Flightline odds-on against legit stars in Met Mile
ELMONT, N.Y. – On paper, the task seems daunting. A horse who has run just three times, and not since Dec. 26, ships cross-country to run over a new track against one horse who is a Grade 1 winner and has won three consecutive graded stakes, another who is a Breeders’ Cup winner, and yet another Grade 1 winner.
Yet, it is Flightline – who has been brilliant in all three of those starts – who is the 3-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park against the likes of Grade 1 winners Speaker’s Corner, Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Aloha West, and Happy Saver. Informative, a longshot, completes the lineup.
Despite the Met Mile being run on the same card as the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes and one that includes four champions, an argument could be made Flightline is the marquee horse on the program.
“I’ve never had one like this and I’ve trained a lot of years,” said Flightline’s trainer, John Sadler, who has won more than 2,600 races, including close to 200 graded stakes in a career that began in 1979.
Flightline has made it look easy, sprinting to front-running victories in a maiden race at Del Mar, an allowance at Santa Anita, and the Grade 1 Malibu there.
“When he goes fast, he looks like he’s going easy,” Sadler said. “We never got into him at any point. We never asked him to work fast.”
Sadler has had to get Flightline to the Met Mile on works alone. After he won the Malibu by 11 1/2 lengths on Dec. 26 at Santa – his third double-digit-length victory – Flightline was targeting the San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita on March 5 as a way to get to the Met Mile. But a strained hock forced him to miss that race and kept him off the work tab for two months.
“You miss a race, you just have to adjust,” Sadler said. “With him, he’s such an athlete. He trains super. I felt I could train him up to this race because he’s a very good work horse.”
Flightline has had nine works since April 10, two coming with his regular rider, Flavien Prat, aboard.
“That was probably more for me than the horse, but [Prat] feels good about the way he’s doing,” Sadler said. “I feel very good about the way he’s doing. A lot of credit to Juan Leyva, my assistant, who also rides him. He’s put in a lot of time with him and he’s got a very good opinion.
“The thing we did a little different is we spent a lot of time relaxing him. Early on he’d want to charge off in his works. The last few works he’s doing whatever we want.”
Flightline drew the rail for the Met Mile and, with a clean break, figures the one to catch under Prat.
Speaker’s Corner, though, has speed as well and he’s drawn right next to Flightline in post 2 under Junior Alvarado. Speaker’s Corner, a son of Street Sense, has a three-race winning streak that includes a 4 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Carter at Aqueduct on April 9.
Asked if he felt Speaker’s Corner could beat Flightline if he had to follow him, Bill Mott, the Hall of Fame trainer of Speaker’s Corner, coyly said, “What if he’s not following him?”
Prior to the Carter, Speaker’s Corner won a pair of graded stakes going a one-turn mile at Gulfstream Park.
“Our horse has had a good enough foundation this year and yet he’s had plenty of time to be fresh for this race, so hopefully it works out,” said Mott, who is in search of his first victory in the Met Mile. He has run 11 horses in the race since 1992.
Asked his impressions of Flightline, Mott said: “Visually, very good. This will be his toughest task and I’m sure they know that. I’m comfortable being in my spot.”
Aloha West won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint last November, ending his 4-year-old season with three wins from his last four starts. Trainer Wayne Catalano is not fazed by the presence of Flightline and Speaker’s Corner.
“They got Flightline and Speaker’s Corner, I got Aloha West, and he only won the Breeders’ Cup,” Catalano said. “We got a horse.”
Aloha West finished third behind Jackie’s Warrior in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs on May 7. Catalano felt jockey Jose Ortiz had Aloha West closer to the pace than he prefers, which might have cost him second.
“I should have been second but I went for the win,” Catalano said. “That was off the bench. If he sits there and makes his run, he’s going to be second.”
Ortiz rides Aloha West on Saturday from post 3.
Though Happy Saver won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles here in October 2020, he has two other wins in shorter one-turn races at Belmont. Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Happy Saver, sees the potential for a pace duel between Flightline and Speaker’s Corner, which could set it up for a horse like his that comes from off the pace.
“There’s two really exceptional horses in there, but they both have similar running styles,” Pletcher said. “We would need to have things set up the right way, and if they really went fast, you never know. It might turn out that it’s too short for him, but if things were to unfold really hot up front, something’s got to give.”
Irad Ortiz Jr. rides Happy Saver from post 3.
In 2018, trainer Uriah St Lewis pulled off a 46-1 upset with Discreet Lover in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont. In the Met Mile, St Lewis attempts to top that feat with Informative, who last summer won the Salvator Mile at Monmouth Park at odds of 79-1.