Flightline mares take off at November sales

Unbeaten Horse of the Year Flightline received a strong reception at stud at Lane’s End Farm, covering a star-studded book at an advertised fee of $200,000, one of the highest in recent years. His strong reception continued with his first mares in foal at the November mixed auctions.

At Fasig-Tipton November, four mares in foal to Flightline sold for an average of $1,643,750, led by $3 million for Queen Caroline, dam of champion Forte. Seven mares in foal to Flightline then averaged $946,429 – still more than four times the stud fee – at Keeneland November, led by Grade 1 winner Dalika for $1.65 million.

Several members of the multi-pronged partnership that campaigned Flightline have been active in the breeding marketplace to support the young stallion. For example, his breeder and co-owner, Summer Wind Farm, purchased several quality mares for his first book last year at the Keeneland November sale.

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At this recently concluded sale, Terry Finley of co-owner West Point Thoroughbreds signed for the $650,000 mare Exotic West, a stakes winner carrying her first foal to the cover of the champion.

“Obviously, the market, the appetite for Flightline, is really over the top,” Finley said. “I think better than we even expected, and we had high expectations. Our outlook is that we can’t get enough of him. We’re really happy with the first book of mares that he had, and the second one is shaping up really, really well already. If you can’t get excited about owning a piece of Flightline still and having the shot to have his babies and the expectation for a couple years from now when they hit the track, then you probably don’t need to be in the game.”

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