A specialist over long distances he was ideally suited by soft ground on which he won the 1987 Ascot Gold Cup by a modern record margin of fifteen lengths.
Paean was a bay horse with a large white star bred and owned by John Scott-Ellis, 9th Baron Howard de Walden a prominent member of the Jockey Club.
Paean was one of the best horses sired by Bustino, who won 1973 St Leger and the 1974 Coronation Cup as well as finishing second to Grundy in a famous race for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Paean's dam Mixed Applause also produced the St James's Palace Stakes winner Shavian and, as a descendant of the broodmare My Game, was closely related to Marwell, Marling, Unite and Be My Chief.
On his final appearance of the season he faced slightly better opposition in the George Stubbs Stakes over two miles at Newmarket Racecourse on 31 October[5] and won by half a length from Rosedale, a colt who had finished second in the St. Leger Italiano.
On the morning of the race however, the stable jockey Steve Cauthen, deciding that Bonhomie would be unsuited by the unusually soft ground, deserted the colt to take the ride on Paean.
[7] In their book A Century of Champions, based on a modified version of the Timeform system, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Paean as a "poor" winner of the Gold Cup.