There was some terrific racing at Santa Anita during the Memorial Day weekend. In addition to a lot of stakes action, fans were buzzing about the victorious unveiling of Eagles Flight, kin to the great Flightline.
The Chosen Vron, a cool equine dude and fan favorite, won the Thor’s Echo Stakes last Saturday (May 25) by 2 1/4 lengths as an overwhelming 1-20 favorite in what was nothing more than a paid workout. It was his 13th victory in his last 14 starts. He also won the 2023 Thor’s Echo.
Trainer Eric Kruljac has done a marvelous job managing The Chosen Vron’s career, which thus far has produced 17 stakes victories. The 6-year-old California-bred gelding is expected to seek a repeat win in Del Mar’s Grade I Bing Crosby Stakes on July 27.
Another talented 6-year-old Cal-bred gelding, Kings River Knight, won last Saturday’s Crystal Water Stakes in front-running fashion by 1 3/4 lengths as a 1-5 favorite. Trained by John Sadler, Kings River Knight extended his winning streak to five.
On Sunday, Adare Manor proved a punctual 1-20 favorite when she led past every pole and cruised home to a 4 1/4-length triumph. This followed her 5 1/2-length win in Oaklawn Park’s Grade I Apple Blossom Handicap in April. Hall of Famer Bob Baffert trains the 5-year-old mare.
It was a Baffert exacta in Monday’s Grade II Hollywood Gold Cup. Mr Fisk won by 2 1/4 lengths as the 5-2 favorite, while Reincarnate finished second at 3-1. Mr Fisk went into the Gold Cup off a win by the exact same margin in Santa Anita’s Grade III Californian on April 20.
Unfortunately for Mr Fisk, he did not make it to the winner’s circle after the Gold Cup. Jockey Kazushi Kimura felt something was amiss and dismounted on the backstretch. Baffert later said on the social media platform X that Mr Fisk “has a condylar fracture” that would require surgery. “His prognosis is excellent,” added Baffert, who also had praise for Kimura in that he “took great care of his horse.”
Thoroughbred Daily News’ Sue Finley reported that Mr Fisk underwent surgery Wednesday (May 29) at the Southern California Equine Foundation Hospital located in the stable area at Santa Anita. Dr. Ryan Carpenter inserted two screws into the right foreleg.
Mr Fisk “had his surgery, and it went well, so now we just have to wait four months and reassess how it heals,” Finley quoted Baffert as saying. “He looks good, he’s back in his stall, and he looks bright.”
A pair of Grade I events also were decided on Santa Anita’s turf course Monday. Anisette, making her 2024 debut, won the Gamely Stakes for trainer Leonard Powell. Johannes took the Shoemaker Mile and is now two-for-two this year for trainer Tim Yakteen.
But even though there were 10 stakes races at Santa Anita during the holiday weekend, the performance folks seemed to be talking about the most was the maiden victory by first-time starter Eagles Flight (pictured above in a morning workout), a half-brother to Flightline.
During Flightline’s racing career, he won all six career starts by a combined 71 lengths. That’s an average winning margin of 11.8 lengths! Talk about domination.
Eagles Flight, by two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, was favored at just a bit over even money in Monday’s six-furlong maiden contest. Seventh early in the field of eight, Eagles Flight won going away by 2 3/4 lengths. Flavian Prat was in the saddle.
Prat also rode Flightline when the Tapit colt kicked off his racing career in a Santa Anita maiden race at the same six-furlong distance in the spring of 2021.
Eagles Flight completed his six-furlong journey in 1:10.07 and recorded an 89 Beyer Speed Figure. Flightline? He won his first career start by 13 1/4 lengths in 1:08.75 and was credited with a 105 Beyer.
Following Flightline’s first race on April 24, I wrote for Xpressbet.com that even though Sadler won the Grade I Santa Anita Derby with Rock Your World on April 3, that son of Candy Ride “quite possibly is not even the best 3-year-old colt in Sadler’s barn. Sadler unleashed a $1 million auction purchase by the name of Flightline last Saturday at Santa Anita. Flightline drew off in the lane to win a six-furlong maiden race in isolated splendor by 13 1/4 lengths in a sizzling 1:08.75.”
