Dutch Art exhibiting a new talent

A broodmare sire who has made significant headway in the past few years is Cheveley Park Stud’s Dutch Art whose daughters have produced 22 Stakes winners so far. It was the much-improved White Birch, the horse who lowered Auguste Rodin’s colours in the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup, that provided Dutch Art with a second Group 1 winner in his role as a broodmare sire through his four-time winning daughter Diagnostic. And it was no fluke either as, at the time of writing, Timeform has him pegged at 128, the joint-top rated horse in Europe so far this season alongside Kyprios. 

But the honour of being Dutch Art’s best broodmare daughter must surely go to Suelita, who already has four Stakes winners to her name, including Frankel’s Group 1 Dewhurst and 2,000 Guineas winner Chaldean (Timeform 122), plus a pair of Showcasing Stakes winners in the shape of Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes winner Alkumait (Timeform 115) and his Listed-winning and Group 2-placed sister Get Ahead (Timeform 114). Other good Dutch Art mares include the dams of Group 1-placed Jash, one of three Stakes winners by Kodiac, plus Givemethebeatboys, another that has placed at Group 1 level.

The 2,000 Guineas winner Chaldean, who is out of a Dutch Art mare.

Even more impressive is Dutch Art’s strike rate of five per cent Stakes winners to runners, which is a healthy achievement, particularly for a stallion that started out at a low fee. To provide some context here it is worth remembering that Dutch Art’s stud companion Pivotal, justifiably considered one of the best broodmare sires in recent years, gets Stakes winners at 6.5 per cent. Moreover, Dutch Art’s more accomplished broodmare daughters like Suelita can boast 9.5 per cent Stakes winners, not a million miles from Pivotal’s 11.8 per cent. In the most recent edition of The Return of Mares there were 107 mares listed by Dutch Art and many have found their way into the books of such top sires as Frankel, Kingman, Lope De Vega, Night Of Thunder, Mehmas and Blue Point, so the Dutch Art broodmare sire story has surely further to run.

Dutch Art was first and foremost a gifted sprinting two-year-old and, as juvenile seasons go, his was just about the best it could be for a fast youngster. The combination of Royal Ascot’s Group 2 Norfolk Stakes, Deauville’s Group 1 Prix Morny and Newmarket’s Group 1 Middle Park has to be one of the best for a speedy colt to win. In fact, while the Morny-Middle Park double has been completed as many as ten times this century, including in the past three years by Perfect Power, Blackbeard and Vandeek, only three – Johannesburg (2001), Dutch Art (2006) and Perfect Power (2021) – also have a Norfolk Stakes on their CV. Timeform assessed Dutch Art at 124 at the end of his two-year-old campaign and although he failed to win at three, his Timeform rating of 126 suggests he still ran to a very high standard, notably when third in Cockney Rebel’s 2,000 Guineas and second in the Group 1 July Cup won by Sakhee’s Secret.

Bought by Cheveley Park Stud at the outset of his three-year-old career, Dutch Art joined his sire Medicean at the Newmarket stud for the 2008 covering season at a fee of £10,000, and the fact that his nomination price was advertised at £40,000 eight years later pretty much tells us all we need to know about how he fared as a commercial stallion. In all, he has sired 45 Stakes winners and 15 Group winners from 14 crops, although he had already been in semi-retirement at Cheveley Park Stud since 2017, the last season he covered a viable book of mares. Dutch Art has been a good source for sprinters and milers and his stamina index for his progeny aged three and up comes in at 7.8 furlongs significantly less than the 8.2 furlongs of his runners’ siblings, while his two-year-olds registered an average winning distance of 6.3 furlongs, again less than that for his mares’ other runners. 

Dutch Art’s Group 1 July Cup winner Starman now stands at Tally-Ho Stud in Ireland.

None of his four Group 1 winners won beyond a seven furlongs and his two very best runners, Slade Power (Timeform 127) and Starman (Timeform 125), were at their best over six furlongs, both winning the July Cup at Newmarket, while Mabs Cross (Timeform 119) earned his Group 1 stripes in the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp. His fourth Group 1 winner, Garswood (Timeform 122), though successful in the Group 2 Lennox over seven, dropped back to 1300m to win the Prix Maurice de Gheest. Other talented Dutch Arts include the Timeform 122-rated Capsar Netscher, a fine sprint two-year-old who won the Group 2 Gimcrack and Group 2 Mill Reef but failed to improve on that the following year. Dutch Connection also earned a Timeform mark of 122 for his efforts which featured a win the Group 2 Lennox, plus three Group 3 victories, but he couldn’t quite make the jump to the next grade either.

All told, Dutch Art has in fact got marginally more from his mares than all other sires combined, producing a Stakes horse-to-runner rate of 11.3 per cent, but he probably hasn’t got the most from his better mares so far, converting only 9.9 per cent of his runners to Stakes horses. His reputation as a sire of sires took a severe dent when Slade Power sired only two Stakes winners (0.8 per cent) from several well-endowed €20,000 crops as a Darley stallion, so it is up to Dutch Art’s other July Cup winner, the Tally-Ho-based Starman, who has over 200 first-crop foals to run for him next year, to put his sire on the map in this respect.

One thing that is not in doubt, however, is Dutch Art’s prowess as a broodmare sire.

DUTCH ART'S STAKES WINNERS AS A BROODMARE SIRE