Undefeated Flightline, who retired to stud at Lane's End in Versailles, Ky., following his 8 1/4-length victory in the Grade 1, $6-million Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 5, will stand the 2023 breeding season for $200,000, the farm announced on Wednesday.
A 4-year-old son of Tapit out of the Indian Charlie mare, Feathered, Flightline was bred in Kentucky by Jane Lyon's Summer Wind and sold for $1 million at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale, where he was consigned by Lane's End consignment.
Winner of four Grade 1 races – the Malibu at Santa Anita, Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont, Pacific Classic at Del Mar and the Classic run at at Keeneland – Flightline was trained by John Sadler and ridden by Flavien Prat. He raced for a partnership of Hronis Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds, Summer Wind, Siena Farm, and Woodford Racing.
Flightline retired with a record of six wins from six starts by a combined margin of 71 lengths and earned $4,514,800.
The $200,000 stud fee is identical to the announced fee for 2015 Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup Classic winner American Pharoah when he retired to Coolmore's Ashford Stud. In American Pharoah's case, the farm offered breeders an opportunity to send two mares to the son of Pioneerof the Nile for the price of one.
Ghostzapper, the 2004 Horse of the Year, also had a first-year fee of $200,000 when he retired to Adena Springs the following year. The previous high for a first-year fee was $150,000 for Grade 1 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus in 2001. Horse of the Year Point Given entered stud for a $125,000 fee in 2002 and 2004 champion 3-year-old Smarty Jones stood for $100,000 his first year in 2005, the latter two standing initially at Three Chimneys.
Flightline is rated No. 1 on the Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings on a figure of 139, the highest rated dirt horse since those rankings began.
By comparison, Shadwell's six-time Group 1 winner Baaeed, the world's highest-rated turf horse, will enter stud at Nunnery Stud in Norfolk, UK, for 80,000 pound sterling (approximately US$91,000).
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