Deepone takes foray into Listed waters at Tipperary
Deepone will put his unbeaten record on the line when he lines up in the Coolmore Stud Churchill Stakes at Tipperary on Friday.
Paddy Twomey’s youngster has created a deep impression in his two outings so far, excelling at Leopardstown on debut, before further enhancing his reputation with a comfortable success over a mile at Killarney.
The son of Study Of Man will now make his first foray into Pattern company with his handler unable to fault what he has seen from the colt in his short career so far.
“He’s a nice horse and he’s answered every question we’ve asked of him to date,” said Twomey.
“Tomorrow is the next step of his education and hopefully he can continue in the same sort of form.
“He’s been an uncomplicated horse and everything we have asked he has done it. We think he will make a nice three-year-old and we’re just taking the steps and educating him at the minute.”
The O’Brien family is well represented in the Listed contest and Donnacha O’Brien’s Bremen is another to impress when winning over a mile at Killarney, while Joseph O’Brien will rely on Warnie who looked equally as talented when breaking his maiden at Bellewstown.
The Highland Reel colt was beaten only three lengths when making his debut in the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Owning Hill handler believes his charge is more than capable of playing a part in this company.
He said: “He won nicely at Bellewstown and the race has worked out well. We think he is a smart enough colt and he can be competitive in this grade.
“The owners are Australian-based so it was nice they could be there to watch him make his debut at Ascot which was lovely and he came back and won well next time.”
Aidan O’Brien has a good record in this event and has won it with the likes of St Leger hero Capri in the past.
This time he saddles both Leopardstown scorer Brilliant and Democracy, while Dermot Weld’s Captain Maverick was behind Warnie at Bellewstown on debut before getting off the mark at Galway and is an interesting contender for the Rosewell House handler.
Adrian Murray’s Courageous Strike completes the select group of seven that will head to post.
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