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| Staff Writer |
From his foal days on Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Farm in Central Kentucky to his sale as a $1 million yearling at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton select yearling sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., undefeated four-time grade 1 winner Flightline has been on a steady ascent. He began to justify his price when he won his debut at Santa Anita Park in April 2021 gate-to-wire by 13 1/4 lengths.
The son of Tapit then won by a margin of 12 3/4 lengths in a $73,400 allowance optional claiming race, and by 11 1/2 lengths in the Runhappy Malibu Stakes to cap off the year (Gr.1). John Sadler, the colt's trainer, and the consortium that owns him (Hronis Racing, Siena Farm, Summer Wind Equine, West Point Thoroughbreds, and Woodford Racing) have decided to limit him to Grade 1 races for the entire year of 2022.
Bill Farish of Lane's End recounted how, "Since he ran his first race, expectations were increasing bigger and bigger" now that the colt will be joining the stud team in 2019. To paraphrase a fan, "Just when you think he's reached the pinnacle of his abilities, he goes and does something much more remarkable."
Flightline won the TVG Pacific Classic Stakes (Gr.1) by 19 1/4 lengths on September 3 at Del Mar, one of the "big aims" that his trainer had set for him at the beginning of the year. The Met Mile (Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan Handicap, Gr.1) had been the first major target.
In the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (Gr.1) at Keeneland, which featured seven other grade 1 winners, Flightline placed an exclamation point on his dominant accomplishments to date by beating all competitors by 8 1/4 lengths.
Flightline has reached a point in his career when he has nothing more to prove and can relax into the next phase.
Farish has stated that the initial book of mares for Flightline will be approximately 150, and that the quality of the mares submitted thus far has been remarkable. The stallion's fee of $200,000 is the most ever paid for an entering-year stallion in the United States and the highest fee for any stallion since American Pharoah in 2016.
So far, the book contains Shamrock Rose, a 7-year-old daughter of First Dude who was purchased by Japan's KI Farm for $3 million at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale out of Lane's End's consignment and went on to win the 2018 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (Gr.1). The new owners of the mare plan to have her bred to Flightline in Kentucky before sending her to Japan. According to Farish, Japanese breeders purchased five to six mares, including Shamrock Rose, at Keeneland with the intent of breeding them to Flightline before exporting them overseas.
It'll be awesome to see them disseminate his ideas across the globe, he remarked. "We are seeing several European mares doing the same thing, as well. I wish it was this easy with all the new stallions. It is an awesome added benefit you receive when you have a stallion with total international attention."