In the following year he took time to reproduce his best form but emerged as the best sprinter in Europe with decisive wins in the Nunthorpe Stakes and Prix de l'Abbaye.
Deep Diver was a strongly-built chestnut horse with a narrow white stripe[1] bred at the Victor Stud in County Tipperary by George Harris.
Deep Diver's dam Miss Stephen never raced, but was a successful broodmare who also produced the Irish 2,000 Guineas winner King's Company.
[3] As a yearling, Deep Diver was sent to the sales in where he was bought for 8,400 guineas by Lord Harrington acting on behalf of the businessman and philanthropist David Robinson.
[4] In the previous year, Robinson and Davey had dominated the major French two-year-old races with My Swallow and in late summer they attempted to repeat the feat with Deep Diver.
In July at Maisons-Laffitte Racecourse he contested the Group One Prix Robert Papin over 1100m but finished second to the Dick Hern-trained Sun Prince.
On his only start in the early part of the year he finished second to the five-year-old Shiny Tenth in the Palace House Stakes over five furlongs at Newmarket.
[4] At York Racecourse in August, Deep Diver faced a field which included Stilvi, Rose Dubarry and the July Cup winner Parsimony in the Nunthorpe Stakes.
[2] At the end of his three-year-old season, Deep Diver was sold for £400,000 to John Magnier[11] and was retired to become a breeding stallion at the Castle Hyde stud in Ireland.