Danzig Connection is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 racehorse

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

 best known for winning an American Classic race.

Owned and bred by Henryk de Kwiatkowski

Henryk de Kwiatkowski

Henryk Richard de Kwiatkowski was a Polish-born member of the Royal Air Force who became an aeronautical engineer and made a fortune in business in North America and who owned Calumet Farm, one of the most prestigious Thoroughbred horse breeding and racing farms in the United States.Born in...

 under his Kennelot Stables banner, Danzig Connection was sired by Kwaitkowski's champion, Danzig

Danzig (horse)

Danzig was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who is best known as a leading sire. He was purchased for $310,000 by Henryk de Kwiatkowski at the 1978 Saratoga Yearling Sale...

, and out of the mare Gdynia. His grandsire was the great Northern Dancer

Northern Dancer

Northern Dancer was a Canadian-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and the most successful sire of the 20th Century. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association calls him "one of the most influential sires in Thoroughbred history"....

 and his damsire was the 1968 United Kingdom Horse of the Year

Horse of the Year

Horse of the Year is an honor given by various organizations worldwide in harness racing and thoroughbred horse racing.Some of the awards include:* Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year* Breeders' Cup World Championships Poll* European Horse of the Year...

 and Epsom Derby

Epsom Derby

The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...

 winner Sir Ivor

Sir Ivor

Sir Ivor was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who competed from a base in Ireland. Owned by American businessman and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, Raymond R...

.

Conditioned by Hall of Fame

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers...

 trainer

Horse trainer

In horse racing, a trainer prepares a horse for races, with responsibility for exercising it, getting it race-ready and determining which races it should enter...

 Woody Stephens

Woody Stephens

Woody Stephens was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame trainer.Born Woodford Cefis Stephens in Stanton, Kentucky, his younger brother William Ward Stephens also became a successful trainer. Woody Stephens first started in racing as a jockey at age 16 but within a few years switched...

, Danzig Connection raced at age two in 1985. At the Meadowlands Racetrack

Meadowlands Racetrack

The Meadowlands Racetrack is a horse racing track at the MetLife Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States.The track hosts both thoroughbred racing and harness racing...

 in East Rutherford

East Rutherford, New Jersey

East Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,913. It is an inner-ring suburb of New York City, located west of Midtown Manhattan....

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, he defeated Storm Cat

Storm Cat

Storm Cat was an American Thoroughbred stallion whose breeding fee during the peak of his stud career was $500,000, the highest in the world. As such, he was one of the few horses with a 24-hour armed guard....

 to capture the World Appeal Stakes. The two colts then reversed positions in the Meadowlands' Young America Stakes

Young America Stakes

The Young America Stakes is a discontinued Thoroughbred horse race that was run annually at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey....

.

As a three-year-old, in May 1986 Danzig Connection won the Peter Pan Stakes

Peter Pan Stakes

The Peter Pan Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually during the second week of May at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. A Grade II event, it is open to three-year-olds willing to race nine furlongs on the dirt....

 at Belmont Park

Belmont Park

Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse-racing facility located in Elmont in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, on Long Island adjoining New York City. It first opened on May 4, 1905...

 under jockey Pat Day

Pat Day

Patrick Alan "Pat" Day is an American jockey. He is a four-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1991...

. The biggest win of his career came under jockey Chris McCarron

Chris McCarron

Christopher John "Chris" McCarron is a retired American thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey. He is currently working as a racing analyst for TVG Network....

 when he won the 1986 Belmont Stakes

Belmont Stakes

The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile horse race, open to three year old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds ; fillies carry 121 pounds...

, defeating Ferdinand

Ferdinand (horse)

Ferdinand was a Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1986 Kentucky Derby and 1987 Breeders' Cup Classic. He was voted the 1987 Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year.He entered stud in 1989 and was later sold to a breeding farm in Japan in 1994....

 and giving trainer Stephens his record fifth straight Belmont victory. From there, the colt went on to finish fourth in the Suburban Handicap

Suburban Handicap

The Suburban Handicap is an American Grade II Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Open to horses age three and older, it is run at the classic one-and-one-quarter mile distance on dirt for a $400,000 purse....

. He was third to winner Wise Times in the Haskell Invitational Handicap

Haskell Invitational Handicap

The Resorts Casino & Hotel Haskell Invitational is an American Grade I race for thoroughbred horses. In 1968, the Board of Directors of Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey honored its former President and Chairman Amory L. Haskell with the Amory L. Haskell Handicap, a race for older...

 at Monmouth Park and second to him in the Travers Stakes

Travers Stakes

The Travers Stakes is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York.First held in 1864, it was named for William R. Travers, the president of the old Saratoga Racing Association. His horse, Kentucky, won the first running of the Travers...

 at Saratoga Race Course

Saratoga Race Course

Saratoga Race Course is a Thoroughbred horse racing track in Saratoga Springs, New York, United States. It opened on August 3, 1863, and is the oldest organized sporting venue of any kind in the United States. It is typically open for racing from late July through early September.-History:John...

. In the Jockey Club Gold Cup

Jockey Club Gold Cup

The Jockey Club Gold Cup, established in 1919, is a prestigious thoroughbred flat race open to horses of either gender three-years-old and up. It is typically the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park, just as the Belmont Stakes is of the spring meeting and the Travers Stakes is of the...

, Danzig Connection was third to winner Creme Fraiche

Creme Fraiche (horse)

Creme Fraiche was an American thoroughbred gelding racehorse. He was sired by Rich Cream, co-holder of the world record of 1:19.40 for 7 furlongs on dirt in the 1980 Triple Bend Handicap, out of the Terrible Tiger mare, Likely Exchange.Bred by Pamela Firman and her nephew, G...

. Back at the Meadowlands, he won October's Pegasus Stakes

Pegasus Stakes

The Pegasus Stakes is an American Grade III Thoroughbred horse race run annually in June at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey.An event for three-year-olds of either gender, it is contested at a mile and an eighth on the dirt, and offers a purse of $250,000.There was no race run in...

.

Retired to stud

Horse breeding

Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...

, his progeny to date have met with limited success and in 2003 he was sent to stand at a breeding operation in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.