Brown Panther has sparked dreams of Ascot Gold Cup glory and a return trip to Australia after downing favourite Hillstar to win the Ormonde Stakes at Chester.

Former English striker Michael Owen bred Brown Panther who won a 2400m race at Royal Ascot three years ago and finished eighth in the 2013 Melbourne Cup.

Richard Kingscote was able to track the pace early on before kicking clear with three furlongs (600m) to run and the 6-4 chance drew the sting out of Sir Michael Stoute's King Edward VII winner Hillstar, winning by 2-1/4 lengths.

Sandown's Henry II Stakes is likely next before a return to the Royal meeting.

"He seems to get me out of trouble often," trainer Tom Dascombe said.

"I think I'd had about 50 runners without a winner. They'd all been running really well but we couldn't get one past the line. Anyway, he's done it so that was great.

"He travelled beautifully, he got a good lead and settled well. I was pretty confident most of the way round.

"He's got a little cut, we'll get it looked at but I don't think it's a serious problem.

"He's an honest horse and he's getting easier to train. He's been buzzing at home."

Owen said it was a thrill to win at Chester which is the local track for Dascombe.

"We mapped out the Ascot Gold Cup as the big early-season target and we thought we might as well come to Chester first," he said.

"Everyone knows our love of the track and it's our part of the world.

"We'll think about Melbourne again and Champions Day also comes into the equation with a Group Two race, but we'll get the first half of the season out of the way first."

The Ormonde Stakes was run without Melbourne Cup third placegetter Mount Athos who was withdrawn because of the soft ground.