Dutch Connection reaches new heights

DUTCH CONNECTION (GB) - 2012 chestnut colt

Dubai Destination (by Kingmambo) was a high-class racehorse. He rounded off his juvenile season with a length defeat of the subsequent prolific Group 1 star Rock Of Gibraltar in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, and although runner-up in the Listed Predominate Stakes on his only start at three, he bounced back at four to beat Right Approach by four lengths in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

A $1,500,000 yearling whose siblings include the Group 1-winning miler Librettist (by Danzig), he made a promising start as a freshman sire when his son Ibn Khaldun won the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy. Since then he has continued to get stakes and pattern winners, but not of sufficient calibre and frequency to maintain a high level of interest in an ultra competitive flat market, and having spent his early years at Dalham Hall Stud, he is has been a dual-purpose sire at Glenview Stud since 2010.

Sometimes a well-bred stallion who fails to hit the top as a sire of racehorses can become a broodmare sire of note, and Dubai Destination is excelling in that area. His daughters have come up with the Derby, Arc, Coral-Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes hero Golden Horn (by Cape Cross), with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Dubai Sheema Classic and Coronation Cup star Postponed (by Dubawi), and a string of other pattern winners, including Dutch Connection.

That Charles Hills-trained four-year-old was bred by Susan Roy, whose colours were also carried by the colt's sire Dutch Art (by Medicean), and he recorded the best win of his career to date when beating Home Of The Brave by one and three-quarter lengths in the Group 2 Qatar Lennox Stakes at Goodwood on Tuesday.

This was his third run in the Godolphin colours, he chased home Mutakayyef in the Group 2 Summer Mile on his previous start, and he began his current campaign with a neck defeat by Toormore in the Group 2 bet365 Mile at Sandown in April. At two he won the Group 3 Acomb Stakes at York before finishing third to Gleneagles in the Group 1 National Stakes at the Curragh, and the highlights of his three-year-old season were victory in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes and second place in both the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat and Group 2 Lennox Stakes.

Classic-placed dual Group 1 star Dutch Art stands alongside his sire, Medicean (by Machiavellian), and his Group 1-winning son Garswood at Cheveley Park Stud and his 23 stakes winners also feature the Group 1 sprint star Slade Power, who is a popular member of the team at Kildangan Stud. Both Slade Power and Garswood should be represented at this year's foal sales by members of their first crop.

Dutch Connection is the third foal out of Endless Love, he is a full-brother to the stakes-placed seven-furlong winner Dutch Romance, his younger full-sister Dutch Princess is also in training with Hills, and the mare is back in foal to Dutch Art. She was unraced, but her dam, La Vita E Bella (by Definite Article) was a mile listed scorer as a juvenile and placed in the Group 3 Prix Saint-Roman at Saint-Cloud. Her other progeny include a trio of multiple winners, two of whom have earned blacktype.

Wittgenstein (by Shamardal) began her career in England, where she was placed over seven furlongs at Kempton on her third and final start, and then joined the Doug O'Neill stable, picking up placings in listed contests in California. Her first foal is a Kingman (by Invincible Spirit) filly, who arrived in April.

Baltimore Rock (by Tiger Hill) bypassed the flat, made a winning debut in a Bangor bumper four years ago and, since then, the Neil Mulholland-trained gelding is best-known for his victory in the Grade 3 Imperial Cup at Sandown in 2014. On his most recent outing, he finished a well-beaten fourth behind Douvan in the Grade 1 Ryanair Novice Chase at Punchestown in April.

La Vita E Bella is a half-sister to Bella Tusa (by Sri Pekan), who was a talented juvenile before going on to produce some winners at stud. She won the Listed Dragon Stakes at Sandown and the Listed Harry Rosebery Stakes at Ayr, and she finished third in the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte. There are lots of others in the various branches of the first four generations of the pedigree who have earned blacktype, including a Grade 3 scorer in Brazil, although nothing of the calibre of this week's Goodwood winner.

Dutch Connections's good two-year-old form, along with that of his grandam and her sister, will catch the eye whenever the time comes for him to take up a place at stud, a role that he has surely earned. Other attractions are that he is inbred 4x4 to Mr Prospector (by Raise A Native) and has neither Danzig (by Northern Dancer) nor Sadler's Wells (by Northern Dancer) in his lineage.

In the meantime, however, there are more good prizes to be won with him, and his entries include the Group 2 Betfred Hungerford Stakes, Group 2 Celebration Mile, Group 2 Saint Gobain Weber Park Stakes, and Group 1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup.