For one of the best thoroughbred racehorse, their total profession arc begins solely on the observe. Regardless of how a lot they earn in the course of the race, it is not over, actually, actually, once they go the end line of their last time. Actually Giant quantities of cash – It’s within the breeding enterprise.
Exhibition a is Flight Line. Buyed for $1 million as a 12 months for West Level Thoroughbred, the Baytapit horse first raced at Santa Anita Park within the spring of 2021, successful by 13¼ size. He then started to take away 5 extra wins with overwhelming margins till November 2022. He rounded out his racing profession with an extended domination of the Breeders’ Cup Traditional at Keeneland Racecourse, with Flightline retired and praised North America’s quickest grime races. Solely Ghostzapper, who gained 9 out of 11 races and was the Horse of the 12 months in 2004, persistently produced pace figures akin to Flightline.
Flightline is owned by a partnership of established business figures, together with West Level throughout his time on the observe, and following the finale in Keeneland, his proprietor drove him out to the distinguished lane finish farm in Versailles, close to the state of Kentaio, to launch his type of profession. The group supplied a 2.5% revenue to the flightline at a gross sales in Keeneland in November following the Breeders’ Cup, and purchased it for $4.6 million. The 2023 Flightline’s first stud charge was set at $200,000, and that first season lined 152 fillies (mating). Powering up the calculator may have a cool $30.4 million value of $30.4 million in your first 12 months at Stud in comparison with the $4.5 million you gained in the course of the race.
The 152 fillies, bred in 2023, produced 124 foals in 2024, and on the finish of the lane final 12 months, the flightline was raised on precisely the identical variety of fillies for his or her second go-round. His charges have been diminished to $150,000. This was not an uncommon observe within the breeding business as new sensations shifted to stallions and moved to their very own first appearances. Final fall, a further 2.5% share of the flightline was auctioned by Keeneland throughout a sale held at Del Mar. This time it introduced in $2.5 million.
Quick ahead to this summer time, Flightline’s first fleet of foals is getting ready to be featured at a one-year-old public sale in North America. On August 4th and August fifth, Fasig-Tipton Co. will likely be holding its first yearly gross sales quickly after the historic Saratoga race course on the Saratoga Springs advanced, New York.
In 2024, 5 flightline weaning distances (weaning leaves foaming within the first 12 months of life after weaning from the dam) had been offered at a North American public sale. They totaled $2.35 billion, producing a median of $465,000. We hope that Flightline’s common annual value will stay at lots of of 1000’s, if not excessive, on Fasig-Tipton subsequent Monday and Tuesday. In spite of everything, along with carrying the blood of the flightline, many of those younger persons are produced by the dams that made the Mark Race and are available from horse households that rival the Rockefeller, the Kennedys (or the Kardashian?), or each.
What future patrons are searching for is hints on the traits that flightlines show with a easy sparkle on the observe. Pace and stamina. The superb pedigree himself (his stallion, Tapit, is represented by 4 Belmont Stakes winners), Flightline gained by the gap from the 6 Fur Lengthy Dash (two instances) to the “Traditional” Mile and And Aumer, and the Breeders’ Cup Traditional. Can he go these genetic tops?
After all, it’s tough to find out whether or not a 12 months’s thoroughbred may not less than method his bull (or dam) expertise degree. In spite of everything, they have not even began the fundamentals of coaching. So, over the subsequent few days, we will see different stallions scrutinized by every Fasig-Tipton participant, both by Flightline or by dozens of Bloodstock consultants, at a degree that approaches Sumerian Cuneiform. Breeding champion racehorse is a data-driven science and is a few intuitive artwork, however as soon as it’s profitable, the proprietor’s monetary rewards are phenomenal, to not point out the chance to have an enduring affect on the thoroughbred business.
It is an thrilling time for Flightline followers and people who have all the time had one-eyed side-garance on the subsequent technology of horses. Behemoth Keeneland Flightline foals will likely be supplied on the annual 12 months sale in September, and several other different flightline foals will likely be supplied on the sale over the remaining months of 2025. Subsequent 12 months, different from his first crop will likely be supplied at public sale two years in the past within the spring.
As they compete, the subsequent few years will likely be “bearing or silent” time for Flightline’s fleets at racetracks in North America and abroad. If even a modest proportion of his offspring approaches the excellence of their bulls, he’s assured an extended, productive, and (for his homeowners) extremely profitable profession. There is no such thing as a assure that it’s occurring. Ghostzapper, a pace determine peer for Flightline, is at present concerned in his breeding tenure in Canada, establishing his fame as a bull slightly than an elite (lots of his greatest runners had been mares and mares). Flightline might not even attain that mark. However for now, as this unbelievable horse’s second profession rises to a brand new altitude, the predictions at Fasig Tipton in Saratoga Springs are coming.
Do not miss out on two of America’s greatest race dwell streams produced on-site on Fasig-Tipton subsequent Monday and Tuesday. Our present begins each at 6pm nights hosted by Len Carrothers, Rachel Miller and Dan Trudejuman, and provides perception into the quick, typically thrilling world of thoroughbred auctions, together with roving reviews from Alexa Zep and particular company. “Stay from the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale!‘ will stream on ABR’s Fb, X and YouTube channels.
