Flightline

You know, you could easily get him nudging 140.

Whether I'd want to go that far and give a horse a 140 rating, which puts him on the same sort of level as Frankel and Flightline for beating the horses that he did, I'd be extremely uncomfortable with that.

But I think when you just take the whole package into account of what he achieved on Sunday, I think this was, as I said to you before, the performance that we required to push him to the sort of levels that he is now at, where at 135, he's the equal of Equinox and Bayid.

He's a pound behind Sea of the Stars and five behind the aforementioned Frankel and Flightline.

Dom, appreciate your time today.

It's been a fascinating debate, this, and really appreciate you giving us your thoughts.

Yeah, we're hoping that's true.

And kudos to Flightline, one of the greatest horses we've all ever seen.

So, you know, to be talked about in the same breath is wonderful.

To have Flightline chasing us for a change, it's a great spot to be in.

And, you know, to your point, as you know well, he was the fastest horse to reach four rising stars and winning maidens is great.

And I'm sure you know all the stats on it, but rising stars become black type winners, become graded winners and a good percentage of them, especially when they're doing it at Saratoga, become grade one winners.

and fourth fastest time ever at 10 furlongs, and then he got injured in the Breeders' Cup.

Worried he might get overlooked, only one grade one win, no wins in the Triple Crown races, and his Travers win happens just a week before Flightline's historic Pacific Classics, so got completely overshadowed.

And other horses that instantly come to mind, Flightline, Cody's Wish, White Abario, and probably all three of Sierra Leone, Fierceness, and Forever Young.

got a zero leona hall of favor

oh brooke's gonna

We round out the field with Knightsbridge coming off a 122 Beyer Speed Figure when he won the Monmouth Cup by 10 plus lengths.

It was the highest Beyer Speed Figure since Flightline won the 2022 Pacific Classic.

I was talking with Dave Weaver from, uh, FanDuel.

He's gonna be working this weekend at Del Mar.

Not at all.

Maybe I'll, maybe I'll be wrong.

You know, I, I picked against Flightline in this race a few years ago.

I'm [laughs] not afraid to say that.

Um, this was the race, frankly, outside of any kind of stakes race, obviously outside of Woodbine, what was going on, uh, up there, that I was watching the most intently was race seven on Saturday at Del Mar.

We were not let down by a son of Flightline.

Uh, trained by John Sadler.

Can you imagine him just standing in the winner's circle just rubbing his hands together looking at this horse-

But at, no, I thought he was very, very impressive.

It's the exact kind, uh, of thing that we would want, uh, on debut from a horse that we have a lot of hopes for.

But like I said, man, I, I think, you know, Sadler, one of the underrated things about how he managed Flightline was just the patience he showed, right? He never ran that horse unless he was truly ready.

So I'll be interested to see if this one comes back on shorter amount of time off after his debut than, say, Dad did.