Sadler told Daily Racing Form’s Steve Andersen that Flightline “might have as much potential as any young horse I’ve ever trained.”
It turned out that Flightline’s 105 Beyer at first asking would be by far the lowest figure of his six-race career. He followed the 105 with Beyers of 114, 118, 112, 126 and 121.
Prior to Monday’s race, Eagles Flight had not exhibited the same kind of sheer speed in the a.m. as Flightline did before his first race. Indeed, before Eagle Flight’s first appearance under silks, the thought has been that Eagles Flight will be better when he get the opportunity to go farther than six furlongs.
The day after Eagles Flight earned his maiden diploma, Sadler discussed the 3-year-old colt with Steve Byk on the SiriusXM radio program At the Races.
“Well, he was ready to run and we’re going into a little bit of an awkward point in the calendar where I didn’t have a lot of choices in what races to run,” Sadler remarked. “I said, ‘This is probably a little short for him.’ But a good horse will win at a shorter distance if they’re a good horse. Like, Zenyatta broke her maiden sprinting. I’m not saying this is Zenyatta or anything. But while I felt he could win going short, I’m pretty confident he will be a lot better going longer. And this will probably be the shortest race he will ever run.”
The first race of Zenyatta’s illustrious career would be her shortest. On Thanksgiving in 2007, the big 3-year-old mare won a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race at Hollywood Park by three lengths. She would go on to remain undefeated through 19 starts before losing by a head when second to Blame in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in 2010.
Sadler felt that Eagles Flight gained considerable experience while having to deal with traffic issues and plenty of dirt kickback when coming from well off the pace Monday.
“As I walked down to the winner’s circle, the first thing that flashed in my brain was he got four races worth of experience in one race,” Sadler said. “A lot of times with a good horse, you get a soft trip or soft horses or whatever. This was a good field.”
Finishing second to Eagles Flight was Santarena, an Omaha Beach colt who surely is one of the best maidens in the country. Santarena was good enough to record a 93 Beyer Speed Figure when the runner-up in an April 6 maiden sprint.
Eagles Flight, breaking from post two, “had to kind of man up, be on the inside, and take the worst of it a little bit, which is not easy to do,” Sadler said. “And he handled it really beautifully.”
Flightline was a magnificent racehorse. As for Eagles Flight, “he’s his own horse,” Sadler said. “We think he’s going to be a nice horse…You could talk about the temperament of the two horses, this or that, that kind of stuff. But Flightline was an extremely generational-type of performer you’re not going to see again.”
Eagles Flight and Flightline “are just different,” Sadler continued. “This horse is -- I mean this is a word -- a lot more malleable. I mean, Flightline was like a tsunami, or a 60-foot wave. This horse is more chill, by temperament. So they’re both different, but both good.”
Eagles Flight came out of the race “fine,” Sadler said, though the colt “got a shoe that got a little loose in the race. But his foot is fine this morning. I have no plans currently. We’ll figure that out in time…He’s got allowance conditions. Who knows what we’re going to do.”
Sadler did say that in terms of a possible long-range goal, “I would hope that he would be in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile by November. But, you know, it’s way too early for that. I’m not under any pressure other than to develop him, which is what we’re going to do.”
After reaching the finish line in front by 2 3/4 lengths, Eagle Flight did increase his lead a great deal on the gallop-out.
“I was not watching the gallop-out that closely yesterday, but I was watching it this morning on some video,” Sadler said. “The gallop-out was very good. And I really feel that he’s such a natural route horse. I mean, Flightline could run fast over hot coals [and excelled as a] sprinter, miler and [classic-distance horse]. I think this horse eventually is going to be really nice around two turns.”
Eagles Flight races for Hronis Racing (Kosta Hronis, his wife Stephanie, plus Pete Hronis), Summer Wind Equine (Jane Lyon) and Bill Farish.
Hronis Racing and Summer Wind Racing also were involved in the ownership of Flightline, as were Siena Farm, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing. Hronis Racing was the majority owner of Flightline.
REVISITING FLIGHTLINE’S PACIFIC CLASSIC
Below is some of what I wrote for Xpressbet.com in my recap of Flightline’s tremendous 19 1/4-length victory in Del Mar’s 2022 Pacific Classic:
To call last Saturday’s Grade I, $1 million Pacific Classic a race just doesn’t seem right. Was it really a race? No. It was a wipeout.
It was like every single game the USA’s “Dream Team” played at the 1992 Olympics when winning by an average of 44 points while on the way to a gold medal, or when the Joe Montana-led San Francisco 49ers pummeled the Denver Broncos by a score of 55-10 in a Super Bowl played in 1990.
This year’s Pacific Classic produced a victory a la Lyndon Johnson’s landslide win against Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election or when Ronald Reagan carried 49 out of 50 states when defeating Walter Mondale in 1984.
John Sadler trains a four-footed superstar by the name of Flightline. Sadler has said training him is something like coaching LeBron James.
What Flightline did last Saturday at Del Mar turned out about the same as if LeBron played a high school kid in a one-on-one basketball game.
Going into the 1 1/4-mile Pacific Classic, this question was asked over and over and over: How will Flightline do in his first try going farther than one mile?
Harvey Pack, the popular broadcaster and horseplayer who died last year, said time again that “you should never bet a favorite to do something it hasn’t done before.” Pack’s doctrine was cited by a number of people in terms of Flightline’s attempt to win a Grade I event without having previously raced farther than one mile. The widely held belief was this particular feat had never been achieved in the history of American racing prior to this year’s Pacific Classic.
What Pack said is very true under normal circumstances. But what made the Pacific Classic different is Flightline. He’s far from a normal horse.
Another truism in horse racing is the winner of a race often is the fastest horse in the race. Sometimes it’s just that simple. Going into the Pacific Classic, Beyer Speed Figures said Flightline was clearly the fastest horse in the field.
“Every racehorse, it starts off with, can they go fast? He can go fast and carry it,” Sadler has said of Flightline. “That’s what different. The assumption is, when you have a really fast horse, they can’t carry their speed. But this is just an exceptional horse. He can go good fractions and keep going. That’s really a rare horse.”
And it is a rare horse like a Flightline who can go out there and do something he has never done before, such as win going 1 1/4 miles without having a race longer than one mile under his belt.
Besides being an uncommonly fast racehorse, three factors indicated Flightline might not have any problem with a longer trip in the Pacific Classic. First, in each of his previous races, his lead had increased from the eighth pole to the finish. Second, the way he had galloped out after the finish in those races also was a hint that 1 1/4 miles might not be any issue for him. And third, his breeding suggested that he might well possess the necessary stamina to succeed going 1 1/4 miles.
When starter Tucker Slender pushed the button to send the Pacific Classic runners on their way, Flightline was involved in a bit of bumping leaving the gate, but it was nothing significant. He then vied for the early lead without jockey Flavien Prat having to hustle him to do so.
Flightline was in front by only one length at the half-mile pole, according to the Equibase chart. And then, in not much more time than it takes to say his name, Flightline expanded his advantage. Going into the far turn, his cushion was about five lengths.
Entering the far turn, with Flightline now well clear without having been asked for the slightest bit of speed yet, Prat decided to put his foot down on the accelerator, but just a teensy bit.
“When we went into the final turn, he was traveling so well that I asked him to pick it up a little bit,” Prat said.
What Flightline did the rest of the way was absolutely amazing.
Three things occurred simultaneously on the far turn. First, after Flightline was asked “to pick it up a little bit,” he responded eagerly while just floating along across the ground. Second, 49-1 longshot Extra Hope was retreating when paying the price for having dueled for the lead with Flightline to about the half-mile pole. And third, the others, despite being hard ridden, were not rallying while far behind Flightline.
