Former jockey Juan Leyva has tasted Breeders’ Cup success in his own right. Now he is an integral member of trainer John Sadler’s team preparing racing’s newest superstar for his date with destiny in the Classic
USA: Every Saturday morning since his astonishing victory in the Pacific Classic, Flightline comes out to exercise at Santa Anita.
During most times of the year this standard workout would be of interest only to close connections and backstretch workers.
But Flightline is now such a box-office star that he can command an audience for his warm-ups too, with fans collecting in ever greater numbers at Clockers’ Corner for a glimpse of him as he builds towards the Breeders’ Cup Classic on November 5.
“People are starting to know his schedule, that he breezes at Santa Anita at 6.30am every Saturday.,” says Juan Leyva, the former jockey who as John Sadler’s assistant partners Flightline in every morning workout.
“The first time we worked him after the Pacific Classic, I don’t think anybody was aware that he was going to be working. But the following week there were people out there and now they are calling the stable gate, asking when Flightline is going to work? What time? What day?
‘People are starting to catch on’
“People are really starting to catch on to this horse,” he adds. “We want people to see this horse and experience what it’s like to be around him. If they come out and watch him in the morning they will see something special because this horse has a very different way about him.
“He knows people are watching him and he stands and poses for the cameras. So I hope as many people that want to come out, make it out to Santa Anita on Saturday mornings because he’s a very special animal and people need to see his essence.”
There are two more of these Saturday workouts scheduled before Flightline ships to Keeneland on October 23 ahead of what should be a blockbuster edition of America’s richest race.
Flightline has won all five career starts by a combined margin of 62¾ lengths. He has yet to be stretched in any race, and at Del Mar last month he beat the Dubai World Cup winner Country Grammer by 19½ lengths in the track’s $1m signature contest.
On raceday Flavien Prat will be back aboard Flightline but much of the responsibility for ensuring the colt arrives at the start in top shape falls to Sadler’s trusted lieutenant Leyva, himself a former Breeders’ Cup-winning jockey .
Flightline: ‘The best I will ever ride’ says Flavien Prat – and there could be even more to come
“I am very lucky,” he says. “It’s a privilege to be able to get on a horse like Flightline, but it’s also a big responsibility knowing that you are sitting on the best horse in the world, and basically it’s up to me to keep him under control, make sure he doesn’t do too much so that he is ready to run.
“What everybody is wondering about is what he can really do if he actually has to run, because every race he has run so far, he’s been under wraps the last sixteenth of a mile. He hasn’t really been asked and we’ve never really let him run in the mornings. I don’t think we really know where the bottom to this horse is.”
‘Wait till you see the good one’
Leyva adds: “Before this horse ever ran, we had won the Santa Anita Derby with Rock Your World and people were congratulating us and saying: ‘You’ve got a nice horse,’ and I would always tell everybody, ‘Wait till you see the good one that we have. That’s the real runner in the barn.’ Obviously that was Flightline. From day one this horse has always shown tremendous potential.”
Leyva enjoyed a successful 16-year career as a jockey, riding 803 winners with the high point his 2011 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint success on Musical Romance.
He never imagined he could top that moment when he quit in 2017. “I was blessed to win a Breeders’ Cup race and at that point I thought you couldn’t get any higher or experience anything better than that,” he says.
“As a jockey you may get to work a horse once a week or twice a month but in my position now you put a lot more work into the horse. I ride Flightline every day and I ride him in most of his workouts. So for me it’s very rewarding to see him cross the wire first under a gallop with nobody around him. It’s really satisfying.”
Leyva, 38, was born in Mexico and raised in California since the age of five. His father Ignacio, who had owned horses in Mexico and liked to bet, would take him to the races every Wednesday, and always to the traditional opening day of the Santa Anita winter meet on December 26.
The younger Leyva was smitten by the sport and began riding aged 16 in 2000, mostly at Los Alamitos. But it was only once he lost his ‘bug’ [rode out his claim] that he began to taste more regular success after he moved to Florida.
In his best year in 2011 he rode 105 winners but the effort of having to shed weight to make his rides began to take its toll. “By the end I just wasn’t enjoying riding because of that and felt like I needed a change,” he explains.
‘I didn’t work the horse properly’
Leyva had met Sadler when he first visited Santa Anita at the start of his riding career and, even if the meeting started inauspiciously, a connection was made. “My agent took me to his barn and he let me work a horse for him,” he says.
“I didn't work the horse properly. I was raised working Quarterhorses where you go fast and I wanted to show off that I could switch sticks, use it left and right-handed, which I did in the work.
“John yelled at me but he said: ‘Come back tomorrow and I’ll let you work another one’. I did and this time I worked him well. I rode a few winners for him in California and when I left for Florida we always kept in touch.
“Two years after my Breeders’ Cup win he called me and asked if I wanted to come and work for him as his assistant when I retired. At the time I was still doing well and not ready to make a change so I turned him down.
“But when I finally was ready, I called to ask if the door was still open and he said: ‘Come as soon as possible.’ “I got in my car and drove up from Florida to California. I think it took me two and a half days but when I got there I was working for John.”
The association has flourished. “John’s like family to me. He’s my boss obviously but I consider him a close friend,” Leyva goes on. “He has always steered me the right way. That’s why I figured, when he wanted me to come and work for him, that he had a plan. I had never been an assistant, but he took a chance hiring me and it’s been one of the best decisions of my life.”
After being put in charge of the Sadler barn at Los Alamitos in 2017, the following year Leyva got to work alongside his boss at his Santa Anita headquarters.
It turned out to be a breakthrough year as Accelerate snapped the stable’s 0-42 winless streak at Breeders’ Cups when landing the Classic at Churchill Downs.
Leyva recalls: “I thought we were going to do it with Catapult in the Mile that year but he was just beaten by Expert Eye, so it was pure joy when Accelerate crossed the wire first to give John that elusive Breeders’ Cup win.
“I took that chance from him in 2011 because his horse finished second in the race that I won, so I was really happy to be part of that win.”
The Sadler record now stands at one win from 54 starters. As well as Flightline, the stable have Bran in the Turf Sprint and Edgeway in the Filly & Mare Sprint. “We haven’t had a Breeders’ Cup winner since Accelerate so we are planning on Flightline making it two wins for John Sadler,” says Leyva.
‘I’ve been singing this horse’s praises’
“I don’t want to sound too confident, but if he does it, it’s gonna feel good because I’ve been singing this horse’s praises since the first day I rode him. When I first sat on him I knew he was going to be a special horse.”
He adds: “I hope we get everybody in that field that wants to go in the race. I hope nobody ends up going the other way. It would be a really big thing if we could get all the top horses lined up that day and let them decide who is the best one.
“There are always going to be naysayers that say, ‘Can Flightline do it again?’ If they all show up it’s going to be a tremendous race.”
• Visit the Breeders' Cup website
I should be so lucky – 20-year-old Kylee Jordan set to debut at Breeders’ Cup on Iowa star
Flightline: ‘The best I will ever ride’ says Flavien Prat – and there could be even more to come
The new Secretariat? Flightline earns extraordinary Beyer figure of 126 for Pacific Classic romp
Baaeed’s six steps to Group 1 greatness – according to Jim Crowley
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires