3 minute read
Paddy Twomey added his name to the Alan Smurfit Memorial Beresford Stakes trophy roll of honours list when Deepone stretched nicely clear under Billy Lee.
In a race dominated by Aidan O'Brien in recent decades, once again the master of Ballydoyle looked to hold a strong hand saddling three of the six contenders as he bid for a remarkable twenty-second victory in the Group 2 prize.
The Paddy Twomey-trained colt was sent off just 3/1 to lower the colours of the O'Brien runners though having produced a fine effort in defeat when fourth behind Diego Velazquez in the Group 2 KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes at Leopardstown at the beginning of the month.
Billy Lee made his intention clear from the outset, allowing the son of Study Of Man to stride into an early advantage exiting the stalls and with two furlongs left to race, he seemingly had plenty of his rivals in trouble as he stretched five lengths clear.
The pack began to close but the damage was done and Paddy Twomey's charge was a comfortable three-quarters of a length clear of a running on Chief Little Rock back in second. Grosvenor Square finished just behind in third with Frankie Dettori's mount, Navy Seal, only managing to finish fourth.
"He's a nice horse, he's been a work in progress, and we've been educating him," said Twomey.
"I felt he had come out of the last race in great form. I said to Billy that I was going to run him again and he kind of looked at me, but I said I felt he was in good form.
"He's a strong traveller and he finds plenty, I think he's a mile-and-a-quarter or mile-and-a-half horse next year.
"Hopefully for Vimal [Khosla, owner] he's a Derby horse for next year and that'll be it for this year now.
"I've been dropping him in on turning tracks and there was plenty of traffic. I said to Billy 'no nonsense today, get out there and let's go and see if they are good enough'.
"He put them to the sword, and I think he's a good horse."
Paddy Power cut the winner from 33/1 to 20/1 for next year's 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.
