Flightline’s spectacular triumph in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday [Nov 5] confirmed that the four-year-old retires to stud as the world’s #1 racehorse on Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s exclusive Global Rankings.
However, on all available ratings, for all his dazzling brilliance, the undefeated son of Tapit – who ran just six times in his meteoric career – exits the racing scene with a legacy shy of that left by equine greats on both sides of the Atlantic such as Secretariat and Frankel.
Trained by John Sadler in California, Flightline will stand at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky for the 2023 covering season. He boosted his TRC portfolio by 192pts with his unforgettable 8¼-length drubbing of his rivals in the $6 million Classic at Keeneland for an overall total of 2444pts, well clear of second-placed Baaeed (2117pts). Star stayer Kyprios, with 2065pts in third, is therefore the top-rated horse still in training.
Flightline’s retirement to Lane’s End was announced on Sunday. He goes to stud having won all six starts by an aggregate margin of an astounding 71 lengths.
What is more, he continued to make headlines on Monday [Nov 7] when a 40th share (2.5%) in the colt was sold for a staggering $4.6m in the sales pavilion at Keeneland. Freddy Seitz signed the ticket for an anonymous buyer who purchased the share out of co-owner West Point’s 17.5% holding. Although scarcity might have inflated the price of this specific share offering, taken literally the sale would value Flightline at $184m.
After Baaeed’s defeat in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot, Flightline became the 20th horse to top the TRC rankings since 2014 when they were first published. The portfolios of the previous 19 have ranged from a low of 2035pts (Nature Strip in April 2022) to Winx’s high of 2796pts in April 2017.
Unbeaten in 14 career starts in Britain – ten of them at G1 level – Frankel’s exploits came before the first full list was completed in 2014 and thus we don’t know how many points his portfolio was worth. But it would have been significantly better than anything since – probably close to the 3000-mark.
Looking at the nitty-gritty on Flightline’s victory under regular jockey Flavien Prat, his performance at Keeneland received a TRC Computer Race Rating of 139 – one point beneath his memorable Pacific Classic romp. His Beyer speed figure in the Breeders’ Cup, as per the Daily Racing Form, was 121 (compared to 126 at Del Mar), while his Racing Post Rating was 138 (140 at Del Mar). In comparison, Frankel’s best RPR, achieved twice (Queen Anne and Juddmonte International), was 143.
Timeform rated the Breeders’ Cup Classic display at 136, 7lb beneath his Pacific Classic career high of 143 – the highest number the Halifax sages have ever given to a US-trained horse since they started publishing North American figure 30 years ago. Frankel’s best end-of-year rating was 147.
In an excellent piece on the Timeform website under the headline Flightline – the Timeform Verdict, analyst David Johnson added: “While it’s no surprise that his career comes to an end after the Breeders’ Cup Classic, it does seem a shame that he will leave that wider public consciousness as quickly as he entered it after just six starts, with many people left questioning where he stands in the pecking order of equine greatness.”
The legendary Secretariat won 16 of his 21 career starts over two seasons in 1972-73, earning a place in the annals when he completed the Triple Crown with a fabled 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes.
As Johnson points out, Timeform never produced a published rating for Secretariat. However, in their acclaimed Timeform-published work A Century of Champions, authors John Randall and Tony Morris rated Secretariat 144, Citation 142, Spectacular Bid and Seattle Slew 141 as the leading performers in America in the last century.
Similarly, speed figures guru Andrew Beyer never had a figure for Secretariat at the time, but later calculated that a figure in the low 150s would have been appropriate.
Either way, the debate about Flightline’s status within the equine pantheon will doubtless continue now that he has been retired after only half-a-dozen starts. He has, though, at least earned the right to be in the argument.
• Unlike traditional methods of racehorse rankings, TRC Global Rankings are a measure of an individual’s level of achievement over a rolling three-year period, providing a principled hierarchy of the leading horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires using statistical learning techniques.
Racehorse rankings can be compared to similar exercises in other sports, like the golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.
They are formulated from the last three years of races we consider Group or Graded class all over the world and update automatically each week according to the quality of a horse’s performances and their recency, taking into account how races work out.
Since we started collating racehorse rankings in 2014, the top three horses by weeks at #1 are Winx (162), Enable (56) and American Pharoah (42).
• Visit the Breeders' Cup website
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
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