As a result of that all taking place, Flightline managed to increase his advantage with every silky-smooth stride on the far turn to reach the quarter pole 10 lengths in front.
At that point, there were two main questions that remained to be answered: How far would Flightline win by? And would he break the track record?
When Flightline’s lead ballooned to 13 lengths with a furlong to go, they might as well have ended this year’s Pacific Classic right then by invoking a mercy rule, like they do when a Little League baseball game gets out of hand.
Not long after Prat took a peek back over his right shoulder in the vicinity of the eighth pole, he felt that the time had come to go ahead and ease off the accelerator. Prat allowed Flightline to just canter home without even the slightest bit of urging.
“As soon as I looked back and saw how far in front he was, I wrapped up on him,” Prat said.
The crowd cheered wildly as Flightline approached the sixteenth pole in front by a block.
“Take a good look at this, because this something you’re not going to see too often, maybe never again!” said track announcer Trevor Denman.
Flightline officially crossed the finish line 19 1/4 lengths in front. His winning margin demolished the Pacific Classic record of 12 1/2 lengths set by the Sadler-trained Accelerate in the 2018 Pacific Classic. Accelerate would go on to win the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Classic that year and was voted a 2018 Eclipse Award as champion older male.
The 66-year-old Sadler is turning the Pacific Classic into his own personal playground. He’s now won four of the last five. In addition to Accelerate and Flightline, Sadler’s Pacific Classic winners have been Higher Power in 2019 and Tripoli in 2021.
When you get right down to it, the 2022 Pacific Classic at Del Mar just wasn’t fair. Flightline really should have been asked to give the others a head start, or at least be ridden by a sumo wrestler instead of Prat.
And it wasn’t as if Flightline’s thrashed a bunch of bums. His five Pacific Classic victims were:
--Country Grammer, who finished second. An earner of in excess of $10 million, he was a Grade I winner in the U.S. last year and victorious in the Group I Dubai World Cup this year.
--Royal Ship, who came in third. A multiple Group I winner in his native Brazil, he is a multiple Grade II winner in this country.
--Express Train, who ended up fourth. He won this year’s Grade I Santa Anita Handicap.
--Extra Hope, who ran fifth. He won the Grade III Native Diver Handicap at Del Mar in 2020.
--Stilleto Boy, who finished sixth. He won the Grade II Californian at Santa Anita in April.
As mentioned earlier, Sadler said Flightline is an exceptional horse in that he can set good fractions and keep going. In the Pacific Classic, the fractions were :23.42 for the opening quarter-mile, :46.06 for the half, 1:09.97 for six furlongs, then 1:34.47 for one mile.
If Prat had simply flicked his wrists approaching the finish, or maybe even just sneezed, Flightline would have broken the 19-year-old track record of 1:59.11 set by another undefeated runner, Candy Ride, in 2003. Flightline’s final time was 1:59.28 or 1:59 1/5 in fifths.
When Secretariat won the 1973 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, he completed 1 1/4 miles in 1:59 2/5 to break Northern Dancer’s track record of 2:00 set in 1964.
Along with it being visually delicious, Flightline’s Pacific Classic effort was quantified as spectacular in that he received an enormous Beyer Speed Figure of 126. The 126 is tied for the second-biggest Beyer since the figures were made public in 1991 (initially in the Racing Times, then in the Daily Racing Form).
Ghostzapper registered the highest Beyer Speed Figure since 1991, a 128. That occurred when he splashed his way to a 10 3/4-length victory on a sloppy track in Monmouth Park’s Grade III Philip H. Iselin Handicap at 1 1/8 miles in 2004. Ghostzapper went on to capture the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Classic at 1 1/4 miles at Lone Star Park that year. His 124 Beyer in the Classic is tied with 1989 winner Sunday Silence for the highest figure in the history of that prestigious race.
