Secretariat vs. Flightline (Tapit): Who was better?
“I think Secretariat would have beat him,” Secretariat's jockey Ron Turcotte said of a hypothetical match up between the two legendary horses. “That's no knock against the other horse. He's a beautiful horse. Well put together. I can't fault him in any way. But he has hasn't done enough for me to say he is better than Secretariat.”
That's not to say that Turcotte isn't a Flightline fan.
“He's a fabulous horse,” he said. “We don't know how fast he could run.”
Turcotte, 81, resides in Drummond, New Brunswick, Canada. He watched the GI Breeders' Cup Classic live on television and took a look back at Flightline's previous races on YouTube. He sees some similarities between Flightline and Secretariat.
“He's very muscular like Secretariat,” Turcotte said. “He's got a real large stride like Secretariat and it looks to me than he's taller than Secretariat was.”
But Turcotte added that he finds it difficult to compare a horse who ran only six times to Secretariat, who made 21 career starts.
“There aren't enough races for me to really judge him,” he said. “It's very hard to judge a horse against Secretariat when he only had six races. Secretariat was a machine The same goes for some of the great horses like Kelso. He won the Gold Cup five times in a row. I rode against him and know what a great horse he was.
“I would have loved to see Flightline run another year because it's very hard to judge him on just six races. it would have been much better for racing if they ran him another year, but I can understand why the people did what they did, with all the money there is now in breeding.”
Turcotte said another factor that makes a comparison difficulty is that Secretariat did not run as a 4-year-old while Flightline did.
“Comparing a 4-year-old and a 3-year-old, that's awful hard to do,” he said. “Secretariat was just maturing when he was retired. His last two races were just unbelievable.”
He also pointed to Secretariat's versatility and the track records Secretariat set in his three Triple Crown wins.
“Secretariat would run in the slop , the mud, on a fast track, the grass. He would run on anything.” he said. “The other horse only ran on fast tracks. And he never broke a track record, like Secretariat did.”
It's been 49 years since Turcotte rode Secretariat and there have been some tremendous horses that have come after him, like Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Spectacular Bid, Cigar, Zenyatta and, of course Flightline. But will there ever be a horse that compares to Secretariat?
“I've always said we'd never see a horse as good as Secretariat,” Turcotte said. “But you never know.”
LEXINGTON, KY–Keeneland kicked off its November Breeding Stock Sale Monday afternoon with the highly anticipated auctioning off of a 2.5% interest in unbeaten all-time great, GI Breeders' Cup Classic hero and new Lane's End stallionFlightline (Tapit). The show, partially conducted in the Metaverse, certainly did not disappoint.
The pavilion was lined wall-to-wall with industry participants squeezing in anywhere they could to witness the one-of-a-kind event. When the dust had settled after a very spirited round of bidding, Brookdale's Freddy Seitz saw off all challengers–which included the Coolmore partners as direct underbidders–to land the share for $4.6 million on behalf of an undisclosed farm client. The price paid imputes a valuation for the 'TDN Rising Star' of $184 million.
“They have been good clients of ours for a few years now,” Seitz said to the throng of media waiting for him outside the pavilion. “He is very excited about this horse and wanted to make a huge splash. He has dealt with some good horses in the past, but nothing like this. I'm not sure any of us have dealt with a horse like this. He wanted to get involved a little more in the business.”
While Seitz would not name the client, he did say that the client already has a small broodmare band.
“I think he is going to have a nicer broodmare band now,” Seitz said. “He has some nice mares, but his band isn't very big, about six or eight mares. He is going to be shopping now from what I understand.”
Being a first-of-its-kind sale, the question the entire industry has been asking is, how much the share could sell for? Seitz said he did not expect the final price of $4.6 million.
“I did not expect it to go that high,” the horseman said. “You can only imagine what people are going to do when they are really after something like that. It was very exciting. I wish we could have gotten him a little better deal, but when you are dealing with top quality, you have to pay.”
As for the fact the fractional interest price indicates a total valuation of $184 million, Seitz said, “It is probably the highest ever. With a special horse like that, all you can do is get involved and hope for the best. There has never been a horse that has done what he has done, probably since Secretariat. You just have to pay up and get involved in stuff like this is what he's thinking.”
Lane's End Bill Farish was overcome with emotion during the post-sale interview.
“I am in awe of that,” he said. “It was very exciting. It was an amazing tribute to Flightline. He is an incredible horse.”
Despite what Farish called “a tremendous amount of interest,” he also was unsure what to expect Monday.
“It is just so hard to know where something like that will go,” Farish said. “It is the first time anything like that has ever been done on a horse of that magnitude.”
He continued, “We don't really have a valuation. It is a unique situation because the syndicate is already in place. The syndicate was the racing ownership group. Not that it would be hard with Flightline, but luckily I don't have to go out and determine shares value if I had to sell 40 shares. We had no clue where this would go for that reason.”
Keeneland's Shannon Arvin indicated there were over 20 registered bidders for this event, which required a separate registration process from the traditional Keeneland sales registration
“We had to make sure the people who purchased were pre-approved, accredited purchasers and had the opportunity to review the syndicate agreement and documentation and were comfortable with the stallion deal,” Arvin said. “It was a Keeneland/Lane's End joint effort.”
Farish, who indicated this would not effect Flightline's yet-to-be-determined stud fee, added, “This is a share in the horse. Now that he is retired, it can be called a share in the horse. It had to be called a fraction until he was actually retired. It is 1/40 of everything he does from now on.”
Arvin compared this unique auction to the introduction of the digital sales market.
“I think it is just like what we found with the digital market, you have to have the right product for it to be successful,” said the Keeneland President and CEO. “The stars completely aligned for Flightline. We couldn't have hoped for a better superstar to sell an interest in than Flightline.”
She added, “When Bill and I talked about this for the first time, we were thrilled with the opportunity. The stars all had to align for it to work out, but we appreciate Lane's End for giving us the chance.”
Flightline capped his career off at Keeneland some 36 hours prior to the auction with a jaw-dropping victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.
“His race in the Breeders' Cup was even better than you hoped it could be,” said Arvin. “It was unbelievable. We were all watching in awe, like I think the world was. Every sport likes to have a hero and Flightline is definitely our hero right now.”
Click here to watch Flightline's Metaverse sale video.
When multiple graded stakes-winning gelding Green Mask shattered both sesamoid bones in his left front fetlock during a workout in 2017, owner Abdullah Saeed Alamaddah and trainer Brad Cox knew that immediate care was needed for the fracture. The gelding was sent to the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center for surgical fusion to stabilize the joint. The surgery, performed by Dr. Dean Richardson, was a success. For many racing fans, that's where the story ended – with a large amount of hardware holding everything together. By July 2018, however, Green Mask underwent a second surgery, this time to remove the plate and screws used to heal the fracture.
Though many of us watching from afar may not realize it, it's not uncommon for surgeons to go back in and remove the metal that was so crucial at the start of healing.
Depending on the type of fracture and the location, fractures are most commonly stabilized with stainless steel screws or plates and screws. Casts or splints, wires, cables, and other items are often used in combination. For Green Mask, Dr. Richardson used a locking plate that was placed down the front of the joint and a tension band cable that measured 1.7 millimeters in diameter placed behind the fetlock. Screws were inserted across the joint in the sesamoids to encourage fusion of the joint.
Surgeries requiring the use of plates and screws are carefully planned, with the first goal being preserving as much of the soft tissue around the area of the fracture as possible to keep the maintenance of the blood supply and to allow for faster healing. Plates are applied to the surface of the bone.
Dr. Richardson uses a combination of top-of-the-line technology and skills to repair every fracture. The use of computed tomography (CT) scans during orthopedic surgery allows surgeons to see the bone, blood vessels and soft tissues to accurately place screws and plates with minimum issues. The use of CT scans lets the surgeon plan and complete accurate reconstruction of fractures and proper alignment of joint surfaces to reduce the chance of arthritis developing and increase the chance of a return to full athletic function. In an injury like that of Green Mask, the goal is comfortable retirement.
A CT scan shows the results of a similar surgery to Green Mask's to repair shattered sesamoids. Image courtesy Dr. Richardson
With major surgeries such as this, the risk of infection is always a concern. Green Mask's injury was significant and involved soft tissue trauma at the same time as the sesamoid fractures. The time and surgical exposure required for the surgery and, most of all, the need for so much metal in the limb to provide stability all increase the risk that bacteria will get into the leg. Any foreign material such as stainless steel provides a surface for bacteria to survive in what is termed a biofilm. Infection associated with a biofilm on plates and bone screws will be difficult to control and can lead to delayed or failed fracture healing.
