HAD Flightline not gone on to win a couple of times, preferably at stakes level, many people would have been left feeling very disappointed.

A son of multiple champion sire Tapit (Pulpit), Flightline is out of a Grade 3 winner who was twice beaten less than a length in her efforts to win a Grade 1. He sold for a million dollars as a yearling and both his third and fourth dams are Grade 1 winners. In short, Flightline was bred to be good.

In fact, It was not until late April, as a three-year-old, that Flightline, trained by John Sadler, made his long anticipated debut and what an impression he made, winning by more than 13 lengths at Santa Anita. We did not see him again until September when he won at Del Mar, and while he had yet to tackle stakes company, there was speculation that he would go to the Breeders’ Cup.

After that plan of action was eschewed, Flightline instead appeared last weekend in the Grade 1 Runhappy Malibu Stakes, back at Santa Anita, and he won by an incredible 11 and a half lengths, recording a very fast time and living up to the hopes and expectations of his conglomerate of owners, and his trainer. The latter said afterwards: “This is not an ordinary horse; this is a very special horse.”

Should Flightline continue to build on this victory, and there is no reason to believe he will not, then he would be a readymade stallion, and a very desirable one at that. He is the second foal of his dam, Feathered, and that daughter of Indian Charlie (In Excess) was purchased carrying Flightline for $2,350,000 by Jane Lyon’s Summer Wind Farm. She continues to be a part-owner of the colt.

Flightline was born a year after Good On Paper (War Front), and she won as a three-year-old in 2020. Feathered’s just turned three-year-old is named Voron (Pioneerof The Nile) and he made his way to Russia after being sold for $100,000 as a yearling, and he is a juvenile winner there. There is a two-year-old own-brother to Flightline, named Failsafe (Tapit), and he was unsold at $390,000 last year.

In 2021, Feathered foaled a colt by Curlin (Smart Strike), and was covered by one of Jane Lyon’s favourite stallions, Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday). A three-time winner including the Grade 3 Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs, Feathered was runner-up in both the Grade 1 American Oaks and Starlet Stakes. She, in turn, is the best of the three winners to date from the stakes-placed Receipt (Dynaformer).

Finder’s Fee

Receipt is the only stakes-performing offspring among the five winners produced by Finder’s Fee (Storm Cat). That mare was among the leading racemares of her generation. At two she won the Grade 1 Matron Stakes, and the next year added the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes, the first leg of the Triple Crown equivalent for fillies, the Triple Tiara, to her tally of wins.

Tapit celebrated his official 21st birthday yesterday, and is set for another season at Gainesway Stud where a service will cost $185,000. Flightline was his 95th graded stakes winner, and the 28th at Group/Grade 1 level.