According to Andy Beyer, creator of the Beyer Speed Figures, three other horses have run a 126. They all did it in 1997. Those three were Formal Gold, Gentlemen and Will’s Way.
“That is very honorable company for Flightline to be in,” Beyer said Monday morning to Steve Byk on the SiriusXM radio program At the Races.
Flightline kicked off his racing career with a 105 Beyer, followed by figures of 114, 118, 112 and now the gigantic 126.
Beyer can’t help wondering if “maybe a 130” is in Flightline’s range.
A Beyer Speed Figure of 130 or higher really does not seem far-fetched inasmuch as Flightline has won his first five races by a combined 62 3/4 lengths, while doing so effortlessly.
For Beyer, Flightline brings to mind one of the all-time greats, Seattle Slew, who swept the Triple Crown in 1977 while undefeated.
In a recent story for the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary website written by Steve Dennis, a turf writer in England, Sadler said that Flightline has been a ‘wow’ horse from day one.
“April Mayberry, who broke him at her farm in Ocala [Florida], said the first time she saw him breeze she knew he was special,” Sadler noted. “Flightline’s the kind of horse who comes along every 20, 30 years. The numbers he runs are unbelievable. I don’t think there are many people who’ve ever had a horse this good.”
Remember, Sadler said all that BEFORE the Pacific Classic.
Sadler told the English writer that Flightline might be the equivalent of Frankel. One imagines a number of people who read that, especially some folks in Europe, might have concluded that the trainer had gone insane.
Frankel won all 14 of his races from 2010-12 while racing exclusively in England, with 10 of his victories coming at the Group I level.
But anyone who saw what Flightline did in the Pacific Classic knows that his trainer certainly need not be fitted for one of those jackets with the sleeves in the back for mentioning Flightline in the same breath as Frankel.
Ray Paulick, publisher of the Paulick Report, wrote that Flightline’s Pacific Classic was “the kind of performance that famously moved Jack Nicklaus to tears while watching Secretariat’s Belmont tour de force alone at his home in Florida.”
This is a headline for an article written by Nicholas Godfrey for Thoroughbred Racing Commentary after the Pacific Classic: The new Secretariat? Flightline earns extraordinary Beyer figure of 126 for Pacific Classic romp
Godfrey called Flightline’s Pacific Classic “one of the most astonishing performances in the modern era of U.S. racing.”
This is a Thoroughbred Daily News headline for a post-Pacific Classic article written by Bill Finley: Was Flightline’s Pacific Classic the Best Performance Since Secretariat’s Belmont?
Finley made the observation that Flightline’s Pacific Classic unfolded in nearly identical fashion to Secretariat’s iconic 31-length victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes to complete a Triple Crown sweep.
“Secretariat’s rivals were still within striking distance midway down the backstretch as Sham stayed close,” Finley wrote. “Then he spurted his way from Sham and, from there, kept widening his margin over his competition.
“Flightline did much the same thing. With a half-mile to go in the race, Extra Hope was just a length behind Flightline while the main rivals were all within five to six lengths. Then Flightline hit another gear, took off and left some good horses looking like they belonged in the seventh at Finger Lakes.”
Dave Johnson called the 1973 Belmont Stakes over the track’s public address system.
Secretariat’s Belmont and Flightline’s Pacific Classic “were very similar,” Johnson told Finley. Flightline’s “Pacific Classic was breathtaking and that explosion of speed into the far turn was very similar to what Secretariat did. Almost 50 years later, I’ve never been so impressed by a horse or saw something that sent me back to the Secretariat days.”
Bill Mott, the Hall of Famer who trained two-time Horse of the Year Cigar, said that Flightline “looked spectacular” in a BloodHorse article written by Tim Wilkin. “To me, it was a Secretariat-type performance that we saw. There’s not much more to say about it.”
Bob Baffert is the trainer of distant Pacific Classic runner-up Country Grammer. The Hall of Fame trainer quipped afterward that Flightline was so far in front at the finish that Country Grammer thought he won the race.
