Was Flightline's Pacific Classic the Best Performance Since Secretariat's Belmont?

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley

Some more thoughts on Flightline (Tapit) while trying to come up with the right superlative to describe his win in the GI TVG Pacific Classic. Words like spectacular, stunning, sensational just don't seem good enough.

(*) It's tempting to try to compare him to Secretariat. The thing is, that's simply impossible. One has run just five times, the other ran 21 times, won the Triple Crown, was a two-time Horse of the Year and had his picture on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated. They're not going to make a movie about Flightline. They are different horses from different eras, equine apples and oranges. Is Flightline as good as Secretariat, or the best horse since Secretariat? There's no answer to that question.

But there is a way to look at the two under the same microscope by comparing what were the two best performances of their respective careers. Secretariat's 31-length win in the 1973 GI Belmont S. was not just the greatest performance of his career, it was the best race ever run by any horse at any time in the history of horse racing. No one will ever top what he did that afternoon 49 years ago at Belmont Park.

But you can easily make the argument that Flightline's Pacific Classic was the best performance anyone in the U.S. has seen since. This was no easy assignment. Country Grammer (Tonalist), Royal Ship (Brz) (Midshipman), Express Train (Union Rags) are solid older horses, all Grade I-level horses. And Flightline thrashed them, winning by 19 1/4 lengths despite being eased up in the final sixteenth by jockey Flavien Prat. He ran a 126 Beyer, second best ever given out by the Beyer team and two points behind the 128 given to Ghostzapper (Awesome Again) when he won the GIII Philip H. Iselin H. in 2004.

As announcer Trevor Denman said in his call, “Take a good look at this because this is something you're not going to see too often. Maybe never again.”

It's worth noting that the two races unfolded is nearly identical fashion. Secretariat's rivals were still within striking distance midway down the backstretch as Sham stayed close. Then he spurted away from Sham and, from there, kept widening his margin over his competitors. Flightline did much the same thing. With a half-mile to go in the race, Extra Hope (Shanghai Bobby) was just a length behind Flightline while the main rivals were all within five or six lengths. Then Flightline hit another gear, took off and left some good horses looking like they belonged in the seventh at Finger Lakes.

Then there was the look back. Prat looked over his right shoulder in the stretch as if he couldn't believe he was so far in front. Ron Turcotte did the same, only looking over his left shoulder.

“These races were very similar,” said Dave Johnson, who called the 1973 Belmont for NYRA. “His Pacific Classic was breathtaking and that explosion of speed coming into the far turn was very similar to what Secretariat did. Almost 50 years later, I've never been so impressed by a horse or saw something that sent me back to the Secretariat days.”

(*) There's one thing we have yet to see from Flightline, which is what would he do if ever asked. Prat has never allowed this horse to fire on all cylinders in the stretch. There has been no need to do so. Why not save something for another day?
But could Flightline have won the Pacific Classic by even more than 19 1/4 lengths if Prat hadn't wrapped up on him? It stands to reason that he could have, maybe even by five or six more lengths.

Since the GI Breeders' Cup Classic will likely be his last start this year and maybe in his career, why not just let him roll? Wouldn't it be great to see what Flightline could do if his jockey called on everything he had. Maybe he wins by 31 lengths. What do they have to lose?

(*) The only negative to the Flightline story is that he has only run five times. Part of the reason why is that he had some bad luck (like crashing into a fence and suffering a nasty gash while he was being broken as a yearling) and other minor setbacks along the way. But his light schedule is more about the way top horses are campaigned in the modern era and how what really matters is not what they do on the racetrack but how much they are worth as stallions. You can't blame trainer John Sadler, who mapped out the schedule. His job was to create a very valuable stallion and in that regard he did everything right.

We also don't know how much of a challenge it may be to get Flightline prepared for races. He could be one of those too-fast-for-his-own-good horses, ones that need a lot of time off between races.

But, as racing fans, we should all feel cheated that we have seen so little of this horse. The good news is maybe this story isn't over. Yes, he is worth more as a stallion than as a racehorse, but after the Pacific Classic, Sadler told reporters that the connections have an open mind when it comes to racing him next year as a 5-year-old.

Go for it. Sometimes there's more to the story than the bottom line and owners should feel they have at least some obligation to do what's best for the sport.

(*) Will the Pacific Classic affect the Breeders' Cup plans among some of the other top horses in the older male dirt division? The question is: no matter how good your horse might be, do you really want to take on Flightline in the Classic in what may be an exercise in futility, especially when there is the option of the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile? If I were the connections of Life Is Good (Into Mischief), I'd already have the pre-entry slip filled out for the Dirt Mile.

(*) Remember when there was some concern that Flightline might not get a mile and a quarter? In hindsight, he's obviously better at 10 furlongs than he is in shorter races. No surprise since he is by Tapit.