Dutch Connection back quickly for Prix Maurice de Gheest

Dutch Connection, fifth in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland last October, can win his second stakes in less than two weeks in Sunday’s $421,600 Prix Maurice de Gheest for sprinters at Deauville, France.

The Prix Maurice de Gheest is one of three Group 1 races in Europe on Sunday.

Dutch Connection won the Group 2 Lennox Stakes at Goodwood Racecourse in England on July 26, his third career stakes win. A 4-year-old colt by Dutch Art, Dutch Connection has not won a Group 1 or Grade 1 race in his 14-race career. He was ninth in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury, England, in May.

The Prix Maurice de Gheest is run at 6 1/2 furlongs on a straightaway course and drew a field of 16. The race is the top sprint of the monthlong summer meeting at Deauville.

Gold-Fun, a multiple stakes winner in Hong Kong, will have the second start of his 2016 European campaign in the Gheest, having finished second in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in June. Another contender is Suedois, who was second in the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket on July 9.

The senior member of the field is 8-year-old Gordon Lord Byron, who has won his last two starts, both in Ireland – an allowance race at Tipperary on June 30 and the Group 2 Minstrel Stakes at The Curragh on July 17.

The unbeaten Kentucky-bred Caravaggio will be a heavy favorite to win for the fourth time in Sunday’s $277,425 Phoenix Stakes at six furlongs for 2-year-olds at The Curragh.

By Scat Daddy, Caravaggio won the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 14 in his group-stakes debut. Owned by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier and trained by Aidan O’Brien, Caravaggio is part of a field of five in the Phoenix Stakes.

The opposition is led by Medicine Jack, the winner of the Group 2 Railway Stakes at The Curragh on June 25.

Germany has its top race for 3-year-old fillies on Sunday – the $554,850 German Oaks in Dusseldorf.

Architecture, second in the English Oaks in June and in the Irish Oaks on July 16, will be favored in the Grade 1 race at 1 3/8 miles on turf. Architecture is owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson, who raced 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro.

An Irish-bred by Zoffany, Architecture is trained in England by Hugo Palmer and will be ridden by Frankie Dettori.