Sadler: Flightline’s 1st 2022 race may be announced next week

Flightline’s next race has not been decided yet. That should be known next week. But trainer John Sadler said Thursday the long-term goals for racing newest star have not changed since Sunday’s breathtaking victory at Santa Anita.

“We want to be in the Met Mile in New York,” Sadler said, looking ahead to the Grade 1 race that is expected to be run June 11 on the Belmont Stakes undercard. “He’ll have something in March or April, and then he’ll have the Met Mile, and we’ll go from there.”

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The Metropolitan Handicap would keep Flightline in his one-turn wheelhouse. In his three starts, each between six and seven furlongs, he has won by a combined 37 1/2 lengths, including his 11 1/2-length runaway Sunday in the Malibu Stakes (G1) against other 3-year-olds. The Tapit colt earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 118, according to Daily Racing Form, the best of 2021.

If it sounds like Sadler will be content keeping Flightline in a one-turn box, think again.

“No,” he said when asked in a telephone interview for the Ron Flatter Racing Pod. “By the end of the year we hope he’s in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. “His next race could well be around two turns. We’re looking to get him stretched out. Whether that means a mile, a mile-and-a-sixteenth or a mile-and-an-eighth, it just depends on a lot of factors.”

One of those factors is something over which Sadler has no control. The weather. He hoped to have Flightline back on the track for a gallop Thursday morning at Santa Anita. Heavy rain pushed that plan back at least one day. It also pushed back any thought Sadler might have had about choosing a next race.

Click here for Santa Anita entries and results.

“I’ll probably have an announcement on that maybe sometime next week,” he said. “We have time to decide. I like to see the horse back out on the track. That’s why I’m here every day. I want to see him and how good he is.”

Good as in fitness, not just whether he is the fastest horse who is racing in North America, something that Flightline appears to be. His natural gifts can be blinding.

“These kind of horses are very, very tricky,” Sadler said. “Because they’re so good, they don’t show you obvious signs of not being good in the way that they’re such big guys, and they’re such strong horses. You’ve got to watch them really close looking for the little signs.”

Flightline still wears a not so little sign of the biggest trouble he has had in his career. That is the scar just to the right of his tail, the hind tattoo he wears from getting tangled up in a fence or a door on a Florida farm while he was still a young 2-year-old. With that went any hopes of racing in 2020.

“It was like when you hit your head on a curb,” Sadler said. “The curb won. The fence won. It’s the only thing he’s ever lost.”

That line got a laugh from Kosta Hronis. He and his brother, Pete, are Flightline’s lead owners, part of a partnership that includes Siena Farm, Summer Wind Equine, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing. So far, Flightline has returned $259,800 and counting on a $1 million investment, his cost as a yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale in August 2019.

Hronis has learned in the nearly 12 years he has worked closely with Sadler that horses can do the darnedest things, even with a fence or a door.

“No panic,” Hronis said in Thursday’s podcast interview. “I’ve been trained by John Sadler myself. Not only does he train the horses, he trains his owners. I knew John was always going to do what’s best by the horse. I didn’t even worry about it at all. Never batted an eye.”

“Kosta is in that rarefied air of when something happens that’s a setback, he doesn’t fall apart,” Sadler said. “He actually gets stronger. That’s leadership at the top. He’s an exceptional person that way.”

Sadler and Hronis have been in lockstep on a lot of horses, most notably Accelerate, the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner who was that year’s champion older dirt male. Now they agree that this winter’s buzz horse, in spite of his short résumé against the likes Aloha West, Dr. Schivel, Golden Pal, Jackie’s Warrior and Yaupon, should be win the Eclipse Award as the top male sprinter of 2021.

“He’s got the historic, three best numbers ever out of the gate,” said Hronis, referring to the Beyer average of 112.3, the highest ever for any horse’s first three races. “This is almost a slam dunk for him for the sprint award.”

“He’s the best horse, there’s no doubt about it,” Sadler said. “To me it’s not a hard question.”

For now the toughest question is what race is next for Flightline. Sadler knows the public and the racing media are eager to find out.

“We’re going to feel our way along a little bit,” Sadler said. “I’ve got an ownership group that wants to do the right thing by the horse. We’re not trying to make you guys crazy on the ‘when’s he going to run’ side. But obviously, we won’t be rushed.”