Foundation, Deauville meet again in Racing Post Trophy

The 2-year-olds Foundation and Deauville might be stuck racing against each other for a while.

They were first and second in the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket Racecourse in England on Sept. 26 in their first meeting and are the first two choices with many bookmakers for the English Derby in June.

For their expected final starts of the year, Foundation and Deauville are the top two choices in Saturday’s Group 1 Racing Post Trophy for 2-year-old colts and fillies at Doncaster Racecourse. Geldings are excluded from the race.

Foundation and Deauville were separated by three-quarters of a length in the Royal Lodge Stakes at a mile, the same distance as the $302,800 Racing Post Trophy, which drew a field of seven.

Foundation, a colt by Zoffany owned by the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing partnership, is unbeaten in three starts for trainer John Gosden. Frankie Dettori will ride Foundation, who was even-money in future-book betting on Thursday for Saturday’s race.

Deauville, by Galileo, is one of three runners in the field trained by Aidan O’Brien, along with Johannes Vermeer, who was fourth in the Group 1 Jean Luc-Lagardere Stakes at Longchamp in Paris on Oct. 4, and Port Douglas, the winner of the Group 2 Beresford Stakes at The Curragh in Ireland on Sept. 27.

Of the other runners, there is likely to be support for Mengli Khan, a maiden-race winner at Nottingham for trainer Hugo Palmer on Oct. 7.