Sadler: World No. 1 Flightline ‘looks like LeBron James’

Trainer John Sadler said there is a very good reason why Flightline was able to take his speed and stretch it to 1 1/4 miles at first asking when he won the Grade 1 Pacific Classic by 19 1/4 lengths last month at Del Mar. 

“He’s a very good athlete. There’s no doubt about that,” Sadler told reporters in a conference call to preview Flightline’s bid to win the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, also covering 1 1/4 miles, on Nov. 5 at Keeneland. “What’s different is he’s a horse that’s just an exceptional horse.”

See 205 pre-entries for Breeders’ Cup 2022.

How good is he? With a 5-for-5 record and some of the best speed ratings this century, some have dared to make the comparison to a horse often said to be the greatest ever – 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat. Sadler took tilted that prism in a different direction and focused on another competitor who may be considered a G.O.A.T.

“He kind of looks like LeBron James, who we have out here in L.A.,” Sadler said. “He’s just a one-of-a-kind kind of horse.”

Not that Sadler was looking past the assignment that faces the 4-year-old Tapit colt next week. If there are no defections from the pre-entries announced Wednesday, Flightline will face eight rivals who all are Grade 1 winners and undoubtedly the best challengers he will have seen.

“It’s a really good field,” said Sadler, whose win with Accelerate in the 2018 Classic ended a personal 0-for-44 Breeders’ Cup drought. “You have the ascending 3-year-olds with Epicenter, Taiba and the Derby winner (Rich Strike). And then you have these older horses that are terrific – Life Is Good, Olympiad. A bunch of really nice horses.”

Aside from the ever-unpredictable fitness of the nine horses, the two big blanks left are the post positions and the condition of the main track. They may be filled Monday, when the draw happens at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., and when the weather forecast might come into clearer focus.

“As far as the posts,” Sadler said, “they’ll be what they’re going to be. Usually, the post isn’t too big a worry, especially at this distance.”

Even if there is one scratch, this will be the biggest field that Flightline has faced. He defeated six others in his April 2021 debut and in the December running of the Malibu (G1), both at Santa Anita and both by double-digit lengths.

The one time Flightline started from the rail was in June at Belmont Park, where he broke slowly and steadied twice before winning the Met Mile (G1) by six lengths over runner-up Happy Saver, whom he will face again next week. He never has started wider than post 6.

As for a wet track, Flightline got some of that in his gallop Wednesday morning at Keeneland, which finally received a healthy dose of rain in the middle of a drought.

“You want to see a vigorous gallop from the world’s most exciting and most talented horse we’ve seen in a generation?” asked Jeff Lifson of West Point Thoroughbreds, one of Flightline’s owners. “Holy mackerel.”

Lifson said that as he was shooting video of Flightline’s predawn training Wednesday on the main track at Keeneland. He quickly shared that video on social media.

Something more vigorous is in the offing this weekend.

“He’ll have a workout at 7:30 (EDT) on Saturday morning,” Sadler said.

Since midummer, Flightline has been a reliable presence in the mornings, a familiar name every week on the Del Mar and Santa Anita work tabs and an occasional racer who has yet to let another horse get within six lengths of him at the end of his afternoons’ toils.

That durability was not on display when he arrived at Sadler’s barn after he was bought as a yearling for $1 million by Kosta and Pete Hronis. Flightline did not make his first start until he was 3. His gaps between his first four races were four months, three months and five months.

“He had a quarter crack before the start of Del Mar last year, and he had a little bone bruising in one hock early this year,” Sadler said. “He’s had some little setbacks along the way. But ever since the Pacific Classic, everything’s gone really well.”

Flightline will start the Breeders’ Cup Classic nine weeks after that last start, the shortest break of his career.

“We’ve been training him up for it,” Sadler said, “and so far everything’s going really well.”

Since he began training in 1978, Sadler, 66, has amassed 2,714 wins and earnings of $141,128,410. Now he faces the pressure of delivering the biggest win of his career to complete a season that has come with a lot of hype. Although a 5-year-old season has not been ruled out, Flightline is ticketed for stud duty at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky. With a 2.5 percent share of him being auctioned Nov. 7 at a Keeneland sale, he might be racing for the last time next week.

How will the pressure to go out on a high note compare with trying to get off a career-long Breeders’ Cup schneid with Accelerate?

“The pressure is there, because he’s going to be a heavy favorite,” Sadler said. “But I’ve trained quite a long time, and this is the kind of pressure you want.”

That led Sadler to remember a comparison to another human athletes. Specifically a quote from tennis icon Billie Jean King.

“Before the Pacific Classic, I was watching the U.S. Open,” he said. “It says on the wall there, ‘Pressure is a privilege.’ It’s exciting, but we’ve got a week-and-a-half to go, and it’s one step at a time. ... Expectations are sky-high. I understand that, but this is horse racing. We’re just going to keep even-keeled and look forward to a week from Saturday.”