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There are two reasons why surgeons would perform surgery to first insert stainless steel plates and screws into a fracture and then to remove said plates and screws.
“It depends entirely on the nature of the original injury and the purpose of the horse at the time you're making the decision,” Richardson said.
In simpler cases than Green Mask's, such as a medial condylar of a cannon bone fracture, surgeons use a combination of screws and one steel plate, with the plan to remove the plate after three months.
“The reason you're removing the plate in this case is because the expectation is for that horse to go back and race,” Richardson said. “A horse isn't likely to race well with a large metal plate still on the cannon bone.”
Richardson explained that this is the same case in human athletes—if a plate is used in an area of the human that does a lot of bending, surgeons will remove that plate once the fracture is healed, and the athlete trains to continue activities.
Another case of inserting and removing hardware to repair an injury can be seen in the extended career of 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom. After Animal Kingdom stumbled in the Belmont Stakes, fracturing his hock, Richardson performed surgery to repair the hock, by using screws to repair the fracture in the right place. The surgery was a success, with Animal Kingdom going on to win the $10 million Dubai World Cup in 2012.
However, there are times when a plate is a permanent fixture on a horse, and that's when the plate is located in an area that doesn't bend a lot. For example, plates involved with repairing a fracture in the ulna (elbow) can be kept in and the horse can return to the track.
Green Mask shows off in his field at Old Friends
“Most of the time, a plate in that location isn't going to cause a problem to a racehorse,” said Dr. Richardson. “However, in other places they will cause issues.
“Clearly that one set of circumstances where the plate is being removed is the planned goal, so you're keeping that in mind from the time you fix the fracture. You would virtually never do that in a horse unless they're going back to being an athlete. If you're putting a plate in and the horse is going to retire to be a broodmare, breeding stallion or pasture horse, we never remove the plates… with one exception.”
That one exception is when there is an infection that is localized to the inserted plate, which is what happened to Green Mask. Once bacteria have formed the biofilm on the steel, and infection occurs at the site of the plate. Systemic antibiotics don't often help, and infections such as these are rarely cured unless the metal is fully removed. In the case of Green Mask, his fracture had fully healed by the time the infection appeared, so it was safe to remove the plate.
“More than 90 percent of the time, if you have a fully healed fracture, or healed joint fusion (arthrodesis), and an infection is present, you go ahead and remove the metal,” says Dr. Richardson. “In nearly all cases, removing the infected metal will result in elimination of the horse's infection and that horse can go the remainder of his lifespan with any further related problems. Just as is true in human fracture repair and joint replacements, infection is the most single most important complication. Fortunately, the rates for this complication continue to decrease.”
The removal of the plate was a success for Green Mask, who later returned to his retirement home at Old Friends in Georgetown, Ky. The only sign of the initial fracture is the mechanical lameness present at the walk and trot. His fetlock is fused, which means it doesn't bend the way a normal joint would, resulting in a hitch in his step, but the joint is free of any signs of infection.
“He's seen as 'lame' because his movement is asymmetrical, but lameness and pain are not the same thing,” Richardson said.
Four years later, Green Mask is enjoying life in a paddock along the regular tour route at Old Friends. He will soon gain a new neighbor with the anticipated arrival of fan favorite Lava Man.
Havana Grey (GB), Whitsbury Manor Stud's champion-elect first-season sire of 2022, will stand for a fee of £18,500 next year. The 7-year-old son of Havana Gold (Ire) started his stud career at £8,000 and has covered the lasttwo seasons at a fee of £6,000.
“After such a phenomenal year it's taken a lot of thought as we're trying to keep him within reach of the breeders that have supported him thus far,” said stud director Ed Harper. “It's already clear that demand will far outweigh supply, and I just hope people understand the difficult decisions we're going to have to make.”
Heading the roster at the Hampshire-based stud is Showcasing (GB), whose top runners this year include G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Belbek (Fr) and the G2 Queen Mary S. winner and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint runner-up Dramatised (Ire). Now 15, Showcasing's fee remains at £45,000, having previously covered at a high of £55,000 in 2019 and 2020 from an original starting price of £5,000.
The Whitsbury Manor Stud line-up is completed by Sergei Prokofiev, whose first foals will be hitting the sales rings from next week and who will remain at a fee of £6,000, and Due Diligence, whose fee is also unchanged at £5,000.
