ARCADIA Calif.—Undefeated Flightline, the equine version of Roy Hobbs, worked before a flock of fans and media 6:35 Sunday morning at his home base of Santa Anita for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 5.
“Assistant trainer Juan Leyva was on him, and he went five furlongs in a minute and two-fifths (1:00.40),” trainer John Sadler said of the $1 million son of Tapit who has won his five races by a combined margin of 62 ¾ lengths, including a 19 ¼-length waltz in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Sept. 3.
“He went nice and easy, no heavy lifting,” Sadler said.
“We’ve got plenty of time. There was a pretty large group on hand to watch him. We’re just trying to embrace everything, lean into it.
“This opportunity doesn’t come around very often. He’s doing really well and we’ll be working every Saturday.”
In his abbreviated career, Flightline has not accomplished that of his great predecessors, such as the likes of Kelso, Spectacular Bid, Dr. Fager, Secretariat and Seattle Slew, but he possesses a magical, mythical way of moving.
His is not a labor of love, but an enjoyable endeavor. He is the rarest of talents like Roy Hobbs, in that he’s a natural.
He can still achieve what Hobbs did not, rather than living with the regret expressed by Robert Redford, who portrayed Hobbs in the 1984 film classic, The Natural:
“I coulda been better. I coulda broke every record in the book . . . and then when I walked down the street, people would’ve looked and they would’ve said there goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in his game.”
Flightline still has that chance.
Santa Anita Stable Notes
Photo by Ernie Belmonte/PastTheWire
