Haras des Trotteurs is set to become the first stud to shuttle a stallion from trotting powerhouse Europe with the exciting news that European group one winning Classic Connection is to stand at the Cardigan-based stud this upcoming season.
Owned and bred by legendary French breeder Jean-Pierre Dubois, of Varenne and Coktail Jet fame, Classic Connection boasts a stunning modern International pedigree combining the best bloodlines of both sides of the Atlantic being a son of French supersire Love You out of the US 2YO trotting filly of the year Crys Dream.
And being by a proven sire of sires Classic Connection, is perfectly placed to continue Love You’s legacy Down Under as the source of the brilliantly successful outcross Coktail Jet Franco American sire line, which has proven such a great nick with Sundon and Speedy Crown line mares in particular.
Classic Connection also offers breeders broad maternal scope through Crys Dream, who was by the ill-fated Speedy Crown stallion Taurus Dream (who was from a French maternal family) and has Balanced Image as her second damsire.
This is terrific news for down under breeders, looking for duplications for the likes of Majestic Son, Angus Hall and Andover Hall mares.
Classic Connection’s owner Jean-Pierre Dubois is one of the greatest breeders in the world, and a legend in his native France, where he has driven, trained, owned and bred multiple winners of the nation’s greatest trotting races, as well as the winner of Frances’s greatest steeplechase and the winner of the French Oaks in thoroughbreds.
He was a true pioneer in Franco-American breeding and its world beating mix of speed and stamina producing champions such as Coktail Jet, who was trained by his son Jean-Étienne to win the world’s greatest staying test Prix d’Amérique and Sweden’s sprint classic Elitloppet in the same year.
Dubois also bred the legendary Italian trotter, Varenne, who also won the Prix d’Amerique and Elitloppet in the same year, and then went on to become the champion sire of Italy for more than a decade.
Dubois stallions dominate French breeding to the extent that seven of the top 10 sires in France last year were from his bloodlines, including Love You, who has been champion sire in France three times and in Sweden on four occasions and has twice been the top stallion in the world on earnings.
Love You, despite being in his 20s, was in fourth place on the French sires stats last year (€3.30M), just behind his Prix d’Amerique winning son Royal Dream (€3.33m) with another of his sons, Village Mystic (€2.54m) in eighth place, out of the 500 stallions standing in France.
By standing Down Under at Haras des Trotteurs in Victoria, Classic Connection adds the latest chapter of this remarkable story, one that now has an Australian edition.
