Deepone made the most of his experience and sharpened his profile as a Two Thousand Guineas (G1) contender with victory in the Sept. 23 Beresford Stakes (G2) at the Curragh.
The Beresford is the first of seven races in the “European Road to the Kentucky Derby” series, awarding points to the top five finishers on a 10-5-3-2-1 basis. Deepone is considered far more likely to pursue the Irish Two Thousand Guineas on May 4 over the Kentucky Derby (G1) on the same date.
A son of Study Of Man , Deepone won his first two starts before being touched off in a Tipperary Listed race, but he was a shade disappointing when fourth to Diego Velazquez in the Champion Juvenile (G2) at Leopardstown two weeks ago.
On both occasions, he had raced keenly when dropped in behind, but this time the decision was taken to let him bowl along in front and rider Billy Lee got his fractions spot on.
The Paddy Twomey-trained colt, who was the only runner in the race to have run in stakes company previously, hardly saw another rival in scoring by 1 3/4 lengths going one mile.
While Deepone holds an entry in next year’s Irish Two Thousand Guineas there will be no more racing for him this year.
Twomey said: “He’s a nice horse and a horse whose been progressive all year. Things just didn’t go right for him last time at Leopardstown, but he came out of the race very well.
“He’s a strong traveller and he finds plenty. I think he’ll be a mile-and-a-quarter to a mile-and-a-half horse next year.”
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