Breeders’ Cup 2022, Five Races In His Life, Five Dominant Wins: A Profile Of Heavy Favorite Flightline

ForbesLife Breeders’ Cup 2022, Five Races In His Life, Five Dominant Wins: A Profile Of Heavy Favorite Flightline Guy Martin Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Sep 30, 2022, 11:33pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Arcadia, CA – December 26: Jockey Flavien Prat riding Flightline wins the Malibu Stakes Grade 1 .

. . [+] race during Opening day of the winter-spring meet at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia on Sunday, December 26, 2021.

(Photo by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images) MediaNews Group via Getty Images The Kentucky-bred Flightline, sired by Tapit (whose sons and daughters are racing into the record books), is arguably the best-kept open secret in American racing. He may also be the best horse racing in America now. If those statements seem oxymoronic, it’s because they are.

Put a different way, Flightline is anything but a typical four-year-old because he never really got to be introduced to America as a three-year-old. There are quite a slew of reasons for that, and to parse those will help us understand what it means for Flightline’s potential competitors that trainer John Sadler and Flightline’s longtime champion jockey Flavien Prat are pointing their charge at the $6-million Breeders’ Cup Classic this November 5 at Keeneland. For the moment, Flightline is turning in his usual blazing fractions for the ultra-careful veteran trainer Sadler out at their home base in Arcadia, California.

There are a couple of forces at work on Flightline, chief among them being the horse’s amazing athleticism and his ability to come back against overwhelming obstacles — some of which he manages to arrange against himself — to win his races so decisively. The second force at work on Flightline is his own ebullient spirit. The horse cannot help himself.

In his sophmore year — in other words, late in 2020, as he was on the cusp of competing against his class in 2021’s Triple Crown — Flightline suffered a barn accident that resulted in a deep gash into the muscle of his right hindquarters. No one saw the accident, but it’s forensically assumed he reared up and cut himself on some hardware. The wound took a long time to heal, with the result that Sadler held him back from those 2021 races.

He sensed he had something special, and he was right. Man With A Mission: Flavien Prat, Flightline’s jockey, walks to the paddock before riding Flightline . .

. [+] during the 129th running of the Hill ‘N’ Dale Metropolitan at Belmont Park on June 11, 2022 in Elmont, New York. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) Getty Images A few mind-boggling facts: Flightline is four.

To say that he is lightly raced is an understatement. He has had a total of five starts, the first three of which he won by 37 lengths. His first race this year, the fourth race of his life, was the Hill ‘N’ Dale Metropolitan at Belmont this June, which he won by six lengths.

Three weeks ago he was given his fifth lifetime start — all under Flavien Prat — in the September 9 Pacific Classic, during which he returned to his Secretariat-like form and won by almost twenty lengths. In all, it’s calculated that he’s won his five races by some 62-plus lengths. MORE FOR YOU These Are The Best Beach House Destinations In The U.

S. Nordstrom Home Launches First-Ever Home Retail Store Within NYC Flagship NBA Superstar Magic Johnson On His Love Of Travel, Food, Italy And More At the end of that race Prat said: “When we went into the final turn, he was traveling so well I asked him to pick it up a little bit,” Prat said. “As soon as I looked back and saw how far in front he was, I wrapped up on him.

Obviously, this is the best horse I ever rode. ” Guy Martin Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.