Flightline share to be offered at inaugural Keeneland Championship sale
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A stallion share in unbeaten 2022 Horse of the Year Flightline will be offered as part of the Keeneland Championship sale, as lots continue to be entered and revealed for the inaugural sale, which will be held the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 30 in the Del Mar paddock.
Flightline retired to Lane's End Farm for the 2023 breeding season after winning all six of his career starts, including, in his championship season, the Grade 1 Metropolitan handicap by six lengths, the Grade 1 Pacific Classic by 19 1/4 lengths, and the Breeders' Cup Classic by 8 1/4 lengths.
This is the second time an interest in Flightline has been made publicly available at auction, and, judging by the first go-round, it will be an offering of extreme interest. Two days after the BC Classic, a 2.5 percent interest in Flightline sold for $4.6 million at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale.
His advertised stud fee was subsequently set at $200,000 for his introductory season. He stood for $150,000 in 2024.
Flightline covered books of 152 mares in each of his first two seasons, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. Thirteen mares in foal to him sold at public auction last season for an average price of $1,074,231.
Weanlings from his first crop will be on offer in the coming month, with three cataloged for the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale, and six at Keeneland November.
Keeneland said in a release that the share in Flightline to be sold at Del Mar is offered by an original owner of the horse, “who retains multiple shares in the stallion and wishes to support the inaugural Championship sale with this unique opportunity.”
Flightline was campaigned by the partnership of Woodford Racing, which has Lane’s End’s Bill Farish as a principal; Hronis Racing; West Point Thoroughbreds; his breeder Jane Lyon’s Summer Wind Farm; and Siena Farm.
“Offering this share in Flightline in Keeneland’s Championship sale gives breeders a truly special chance to invest in one of the most exciting young stallions in our industry,” Farish said in the release. “The class and quality he possesses is readily evident in his progeny – Flightline is represented by an outstanding first crop of foals which have already received tremendous support in the commercial market abroad, with a top selection of weanlings cataloged to sell in November. Now, Keeneland provides buyers the option to invest in him from every possible angle.”
The pilot Championship sale and an accompanying party will be held in the Del Mar paddock on the evening of Oct. 30, a few days prior to the Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 1-2. Del Mar also will host the Breeders’ Cup in 2025, and Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy said the intent is to continue the sale as a “traveling road show” at various future Breeders’ Cup locations.
Sale participation is by invitation. The catalog is designed to feature full or fractional ownership interests in horses who are entered in the Breeders’ Cup or undercard races at Del Mar; bloodstock closely related to entries in Breeders’ Cup races; and stallion shares or breeding rights in prominent sires or sires of Breeders’ Cup entrants.
Given the logistics of these offerings, all cataloged horses will be offered remotely.
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