Flightline

[mostpost]

Originally Posted by zico20

The owners say they haven't made a decision on running him next year. : Why can't they say what we all already know. "If a breeder gives us the money we are asking for then his career is over, if not then we will run again." It is that simple.

Incredible race but like others have posted he isn't one of the all time greats off of just six races. Let us see him do the Pegasus, Saudi, and Dubai. That would be three races in three months. Give him two months off then do the Met, Whitney, JCGC, Woodward and Breeders Classic. Eight races in 10 months. If he can win all of them then I would put him in the top five.

They already have an agreement to stand him at Lane’s End. But they have the option of when to retire him. I would imagine that the terms of that agreement change pursuant to the date of the retirement.

[mostpost]

Originally Posted by rastajenk

How about, let's see him not do Saudi and Dubai.

Agree. Horses seem to take a long time to recover from that trip.

[PalaceOfFortLarned]

Pretty cool jockey cam.

Twitter

[Longshot6977]

Originally Posted by depalma113

There is no way in hell Life is Good ran 1:09.62 for 6 furlongs. That third quarter was run sub :24 seconds.

Even rudimentally just pausing the video at the half mile pole and pausing it again at the 6 furlong mark on YouTube you can see he ran that quarter in 23 and change.

If the half mile time of :45.47 is correct, than the time given for six furlongs is not just wrong, it's very wrong.

The last line of the Equibase charts say "The three quarters time was hand-timed due to an outrider hitting the beam too early."

[cj]

Originally Posted by depalma113

There is no way in hell Life is Good ran 1:09.62 for 6 furlongs. That third quarter was run sub :24 seconds.

Even rudimentally just pausing the video at the half mile pole and pausing it again at the 6 furlong mark on YouTube you can see he ran that quarter in 23 and change.

If the half mile time of :45.47 is correct, than the time given for six furlongs is not just wrong, it's very wrong.

I timed it from video, got 1:09.27.

[azeri98]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

I'm not saying you can't be a top flight athlete with a short career. Bo Jackson is, indeed, the best athlete I ever saw, and I saw a fair amount of him when he was with the Raiders in LA.

But I am saying that it's misleading to cite statistics that essentially celebrate short careers, such as undefeated records, average winning margins, etc. A horse like Spectacular Bid did a lot more than Flightline did. And yes, he lost a few races and didn't have a gigantic average winning margin- running against horses like Affirmed can do that to you!

Flightline is wonderful. I have said nothing negative about his races. But he doesn't run enough, and it's unfair to compare him to horses who ran a lot more and accomplished a lot more.

Ok so by your theory you can't compare Koufax, Bo and Orr to other athletes who played longer? Flightline faced a very good Classic field and blew them away. I'm sure Spectacular Bid faced small and over matched fields in his career. He faced 5 in the Malibu and 5 in the Preakness. You could also ask who did the Bid beat? He kept beating Flying Paster, Coastal, General Assembly, Lot O' Gold and Golden Act. How good were those horses in comparison to others? The Bid was a great horse but so is Flightline. Flightline beat Life is Good, Olympiad, Epicenter, all really good horses and when you have guys like Baffert and Pletcher saying Flightline is the best they have ever seen means a lot. At least in my opinion.

[classhandicapper]

Originally Posted by cj

I timed it from video, got 1:09.27.

Thanks

[Spalding No!]

Originally Posted by azeri98

You could also ask who did the Bid beat? He kept beating Flying Paster, Coastal, General Assembly, Lot O' Gold and Golden Act. How good were those horses in comparison to others?

Golden Act & Lot o'Gold were multiple stakes winners both before & after facing Spectacular Bid; both were stakes winners at age 2 & 3 and both beat older horses in major stakes when they were 3 (the Canadian International & Clark respectively).

Flying Paster was 13 for 21 away from Spectacular Bid.

General Assembly was 7 for 14 away from Spectacular Bid.

Coastal was 8 for 12 away from Spectacular Bid (and obviously beat him in the Belmont).

More importantly, Spectacular set or tied multiple track, stakes, & world records during his career over multiple distances. Sure enough, even his vanquished foes were capable of beating the clock.

