World Thoroughbred Rankings: Flightline / Baaeed

[mysaladdays]

Sleepless night, so I put this together.  Would love some comments/thoughts.  I probably made a few mistakes, nothing too major though. 

In 2021, Knicks Go was #1.   Today, Sept 2022, #1 is Flightline.   #2 is Baaeed.  

So I thought I would try to do a comparison. 

***Note the time between races for each horse, and the distances for their first 3 races. Yikes. Really shows the difference between how horses train in other parts of the world compared to here.....( It kinda scared me when I looked at it). 


Baaeed: sire Sea the Stars, grandsire Cape Cross (miler), damsire Kingmambo. 4 years old.

Raced in GB and France; Record 10-10-0-0; inbred 3x4 to Mr. Prospector; {2f} DP = 5-1-19-5-0 (30) DI= 1.07

Races: 1 mile (maiden), 1 mile, 1 mile; 1600 meters, 1 mile, 1 mile, 1 mile, 1 mile, 1 mile, 10.5F

***12 days between maiden and 2nd career race; 19 days between 2nd race and 3rd race; 21 days between 3rd race and 4th race.

Trainer: Haggas. Trainer won Epsom Oaks, Epsom Derby. Won a total of 12 Group 1 stakes in Britain, 3 Group 1's in France, 3 Group 1's in Ireland, 1 Group 1 in GER, 1 Group 1 in Italy, 2 Group 1's in Australia (including Queen Elizabeth Stakes)


Flightline: sire Tapit. grandsire Pulpit, damsire Indian Charlie. 4 years old.

Raced in the U.S. only; Record 5-5-0-0; {20-b} DP 4-9-12-1-0 (26) DI=2.71 CD 0.62

Races 6F (maiden), 6F, 7F, 1 mile, 1-1/4 mile

***104 days between maiden and 2nd career race; 108 days between 2nd race and 3rd race. Approx.108 days/6 months between 3rd race and 4th race. (I didn't count exactly).

Trainer: Sadler  won 16 G1 Races (that I counted, may be 1 or 2 off; NOT counting G2 G3 or non-graded) but won some of the same races multiple times-----  almost all on racecourses in California, except for 2 in Arkansas and 1 at Churchill (not a BC race); 1 BC G1 win (Churchill); 1 G1 win in Dubai. Interestingly: Most every G1, G2 and G3 and non graded stakes races were in the same state of California.

[mysaladdays]

Notes: Baaeed is obviously a miler, like goldikova was. But trainer believe he can "go longer".

Only counted "major wins" for trainers, can't take more time to do anything more. Kept it at G1s so that trainers could be compared somewhat equally, even though one is a dirt trainer the other a turf trainer.

Owners View has 35 rulings for Sadler, but I did not read every one for content or what the violations were.  Since Haggas has not raced in the U.S. (but they are drug free over there), it said no rulings for this trainer.  I don't know any databases for this for foreign trainers, if there is one please give me a heads up. 

[tenfurlongs]

I had posted this previously, but it might inform the discussion about training methods:

www.racingpost.com/news/national-racehorse-week/if-aidan-obrien-had-trained-baaeed-would-he-have-won-the-dewhurst/578429




TW

[mysaladdays]

Thank you so much for that article! Really informative. I won't give my opinion on racing 2 year olds....let's just say that as an owner, I just ...... wouldn't.  Of course, that would also have to meet my 2nd requirement:  they shouldn't retire til minimum 5 years old. 

Unless we truly want to embrace the "we race to breed" instead of "we breed to race." 

That said, and everything the article said.......I believe in taking it slow, but the times between races for Flightline, in terms of "training methods"  are almost......other-worldly.

Maybe they are relying on his sheer inborn talent. Cuz I sure don't see how you can condition a horse with 3 months, 6 months between races. Either the horse simply can't race more often.......or .......what?