TOP 100 OF THE 21ST CENTURY SO FAR
Flightline, who was retired from racing after being voted 2022 Horse of the Year, is ranked No. 1 on my list of the Top 100 Thoroughbreds of the 21st century so far to have won in North America. The up-to-date list is below:
1. Flightline
2. American Pharoah*
3. Zenyatta (f)
4. Arrogate
5. Ghostzapper
6. Curlin
7. Rachel Alexandra (f)
8. Justify*
9. Shared Belief
10. California Chrome
11. Tiznow
12. Gun Runner
13. Invasor
14. Wise Dan
15. Point Given
16. Beholder (f)
17. Goldikova (f)
18. Enable (f)
19. Barbaro
20. Smarty Jones
21. Bernardini
22. Azeri (f)
23. Lava Man
24. Bricks and Mortar
25. Rags to Riches (f)
26. Candy Ride
27. Blame
28. Pleasantly Perfect
29. Kona Gold
30. Mineshaft
31. Saint Liam
32. Intercontinental (f)
33. Ouija Board (f)
34. Life Is Good
35. Knicks Go
36. Authentic
37. Tepin (f)
38. Essential Quality
39. Afleet Alex
40. Songbird (f)
41. Monomoy Girl (f)
42. Xtra Heat (f)
43. Game On Dude
44. Mucho Macho Man
45. Empire Maker
46. Congaree
47. Conduit
48. I’ll Have Another
49. Kitten’s Joy
50. Roses in May
51. Blind Luck (f)
52. Havre de Grace (f)
53. Royal Delta (f)
54. Big Brown
55. Cody’s Wish
56. Lost in the Fog
57. Midnight Bisou (f)
58. Cape Blanco
59. Gio Ponti
60. Lookin At Lucky
61. English Channel
62. Medaglia d’Oro
63. Tiz the Law
64. Midnight Lute
65. Street Sense
66. Discreet Cat
67. Lawyer Ron
68. Nyquist
69. Ashado (f)
70. Monarchos
71. Quality Road
72. Fantastic Light
73. Flintshire
74. High Chaparral
75. Lady Eli (f)
76. Funny Cide
77. Rock Hard Ten
78. Raven’s Pass
79. Maximum Security
80. Frosted
81. Gamine (f)
82. Unique Bella (f)
83. Uncle Mo
84. City of Light
85. Accelerate
86. Mitole
87. Groupie Doll (f)
88. Lemon Drop Kid
89. Runhappy
90. Aptitude
91. Commentator
92. Lido Palace
93. Sightseek (f)
94. Surfside (f)
95. Sistercharlie (f)
96. Fort Larned
97. Street Cry
98. Left Bank
99. Vino Rosso
100. Animal Kingdom
*Triple Crown winner
(f) Female
NOTE: To be eligible for this list a horse must no longer be active
TOP 10 IN THIS WEEK’S NTRA TOP THOROUGHBRED POLL
Following his facile win in the Thor’s Echo Stakes, The Chosen Vron cracks the Top 10 at No. 8 in this week’s NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll (first-place votes were not listed by the NTRA this week):
Rank Points Horse
1. 293 Senor Buscador
2. 260 Idiomatic
3. 212 National Treasure
4. 166 Master of The Seas
5. 162 First Mission
6. 145 Adare Manor
7. 106 White Abarrio
8. 69 The Chosen Vron
9. 53 Skippylongstocking
10. 47 Skelly
TOP 10 IN THIS WEEK’S NTRA TOP THREE-YEAR-OLD POLL
Below is the Top 10 in this week’s NTRA Top Three-Year-Old Poll:
Rank Points Horse
1. 312 Mystik Dan
2. 278 Sierra Leone
3. 274 Seize the Grey
4. 188 Catching Freedom
5. 182 Forever Young
6. 169 Muth
7. 120 Thorpedo Anna
8. 76 Fierceness
9. 46 Resilience
10. 45 Nysos
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