Flightline to stand at Lane's End when racing days are over

The brilliant and unbeaten Flightline, who has several connections to Lane’s End Farm, will officially stand at that facility “upon the conclusion of his racing career.”

Lane’s End made the announcement Monday morning, stating that the 4-year-old son of Tapit will stand as the property of a syndicate. Flightline is expected to make his next start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 5 at Keeneland, and no plans for his future beyond that have been officially announced. Following his most recent win, in the Pacific Classic on Sept. 3 at Del Mar, co-owner Kosta Hronis expressed enthusiasm for a 5-year-old campaign for the horse.

“This is what he was born to do,” Hronis told Daily Racing Form.

Flightline was bred by the Summer Wind Farm of Jane Lyon, and was offered at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale as part of the Lane’s End consignment. He was purchased for $1 million to race for the partnership of Hronis Racing, Woodford Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds, and Siena Farm, with Lyon stepping back in for a piece of the partnership.

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Woodford Racing was founded by Bill Farish of Lane’s End, making the Versailles, Ky., farm an obvious front-runner for Flightline’s future home. Additionally, two Hronis Racing colorbearers currently stand at the farm in Eclipse Award champion Accelerate and multiple graded stakes winner Catalina Cruiser, the latter bred at the farm.

Millionaire Flightline, who is trained by John Sadler and has been ridden throughout his career by Flaven Prat, has won all five of his starts by a combined 62 3/4 lengths, never earning lower than a 105 Beyer Speed Figure. That includes consecutive Grade 1 triumphs in the Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita by 11 1/2 lengths with a 118 Beyer; the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont by six lengths with a 112; and, in a recent tour de force, the Pacific Classic.

In that outing, his first start around two turns, Flightline romped by 19 1/4 lengths and covered 1 1/4 miles in 1:59.28 while geared down late, just missing the track mark of 1:59.11. His Beyer Speed Figure of 126 was the highest number awarded since Ghostzapper posted a 128 winning the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin in 2004. It also tied for the second-highest number given any horse since the Beyer figures moved into the public domain, first with the launch of The Racing Times in 1991, and then moving on to Daily Racing Form.

Flightline, who is out of the Grade 3-winning Indian Charlie mare Feathered, is from the outstanding Phipps family of Eclipse Award champion and Hall of Fame racemare Heavenly Prize, Grade 1 winners Bigger Picture, Dancing Forever, Dancing Spree, Fantastic Find, Finder’s Fee, Furlough, Good Reward, Instilled Regard, Oh What a Windfall, and Persistently, and many other graded stakes winners including successful sire Pure Prize.