Exclusive interview with the leading rider, who tells Jon Lees about his career in the US – and what it’s like to ride the horse who stunned the racing world in the Pacific Classic
USA: Flavien Prat has described Flightline as “the best I will ever ride” after what he labelled as a “jaw-dropping” display in the Pacific Classic.
What is more, the expat Frenchman reckons there might be even better to come from the John Sadler-trained four-year-old, who made the entire racing world sit up and take notice with his electrifying 19½-length victory at Del Mar.
Prat, 30, has ridden over 1,300 winners in the US since crossing the Atlantic at the end of 2014 – but none of his 50-plus G1 winners have come close to Flightline’s astonishing effort at the California seaside track.
“It was unbelievable, to be honest,” said the jockey, speaking on his way to catch a flight back to California from his New York base. “I didn’t know a horse could do that. It was jaw-dropping.”
Running for the first time at a mile and a quarter, Flightline took his unbeaten record to five wins out of five with an astonishing performance, breezing to the front with five furlongs to run, opening up in the straight to put a country mile between himself and the Dubai World Cup winner Country Grammer, to win the $1 million prize easing down.
The exhibition earned him a Beyer Speed Figure of 126, the second-highest in 31 years, plus comparisons with the legendary Triple Crown winner Secretariat to go with earlier claims from his trainer mentioning him in the same breath as Frankel.
“When I hit the last turn he was moving really well,” the jockey went on. “I knew it was a really good race with a really go
od field, so I was expecting a few horses to be somewhere behind me, but I didn’t expect him to just open up like he did without me asking him to really move. I pretty much let him run, but I didn’t move on him or anything.
‘I just couldn’t believe it’
“When I looked back at the eight pole and saw I was so far in front, I just couldn’t believe it. It’s hard to describe the feeling. Those horses behind him won G1 races and to put 20 lengths on them is unbelievable.”
Despite being a heavy favorite, the son of Tapit still had something to prove over a new distance. He had recovered from missing the break to win the Met Mile at Belmont in June but left the gate on terms this time
Prat said: “We always thought he could run the mile and a quarter but he’d never run two turns and he never went further than a mile so there were a lot of question marks, even though we knew he was an amazing horse. But he did it in an amazing way.
“Now he is the best horse I ever rode but also the best horse I will ever ride. He’s shown he is the best horse on dirt in the world for sure.
‘He’s just been amazing’
“Since I’ve been on him he’s just been amazing,” Prat went on. “When he won the Malibu [by 11½ lengths] that was special too and he has just got better with each race.”
Prat grew up in Melun on the outskirts of Paris where his father Frederic is a trainer in the world of trotting horses. His brother Alexis became a harness driver in that sphere, but Prat preferred Thoroughbreds, becoming champion apprentice in 2009.
He registered his first G1 win on Indonesienne in the Prix Marcel Boussac at the Arc meeting in 2013 but by the end of the following year, when he rode 58 winners, he was convinced there was a better future for him in North America.
“I was not doing as good as I wished and at the time I was spending my winters in California,” he said. “I did that for four years, three of those with Richard Mandella. I had a great connection with him. He gave me a great opportunity to ride and I did well so I decided to make the change. I thought there would be more opportunities in the States.
“When you change countries you don’t really know what to expect,” he went on. “I was expecting to do as good as I was doing in France. The goal was to do better, but I didn’t expect to do this well, to ride so many good horses and to have so many opportunities and be trusted by the owners and trainers.”
He rode his first US G1 winner on Wild Dude in the 2015 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar, where he became a perennial champion, picking up five meet titles. He has won three titles at Santa Anita, where he clinched the first of three Breeders’ Cup victories on Obviously in the 2016 Sprint. He also has a Kentucky Derby victory to his name on Country House, awarded America’s most famous race in 2019 via the disqualification of Maximum Security, and added the Preakness on Rombauer in 2021.
A key to Prat’s US success has been his mastery of riding on dirt, not the easiest transition for riders raised on Europe’s turf racing. “I am a huge fan of dirt races so I was willing to do the best I can to understand them and adapt myself,” he explained. 
Go east young man!
With nothing left to prove in California, Prat decided to move his tack from west to east coast earlier this year, convinced he would earn greater recognition in New York, the riding community that has provided winners of the last 12 Eclipse awards. The change has been seamless.
“There were multiple reasons,” he explained. “The best riders, the best horses and everything in New York is so competitive. I wanted to challenge myself. I think there is a lot more recognition in New York than in California.
“I have two young kids [Elena, aged three, and Lenny, 10 months] so the best time to make the change was now – in another five years time would have been too late. I didn’t want to look back and regret never trying and it looked like I could get support from trainers.”
He went on: “I would love to win an Eclipse award. I need to work hard for that, but if I want to give myself a chance of being in the picture there is so much recognition here. I’ve had great support from connections. So far it’s been good.”
Prat has made sure he has time to hop on a five-hour flight to San Diego to maintain his association with Flightline, who ironically might do as much as any success in New York to getting him noticed.
Especially if the son on Tapit produces another box-office display, or something even more spectacular, on his next start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland in November.
“Race after race he just gets better," said Prat. "He has matured a lot now, he is really professional.
“I think we could see better,” he added. “But do we need to see better? I don’t really know. As long as we keep winning we don’t really need to. He is just a different animal. I have never experienced that in my life.”
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