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I’d have him on eBay if he was mine.
I’m very sentimental about money.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"RPR have awarded Flightline a rating of 140, which is two ahead of Baaeed’s York romp.
Trainers of Flightline, John Sadler, and Baaeed, William Haggas, were asked to compare the two and both were having none of it. Here are the excerpts of their responses:
John Sadler:
“No. That’s for the sports writers. They could figure that out…That’s a hard comparison,” Sadler said, because one’s running a mile-and-a-quarter on turf in Europe, and we’re running a mile-and-a-quarter on dirt.”
William Haggas:
“Dirt in America and turf in England are two completely different ballgames,” Haggas told Horse Racing Nation. “I think you should admire and appreciate Flightline, and I think and hope everyone in England and Europe admires and appreciates Baaeed for what he is. They’re terrific horses of their generation”.
“What (Flightline) did was destroy a good field,” Haggas said. “I think dirt racing is open to something like that, but he went sub two minutes, which is pretty impressive, and his last half-furlong was pulling up. You can’t be anything but hugely admiring of his performance.”
Timeform have given Flightline 143, the highest they’ve ever awarded to an American-trained horse (the previous highest was Arrogate, on 139). Note that they weren’t rating US horses in the days of Secretariat.
For comparison, the august Halifax establishment has Baaeed on 137.
This is how I look at it.
If you’re rating horses you need to be cautious – excitable schoolboy anoraks who are just gagging to hand out big ratings will never be any good at it.
But at the same time you need to be open to horses occasionally putting in genuinely exceptional displays.
On the negative side, it was a small field, though unbeaten and always an easy winner, it was still far and away the horse’s best effort so far, it needs to be repeated against better horses and it’s possible nothing in behind him ran its race – maybe he broke them all as they vainly pursued them?
On the positive side, he’s beaten three horses rated 115 twice and 116 by almost 20 lengths – how likely is it none of the trio ran to its mark? He’s almost equalled the track record despite being eased down and some are saying the track is deeper nowadays and it’s harder to clock quick times. Had he not run and the Dubai World Cup winner beats two horses rated 115 and 116 by seven lengths, how many are people are saying the winner hadn’t run to his mark? Nothing tried to go with him, he didn’t break any of them, none of them sacrificed themselves on the altar of taking him on – they all ran their own race at their own pace so why would they all be below par?
I’d need to see it repeated, but this was off the scale for me – a great performance by very probably a great racehorse.
It was the stuff of Secretariat.
Can’t wait to see him run again.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Me and my mate were playing golf last night and we compared it to Secretariat as well, the only US performance I’ve ever seen that I can confidently compare it to – any other race would be an insult to the late great, anyway my friend was telling me that Flightline is evens for the breeders cup? If that’s the case (and Flightline is going there) does anyone have a spare million they could lend me?
Flightline, Baeed, Constition Hill, we really are in an era of greats, just what the sport needs right now.
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