BC-bound Flightline will have last Calif. breeze Saturday
In keeping with a consistent seven-day Santa Anita work pattern dating to Sept. 24, undefeated Flightline will breeze six furlongs Saturday and will then ship to Kentucky on Sunday for final preparations for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 5 at Keeneland.
Although trainer John Sadler had considered going later in the morning for this final Santa Anita work, Flightline will again enter the main track via the quarter-mile chute at about 6:30 a.m. PDT on Saturday with Sadler assistant Juan Leyva in the irons accompanied by a stable pony. The workout will be open to the public with no admission cost.
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In the first of his four Breeders’ Cup prep moves, Flightline went a half-mile in 48.0 seconds Sept. 24. With Leyva aboard as usual, Flightline graduated to five furlongs Oct. 1, stopping the clock at 1:00.4. On Oct. 8 Flightline breezed six furlongs in 1:12.4. On Saturday he went the same distance in 1:11.8 and galloped out impressively seven furlongs at 1:24.8 and a mile at 1:38.6.
Providing all goes well, Flightline will have one timed workout over the Keeneland main track as he readies for his likely role as the Breeders’ Cup Classic favorite.
With a record-breaking, 19 1/4-length win in the Pacific Classic (G1) on Sept. 3 at Del Mar, Flightline ran his combined margin of victory to 62 3/4 lengths in his five races. He was a six-length winner of the Met Mile (G1) at Belmont Park on June 11, two starts back. Flightline demolished fellow sophomores in taking Santa Anita’s seven-furlong Malibu Stakes (G1) on Dec. 26 by 11 1/2 lengths.
Odds-on in all of his races, Flightline earned an astronomical 126 Beyer Speed Figure in the Pacific Classic, easily the top speed figure in North America this year, according to Daily Racing Form. It was his first two-turn assignment.
Out of the Indian Charlie mare Feathered, Flightline was purchased for $1 million out of the 2019 Fasig-Tipton New York select yearling sale. Owned by California-based Hronis Racing, Siena Farm, Summer Wind Equine, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing, Flightline has amassed earnings of $1,394,800.
Although his connections announced Flightline will stand stud at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky after his racing career, it remained undecided as to whether he would continue racing as a 5-year-old in 2023.