He followed up a Coventry Stakes success against top opposition as a two-year-old with a storming victory 12 months later in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes, defeating a truly international field of top sprinters.
Art Connoisseur’s first foals were born in 2011 and they made an excellent start as two-year-olds in 2013, with eight individual winners of 13 races and roughly €100,000 in prize money, which put him among the top 15 first crop sires in Europe in 2013.
He had his first blacktype success when Suzi’s Connoisseur won the Listed Kronimus Rennen at Baden-Baden for Mark Johnston’s stable, to add to two victories in England, while three other sons and daughters won two races each.
Timeform’s Racehorses of 2008 assessed Art Connoisseur as the joint fourth best two-year-old in Europe that season, rating him on 117, equal with the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes star Intense Focus and the Group 1 Grand Criterium hero Naaqoos and higher than Sea The Stars and Rip Van Winkle.
His success in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot completed an unbeaten hat-trick for Art Connoisseur, following easy wins in a maiden at Leicester and a minor event at Newmarket, both in April 2008. He was again impressive at Ascot, coming from last of the 18 runners and finishing very fast to lead inside the final furlong and score by over two lengths from Intense Focus and subsequent Group 1 winner Lord Shanakill in a very quick time.
Next time out, Art Connoisseur was again at the rear early on in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh but this time he could not catch Mastercraftsman and had to settle for second place, with Bushranger third, then in the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes he cracked a cannon bone and had to be retired for the remainder of the season.
Returning after eight months, Art Connoisseur was out of the first three in the European Free Handicap at Newmarket, where he conceded at least 7lb to all the other runners.
Back at six furlongs in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, it was a completely different story. Again held up at the rear, Art Connoisseur came with a devastating run on the stands rail to snatch the victory by a neck from the American star Cannonball. Lesson In Humility was another two and a half lengths away third, ahead of the South African favourite J J The Jet Plane and Hong Kong’s Sacred Kingdom, rated the best sprinter in the world in 2009, with Bushranger and Kingsgate Native both unplaced.
In the World Rankings, Art Connoisseur was rated the champion three-year-old sprinter in England that season.
Lucky Story, the sire of Art Connoisseur, was the joint top-rated two-year-old colt in England in 2003 after winning the Group 2 Champagne Stakes and Group 2 Veuve Clicquot Vintage Stakes and the joint top-rated three-year-old miler in Europe in 2004 when he was second in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, dividing Rakti and Refuse To Bend. Sadly, this brother to Group 1 star Dr Fong was not very lucky after that, as he died early in his stud career. This is the male line tracing through Kris S (sire of Arch) and the 1972 Epsom Derby hero Roberto to Hail To Reason, ancestor also of Canford Cliffs.
Art Connoisseur’s dam Withorwithoutyou was a winner at two and this daughter of Danehill is out of a half-sister to the dam of Balanchine, the champion three-year-old in Europe in 1994 after winning the Group 1 Irish Derby and the Group 1 Epsom Oaks. This prolific family has 19 blacktype winners in the first three generations and another half-sister is the dam of the very speedy Saoirse Abu, also a dual Group 1 heroine.
ART CONNOISSEUR (IRE)
Race record: Champion 3-year-old sprinter in England in 2009. Winner of four races from 2-4 years, £385,999, at 5-6 furlongs, inc. Golden Jubilee Stakes, Royal Ascot, Gr.1 and Coventry Stakes, Royal Ascot, Gr.2; 2nd in Phoenix Stakes, Curragh, Gr.1.
Stud record: Retired to stud in 2010. Sire of 8 winners of 13 races and about €100,000, also 13 placed horses, from 26 runners in his first crop racing in 2013, including Suzi’s Connoisseur (3 wins in England and Germany, Kronimus Rennen, Baden-Baden, L), Debt Settler (2 wins), Staysound (2 wins in Italy), Compound (2 wins in Italy), etc.
Stands at: Irish National Stud, Tully, Kildare, Co Kildare.
Contact: John Osborne on 045 521251.
Email: stud@irish-national-stud.ie
Website: www.irish-national-stud.ie
Fee: €4,000 (October 1st).
IRISH NATIONAL STUD
Originally named the Tully Stud and founded in 1900 by Colonel Hall Walker (later Lord Wavertree), it became the British National Stud in 1916, before evolving into the Irish National Stud in 1943.
Nowadays the stud stands eight high-class stallions, including the very successful sire Invincible Spirit, who is regularly one of the top dozen in Europe, while Art Connoisseur made a good start with his first runners in 2013. Big Bad Bob was a newcomer here in 2011, after starting his excellent stud career elsewhere in Ireland, and Elusive Pimpernel has recently followed the same course, with Snow Fairy likely to be visiting him. Lord Shanakill will have his first two-year-olds racing in 2014, while Dragon Pulse and Famous Name are expecting their first foals this spring. They are joined this year by the Italian 2000 Guineas and Derby hero Worthadd.
There are usually about 20 broodmares owned by the Irish National Stud and recent stars who they have produced include champion Desert King, winner of the Irish 2000 Guineas and Irish Derby and 2008 U.S. Grade 1 victor Daytona.