I think that Flightline is a grand horse, and he has dominated in his wins.
He also didn’t run as a two year old, ran sparingly later in the year as a three year old, and has been very carefully managed. Retiring him now keeps that perfect record, and gets him to the shed- I get it.
It also takes him out of the discussion of the “greats”, for me. Is he an exceptional horse? Yes, I believe that he is. One for the ages? No. I just hope that he is a super stallion and has a great career.
Finally home… yesterday was a travel nightmare. Delayed flights… then delayed some more… but I did spend some nice time in a bar at O’Hare having a brewski (okay - two) and watching football with some fun guys who loathed certain teams as much as I did. 
I still need to decompress from my brief sortie back into the world I have always loved - I have worked on a breeding farm and also on the backside for a while - but that was a long time ago now. My love for racing dates from back when I was a little kid and named my bike Northern Dancer. A couple at my table were very fun - and racing connected in some way that I forget - with sales. We were chatting and joking about weird horse names like Effinex - and The Wife Doesn’t Know etc. I mentioned that I always got a kick out of the names that were one long word to get past the Jockey Club letter and space limitation - in particular Arewehavingfunyet!
My new friend gasped and agreed and we both went off on a tangent about every BC since 1984 (Wild Again) - kindred spirits!! We were sad about Go For Wand (90) - Unbridled won the Classic … thrilled with Arcangues’ 99-1 upset (93)… the unconquerable, invincible, unbeatable Cigar (95) and This Is Un-be-lievable Zenyatta (2009). Her husband was getting a kick out of our conversation!
We even both knew the names of the two horses who broke down earlier on Go For Wand’s tragic day - Mr. Nickerson and Shaker Knit. I mean - I could not be a vet because calculus and trigonometry were incomprehensible - but I can spew racing info and history going back decades.
She is much younger than I am - so she never saw a lot of those races as they happened…
I am sad that Flightline retired but understand it. He is not even mature yet - can you imagine? Some sage at the next table was loudly telling his friends all about how Flightline finished up the track in the 2021 Derby - and then started to improve. Mmmmmkay, dude.
I agree that the best race was the Distaff - it looked that way on paper and it played out that way in real life. And my beloved Malathaat came through for me… 
ETA: And yes, we need more horses like Exterminator (my personal favorite)… Forego… the irritable John Henry… etc.
As the Classic horses were warming up in front of us and moving to the gate, I mentioned to my new friends that I had “Zenyatta butterflies” - and they understood completely.
He has the highest or some of the highest numbers on record for speed indexes and the like.
I am sad we won’t see him run again, but his short record does not negate his results. He is legendary, even in his short time.
Be careful harking back to days of old to compare superstar race horses. That was a different world in many ways and some things were tolerated that are unthinkable today.
Just sayin…
Sorry to have failed to list John Henry and Cigar here. Indeed GREAT horses!! Great horses overcome adversity and challenges, whether winning that is winning teh Triple Crown, giving weight/ advantages to their competitors and still prevailing, or demonstrating incredible speed. Essentially, they do the undoable.,
I love Flightline … but what has he accomplished? Outdistancing your competitors in a race can be seen daily on the race track from the claiming levels on up. While always imp[ressive to see, that does not make the horse great.! If so, then let us include every honest, hard-working claiming racer on the track that wins by 8 lengths or more 8 lengths greater too. They deserve it!
I don’t think Flight line ever carried more than 126 pounds, so he can not even be carried to our handicapped horses that routinely gave away weight and WON! He never did that. so it doesn’t measure up to Forego, John Henry, Cigar, and all of our historically great racehorses.
Granted, we will never know how fast he was because he was just playing and within himself when he won. But that does not make him great! Great horse set speed records. 2 mins for a 1 1/4 race would have made him competitive in the olden days but not amazing. Many a racehorse from the 1970-late 1980, and early 1990s could be competitive at that speed…
Outdistancing a bunch of late closers that can’t win because of their preferred mode does not make one great! Some of the comp[etitors had only one 2 or fewer Stake 1 races!
I will be a fan of his, but someone tell me what Flightline has done great compared to other horses that withstood and held the title of “great,” over time. Even the quirky guys like Whirlaway have done far more than Flightline; line when looking at what a “great,” horse accomplishes on the track.
I was a huge fan of Kelso–I followed him obsessively though his 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and brief 9 year old career. 63 starts, 39 wins, 12 places, 2 shows as per Equibase. Carried weight. Won at all distances, sprints to 2 miles. Set track records. A gelding, of course, or we would not have seen him for so long, even in the 60’s.
