Prix Millkom - New Connection

It’s quite a long way down to La Teste and so the fact that James Doyle was making the journey on Wednesday to ride New Connection for Wathnan Racing was probably a tip in itself. Francis-Henri Graffard’s 3-year-old gelding by New Bay had already won at the track 3 weeks earlier and whilst he found the Britannia Stakes to be beyond him at Royal Ascot, he has proven himself to be a capable type as he added this first Listed success to his CV. A winner of 3 of his 6 starts, I should add that a low draw in stall 6 gave New Connections very little chance at Ascot, but he does seem to be better when going around a bend. This may not have been the strongest renewal of the Prix Millkom, but New Connections traveled like the best horse in the 12 runner field and both of the placed horses have run to a fair standard this year. His Dam, Siamsaiocht, was a winner in Ireland for Jim Bolger and reached a peak rating of 93 after finishing 2nd in the Listed Appeal Stakes at Dundalk. New Connections was sold for 320,000 gns as a yearling at Tattersalls in 2024 and he has a full-brother entered in the same sale this year. Purchased by Wathnan Racing, he broke his maiden tag on his 2nd start at Fontainebleau in March and had reached a French rating of 45 kilos (BHA Rating equivalent of 99) prior to Wednesday’s run in the Prix Millkom.

Sent off as the 3.6 favourite on the PMU, James Doyle was able to settle his mount a couple of lengths behind the leaders as they headed for the bottom turn. Once into the straight, Doyle switched his mount to make his challenge on the left-hand side of the leader and once in front, he battled on bravely to win by a length and a quarter. This was a decent Listed contest and on the figures, I have New Connection running to approximately 47 kilos to win this (103 BHA). At this stage, he doesn’t have any future entries and it will be interesting to see where the Graffard team choose to place him next. As a gelding, there are no stallion prospects to try and plot, so his connections can proceed without any trepidation and I would imagine that he will be given a test in Group 3 company at some point in September to see if it brings out more improvement. There are clearly better geldings in the yard, but New Connection is improving and there may yet be some more improvement to come from the son of New Bay.