Fightline: The making of a partnership

Flightline is campaigned by the partnership of Hronis Racing, Siena Farm, breeder Summer Wind Farm, West Point Thoroughbreds, and the Lane’s End-affiliated Woodford Racing. Bloodstock agent David Ingordo, who advises several of those entities, said the partnership came together quite naturally, as several of those groups already had ties with the others.

“It was very organic,” Ingordo said, “and it ended up being a match made in heaven for horse, trainer, and owners.”

Summer Wind Farm

Breeder Summer Wind Farm offered Flightline via the Lane’s End consignment at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. Ingordo described breeder Jane Lyon as an integral first step in the partnership.

“We got to Saratoga, and Ms. Lyon was very up front that she’d like to stay in on the horse,” Ingordo said. “So she anchored it by keeping a percentage.”

Woodford Racing

Lane’s End principal Bill Farish is a founder of Woodford Racing, with Ben Haggin as operations director and Ingordo as bloodstock adviser.

“Bill loved the horse, because we’d been looking at him, and I loved the horse,” Ingordo said. “So that solidified the Lane’s End portion of it, and then [Woodford is] great business partners with West Point, so we brought them in.”

Roughly 50 partners in Woodford bought into the young Flightline, along with a package of other horses.

Lane’s End’s involvement also secured Flightline’s future as a stallion, as he will stand at the Versailles, Ky., farm, as property as a syndicate, upon his to-be-determined retirement.

“It’s as exciting as anything we’ve been involved with, going back to A.P. Indy and his Breeders’ Cup, or just any of them, really.”

West Point Thoroughbreds

West Point, founded in 1991, has enjoyed a long run as one of the nation’s leading partnerships and recorded its 1,000th victory this summer in Saratoga. The outfit has begun regularly teaming up with other entities, such as Woodford, to stretch its buying power at major auctions – as was the case when Flightline brought a cool $1 million at the Saratoga sale.

Seven West Point partners own a piece of Flightline.

“I think we all know that we’re in the midst of greatness,” West Point founder Terry Finley said. “No one’s trying to be arrogant or over the top – we’re all parochial toward our own horses. But the different camps in [our] ownership team, we look at each other, and we say, ‘Why us?’ ”

Hronis Racing

California-based brothers Kosta and Peter Hronis are primary clients for trainer John Sadler, who had asked Ingordo to keep his eyes open at the Saratoga yearling sale.

“The last piece was, John said ‘If you see a really, really good one that we might have to take a piece of in partnership, I’m in and will get the Hronises in,’ ” Ingordo said. Thus assembled the first four partners in Flightline who purchased the seven-figure colt.

Flightline races in the Hronis green and will eventually join former colorbearers Accelerate, Catalina Cruiser, and Gift Box at Lane’s End.

Siena Farm

The Kentucky farm founded by Anthony Manganaro, with partners Nacho Patino and David Pope, came into the partnership thanks to ties to West Point and Ingordo.

“Anthony Manganaro, his nephew Paul, is a great partner of mine,” Ingordo said. “And Anthony has done things with Terry Finley at West Point on and off over the years. So Terry brought him in on their end of it.”

New Partners?

Although Flightline’s future will be decided after Saturday’s Classic, someone else could come along for the ride. A 2.5 percent interest in the colt, part of the West Point share, will be publicly offered at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale two days following the race. It is expected to be the only opportunity to buy into Flightline before his eventual retirement.

“Our partners, by and large, are in the racing business,” Finley said. “But he’s also captivated people in terms of getting into the breeding business and buying a part of a couple broodmares to breed to him. I’d like to think that the partners on the Woodford and West Point groups, I’d like to think that they’re gonna be owners for life after owning a piece of Flightline.”