Flying Paster set multiple stakes records. Coastal set 2 stakes records in the Peter Pan & Dwyer to flank his Belmont win. General Assembly set a stakes record sprinting as a 2yo and famously set the track record for 10 furlongs at Saratoga (eventually bettered by Arrogate) when romping in the Travers.

[ScottJ]

Flightline has been retired per the Press Release from Lane's End farm approximately 30 minutes ago.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by azeri98

Ok so by your theory you can't compare Koufax, Bo and Orr to other athletes who played longer? Flightline faced a very good Classic field and blew them away. I'm sure Spectacular Bid faced small and over matched fields in his career. He faced 5 in the Malibu and 5 in the Preakness. You could also ask who did the Bid beat? He kept beating Flying Paster, Coastal, General Assembly, Lot O' Gold and Golden Act. How good were those horses in comparison to others? The Bid was a great horse but so is Flightline. Flightline beat Life is Good, Olympiad, Epicenter, all really good horses and when you have guys like Baffert and Pletcher saying Flightline is the best they have ever seen means a lot. At least in my opinion.

Part of horse racing is even in overmatched fields you can get beat. Horses do.

As for what the Bid did, he ran 1 1/4 miles in 1:57 4/5, which has been an American record for 42 years, with only one horse (who is going to be in the hall of fame) coming within 1/5 of a second of it. Spectacular Bid also broke a 30 year old American record to do that. And he did it at the classic American distance.

He won most of the biggest races in the country. He set several other track records, including one in a route race at a major track as a 2 year old (unheard of). He carried 130 pounds. He sustained greatness over 3 seasons. He met the best horses of his generation several times. He took on all comers.

Spectacular Bid had a "great horse's" career. He put together a resume. Flightline hasn't, and won't.

[PalaceOfFortLarned]

Originally Posted by ScottJ

Flightline has been retired per the Press Release from Lane's End farm approximately 30 minutes ago.

Can't blame them, but damn.

We really didn't get to see enough of him.

[Sheffwed]

Originally Posted by PalaceOfFortLarned

Can't blame them, but damn.

We really didn't get to see enough of him.

This is a good thing for the game - he retires as a legend of sorts, and the owners make a fortune

Good for the game all around

[The Arbiter]

Good for what game? The breeding game?

Certainly not good for the racing game. As soon as this horse started to get some real press, he never races again. Same old story of the sport eating itself

[Bullet Plane]

Spectacular race! Going through fractions at the half mile and 6 furlong, just a tick or two off the sprint race ran earlier on the card. And then he just put LIG away like that horse was standing still. More impressive than the Pacific Classic win. A very tought classic field this year.

But man, I hope these mini campaigns aren't a wave of the future. There won't be any fans. Horse racing fans need horses they can follow. Thats why horses such as Cigar had such huge followings: They raced.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Bullet Plane

Spectacular race! Going through fractions at the half mile and 6 furlong, just a tick or two off the sprint race ran earlier on the card. And then he just put LIG away like that horse was standing still. More impressive than the Pacific Classic win. A very tought classic field this year.

But man, I hope these mini campaigns aren't a wave of the future. There won't be any fans. Horse racing fans need horses they can follow. Thats why horses such as Cigar had such huge followings: They raced.

They are the future. Look at how they retire top 3 year olds for even minor injuries, the sorts of things that years ago would have earned the horse some rest before a 4 year old campaign. (If you compare any of these injuries to the sorts of injuries that Citation and Seabiscuit suffered mid-career, there's no comparison.)

Look at American Pharoah. 3 races after the TC, retire after the BC Classic.

Look at Justify. 6 races total, retires immediately after the TC.

And now Flightline.

We will still see long campaigns, but only in three categories of horses:

Mares, like Beholder, who don't offer guaranteed profit in the breeding shed- they have to drop a live foal that makes it at least to the sales, and they only birth one per year.

Geldings, like Game on Dude.

Colts who are less attractive to the breeding industry, like California Chrome.

But the era of a top colt having a career like Affirmed had are over. And the sport suffers for it.