Different time now.
I still loved watching Flightline.
Are saying we should have a great cut off line? Perhaps greatness should be based upon the decade raced? Or perhaps based based on every 25 years? Then lets do it. You really can’t compare the speed measurements from the current to 1920-1970 due to differences in the manners in which they were measured.
We have no evidence that the horses that we have considered "great,’ were assisted by drugs or anything else, so I would not go there. There are many questionable trainers at the present time … and one can still question the honesty of the sport. Drug use remains an issue in racing …, although it might be improving.
No question Flightline is by far the best male racehorse we have seen for a long time , and hints of greatness are there… but overpower/ out-running horses where the best time for a 1 1/4 distance is - two- three seconds to start with as compared to ones own does not demonstrate a great horse!. Only a faster hore beating a slower horse.
While I enjoyed watching him, he gave me the same feeling as Justify. Here and gone too fast to really appreciate. There’s no denying he was a brilliant race horse, but we didn’t see enough of him to have him be truly appreciated, and I think that is sad.
Additionally, Sadler really turned me off to the horse. He had a holier than thou attitude in every interview I saw regarding Flightline. Was he that high in the instep with Accelerate? I don’t remember. I’d watch Jane Lyon go on about him any time though. She is a delight to watch talk about horses.
What interview with Sadler were you referring to? He’s not a polished celebrity trainer with the press…
He was also a jumper rider in Southern California back in the day!
Re: Flightline – I certainly wouldn’t compare him to Secretariat, or my beloved Forego. But I’ve been watching him with my jaw dropped since the Met Mile, and listening to Trevor Denman get choked up watching him in the Pacific Classic made me choke up too! I’m glad he finished well, gave everyone a show his last time out, and hopefully he has a long and productive career in the shed.
I understand what you’re saying, but imagine yourself in Sadler’s shoes. The stress of managing what everyone in the world determined to be the second coming of Man O’ War had to be enormous. Accelerate was a good horse, but Flightline was something else. It’s hard to awe a horse trainer, but Sadler IMO was as wonderstruck as everyone else.
I like Sadler and think he’s an honest, careful trainer. People forget there are other trainers in Southern California not named Baffert.
Speaking of Man O’ War, Louis Feustel reportedly said there would never be another horse like him, and if there was, he didn’t want to train him. It was that stressful.
Sadler is certainly a contrast to White Haired Mr. Glib! That’s fine with me!
I agree, it is nice for someone other than Baffert, Asmussen, or Tood Plekerff (I think I misspelled his name). to have the horse of the moment. Better yet, They actually may be a true horseman.
There are plenty of good trainers let’s see the good horses spread about. Granted that won’t happen. Too many people want a quick return on the money and Bob and Todd are good at doing that. How many horses are broken down along the way?
As an aside is Baffert still fighting his ban from the 20232 Kentucky DErby? His horses can’t get points fro the races in the 2023 Derby so should we get ready for another round of court cases?
When Baffert came on the screen for an interview, most of the people where I was sitting booed. One old guy in jeans and a dirty polo (Umm… dress code?!! Seriously??) got very angry about that… I mean red-faced, eyes-bulging angry. He was asked if he had worked for BB or was related - and he howled NO!!! And for every race after that he was grumbling and grousing… and even marched up to me and a table friend on the rail to complain.
I never cared for BB even before the messes he has gotten himself and his horses into…
I saw that the 1 share for Flightline just sold for $4.6 M.
Flightline is now worth an estimated $184 million.
I cannot imagine the cost to insure him had they kept him in training.
A bunch of us at my barn at the Breeders Cup Watch party was pissed!!! Why did the media find it necessary to interview BB? Only his biggest fans miss him. The rest of us are happy if he never comes back. That is not likely, though. Here is an idea… why don’t you run for President in 2024 and leave the poor horses alone?
Yes, I am jaded, and I’ve watched one too many interesting horse deals in my life where the price of a horse was artificially inflated by the slick horse biz folks who controlled the deal.
I will be interested to see if that’s “live money”. I can remember Egyptian Arabians getting sold for huge money at public sales- actually the sale was held at Fasig-Tipton. I have seen horses get run up at the old Tattersalls. And, in one particular case, a party bought what was supposed to be ONE season to a horse went for good money, and then I followed up a couple of years later, and the people had 15-20 foals by that stud.
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.
I thought that this was interesting.
The 121 Beyer figure about sums it up.
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