Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy Asaro
They have no good reason to run hard early against LIG.
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Flightline is close to being a runoff. And whatever attempts to teach the horse to relax or settle go out the window when they fly in his jockey to work him or breeze him from the starting gate.
The only glimmer of a willingness to rate in hand came in the Met Mile. Prat panicked when the horse broke a step slow (as the horse did in the Malibu) and sent Flightline up for the lead but got squeezed back. Still in panic mode, he regrouped and sent him again but then wisely took hold as he probably realized the futility of trying to engage Speaker's Corner at that point (by the way, a trumped up Speaker's Corner who was a stand in for Life is Good and had the latter's attributes projected on to him undeservedly). Flightline seemed to respond to the restraint fairly well, but ultimately the pace was so fast that Prat was still able to give Flightline his head back almost immediately anyways.
Had the Met Mile been a longer race with a slower early pace, it's possible Flightline would resent being throttled down and been rank or otherwise fought his rider. In the Pacific Classic while chasing an outclassed, non-frontrunner past his prime (Extra Hope), Flightline clearly dragged Prat to the lead very early on the backstretch. He is not "push button" and certainly cannot be placed anywhere in a race the way standouts like Candy Ride and Beholder (who each won the Pacific Classic just as impressively as Flightline) could be.
Therefore what Flightline does early against Life is Good will depend on what Life is Good is doing. I don't recall if they ever tried to get Life is Good to settle early, he certainly was sent in the Pegasus despite the prospect of engaging Knicks Go. At 10 furlongs, Life is Good and Flightline will most likely be eyeball-to-eyeball on the backstretch and not the latter rating kindly off the former's flank. It may well take Flightline a "couple more furlongs" to put away Life is Good. No horse has that sort of reserve capacity. If Flightline still dominates in that sort of pace scenario it will be because hopeless horses like Dynamic One, Happy Saver, Stilleto Boy, and Express Train are the only ones that are in a position to capitalize and not because he has more ability than Secretariat or Spectacular Bid.
Let's hope Epicenter's impressive and ruthless procession in the Travers was a sign he is improving leaps and bounds and that Olympiad's Whitney was a throwout race for some inexplicable reason. Maybe Baffert's ego will compel him to put Laurel River on a fast track to the BC Classic.
Hell, I'll even take the Euro bridesmaid Mishriff as a worthy foe to validate Flightline's actual greatness as opposed to the Washington Generals-like CA older horse corps he got to toy with last weekend.
