However, a brave group will attempt to bring Flightline back to Earth. Life is Good has won nine of his 11 races. The Olympics is six in his last seven. This year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Rich Strike, and 2022 Travers’ epicenter champion are two formidable 3-year-olds.
The race promises to be great television (NBC), and if Flightline prevails, it provides a moment of victory as well as tension for a sport desperate to return to its prime importance.
For colt owners, a tough decision looms on the horizon: retire the fly line to the breeding fold and with at least $60 million guarantee, or run it next year when it was 5 years old in hopes of bolstering the argument that he’s one of all athletes. time greats?
Terry Finley, founder and president of West Point Thoroughbreds, which owns Flightline in partnership with Hronis Racing, Sienna Farm, Summer Wind Fancy and Woodford Racing. “We’ll see how the classic car goes and evaluate our options.”
Either way, the property group should be rewarded for the patience they have shown in managing the stop-and-go trip for a crossed colt to the racetrack.
Tabet’s son, Flightline, was in his royal patronage when he entered the auction circuit at the Vasig Tipton Saratoga Sale in 2019. He was muscular, balanced and ready to go beyond his fickle age. Finley signed a $1 million sales ticket, but soon the partners came on board.
Even when she was a little girl, she liked Flyline.
April Mayberry, who put the colt in its early stride on her ranch in Ocala, Florida, had to call Sadler early on in Flightline training to tell him he had a special one coming up. Over decades of training hundreds of horses before they arrived on the racetrack, Mayberry has only made a similar call again – to the Zenyatta connections, the mare that won 19 out of 20 races.
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