YOU remember Flightline, right?

This is the horse who was unraced at two and missed all the classics but went unbeaten in three starts as a four-year-old, ultimately winning the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Classic by over eight lengths before being retired to Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky.

By Tapit, he made a big impression with his first foals last year and now his yearlings are making headlines at Keeneland.

After the first four days of the September Sale, Flightline was responsible for six of the 20 highest-priced yearlings, an incredible result for an unproven sire, mixing it with the likes of Gun Runner, Into Mischief, Not This Time and indeed outperforming his own sire, Tapit.

Rookie trainer Miguel Clement, son of the late Christophe, is set to train a few of Flightline’s first crop, including a $2.2 million filly bought by Larry Sarf’s LSU Stables.

The filly is the first foal out of Grade 3 winner Four Graces, a racemare bought by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm for $2.3 million a few years ago. Consigned on behalf of Whisper Hill by Gainesway, the filly is from the family of Grade 2 winner McCracken.

LSU Stables also bought Flightline fillies for $750,000 and $600,000, and the plan is to send them all to Clement with a view to them making their debuts at Saratoga next August.

Japanese buyer Naohiro Sakaguchi bought two of the most expensive Flightline yearlings, a $1.7 million colt and a filly for $1.5 million.

John Stewart’s Resolute Bloodstock paid $1.5 million for a colt by Flightline,a half-brother to two-time Breeders’ Cup winner Golden Pal, already named Stock Rising.

“I own Pedigrees 360 (pedigree analysis tool), and the horse rates really well in that,” Stewart said. “That’s how we shortlist the system and kind of look through everything. And then, you know, we have a bunch of people that look at the horse, and it was on all of our lists and Flightline, you know, I really like the way those horses are looking, and I think it was the number one colt today.”

Stewart was relatively quiet this week. His only other two purchases over the first four days were a filly by Vekoma for $850,000 and a colt by Constitution for $500,000. By the same stage last year he had bought seven horses.

THERE hasn’t been very much European activity so far at Keeneland, which is not surprising given the dominance of dirt pedigrees and the strength of the market.

But it seems likely that many of the top Irish breeze-up operators will start to play in the coming days, considering how well many of them did this spring and especially as the European Union’s threat to impose a reciprocal tarriff on US imports has faded away.

Norman Williamson has had great success at this sale, notably picking up Ruling Court for $150,000 before selling the ill-fated 2000 Guineas winner to Godolphin for $2.3 million.

This week Williamson bought a colt from the first crop of Flightline for $250,000 but he didn’t compete for the Ghostzapper half-sister to Ruling Court, who was bought by Blue Diamond Stud for $1.175 million. Agent Hugo Merry signed the docket on behalf of Imad Al Sagar’s racing and breeding operation.

Katie Walsh also spent $250,000 on a Siyouni colt out of a winning Frankel mare.

Mags O’Toole spent $225,000 on a Justify filly, $150,000 on a colt by Yaupon and $125,000 on a colt by Epicenter.

A colt by Speaker’s Corner sold to Tom Whitehead of Powerstown Stud for €170,000.

Mark McStay’s Avenue Bloodstock bought a Justify filly for $325,000. She seems a likely type for Europe, being related to So Perfect, a Scat Daddy filly who finished a close second in both the Phoenix Stakes and Prix de l’Abbaye for Aidan O’Brien a few years ago.

Almost all of M.V. Magnier’s purchases this week are by dirt sires, with the exception of colts by Justify ($375,000) and Wootton Bassett ($625,000). The Justify is related to Order Of St George, while the page for the Wootton Bassett is full of horses trained in Ballydoyle, so it seems likely that pair will be heading across the Atlantic. Dermot Farrington bought a colt by Epicenter for $200,000 and Ballybush Stables spent $55,000 on a filly by the same sire.

Tally-Ho Stud bought a colt from the first crop of Golden Pal for $180,000. He is from the family of Acapulco, winner of the Queen Mary at Royal Ascot for Wesley Ward in 2015.