse across the world to run in a race worth $6 million.

"My horse has travelled well, he only lost about seven kilograms on the flight," Owen said.

"He's travelled well, he's eaten well and training well. The biggest thing is whether he's good enough."