Best in world: Flightline, Baaeed trainers weigh in on debate

Del Mar, Calif.

Minutes after his 19 1/4-length, tour-de-force victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic, Flightline was not being mentioned as simply the best racehorse in North America.

Why not in the whole world?

Asked whether he wanted to engage in the budding debate, Flightline’s trainer John Sadler smiled Sunday morning and said, “No. That’s for the sports writers. They could figure that out.”

Baaeed, another undefeated 4-year-old colt, already was acclaimed the best racehorse on the planet. That was before Flightline’s jaw-dropping runaway at Del Mar.

“What am I supposed to say?” Baaeed’s trainer William Haggas said in a telephone conversation Sunday from his home base in England. “Wildly impressive. Flightline was absolutely outstanding, and it wouldn’t be fair to compare any horse with him.”

“I’d be curious to see what the rankings are,” Sadler said.

More than a few numbers crunchers already have weighed in.

According to Daily Racing Form, Flightline earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 126 for his geared-down victory, which ran his record to 5-for-5. But Beyers are strictly North American.

Timeform, the international data provider that is part of the company that owns Betfair, gave Flightline a speed rating of 143 pounds. Baaeed, the England-based colt who is 10-for-10 with six Group 1 wins, got a 137 for his 6 1/2-length triumph last month in the Juddmonte International (G1) at York.

“Dirt in America and turf in England are two completely different ballgames,” Haggas told Horse Racing Nation. “I think you should admire and appreciate Flightline, and I think and hope everyone in England and Europe admires and appreciates Baaeed for what he is. They’re terrific horses of their generation.”

The fact that they will never meet and might never have comparative performances on a common surface makes this a debate that will fuel old-school, water-cooler conversations and new-school, social-media broadsides.

“That’s a hard comparison,” Sadler said, “because one’s running a mile-and-a-quarter on turf in Europe, and we’re running a mile-and-a-quarter on dirt.”

“What (Flightline) did was destroy a good field,” Haggas said. “I think dirt racing is open to something like that, but he went sub two minutes, which is pretty impressive, and his last half-furlong was pulling up. You can’t be anything but hugely admiring of his performance.”

For Sadler, there was the obligatory question about how Flightline looked first thing the morning after what already was being talked about as perhaps the greatest performance in the 85-year history of Del Mar.

“Yeah, he looks fine,” Sadler said. “Everything looks good on first blush. We’re thrilled and looking forward.”

That would be to the Breeders’ Cup Classic. In pool 2 of pari-mutuel futures betting for the race, Flightline was 9-5 at 10:30 a.m. EDT Sunday. Travers (G1) winner Epicenter was 2-1. No other horse was shorter than 12-1.

After Saturday, it was hard to imagine any horse anywhere being on level footing with Flightline, who has won his five races by 61 1/4 lengths. That is an average of 12 1/4, or about 35 yards to the nearest finisher. In what has to be regarded as an apples-and-oranges comparison, Baaeed has won his 10 races by a total of 34 lengths, or an average of nearly 3 1/2.

“Obviously, this is the best horse I ever rode,” said Flightline jockey Flavien Prat, who has ridden 16 different horses to Grade 1 wins.

While he and so much of the racing world wait for Flightline’s season-ending race this fall at Keeneland, Baaeed will be prepared for his last start next month – either in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) in Paris or the Champion Stakes (G1) at Ascot, England.

“We’ve said quite openly that if the ground is decent, we’ll go for the Arc,” Haggas said. “If the ground is soft, we will consider scratching him and going for the Champion Stakes.”

Althought that will be the end of Baaeed’s career, such might not be the case with Flightline after the Breeders’ Cup.

“We haven’t decided,” Flightline’s managing partner Kosta Hronis said Saturday night. “The ownership I believe is open to racing him again next year because he’s so special. When you read these articles that for sure he’s going off to stud, don’t buy it. We really can’t decide that now. We’ll have discussions. There’s plenty of time for that. We’ll figure that out at the end of the year.”