Flightline fever growing with $10.5 million record-breaking colt’s every move

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On this occasion, Tom Peacock discusses the excitement around Flightline and his first crop of runners – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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It wasn't Bob Baffert's time to kickstart a bid for a triple Triple Crown in this year's Kentucky Derby, not that it was particularly expected with Potente and Litmus Test running about in line with their odds and a fair way down the field.

The most successful trainer in the history of the race nonetheless dominated the discourse in the build up and there was even some ludicrously premature talk about one of his horses already being his candidate for the Churchill Downs contest in 2027.

Zedan is, we should say, no ordinary horse. At $10.5 million in the OBS Spring Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale a fortnight ago, he's one of the most expensive thoroughbreds in auction history in a price bracket not seen since some of Coolmore and Darley's headiest days going back several decades.

Named portentously after the father of his big-spending owner Amr Zedan, the colt is from the first crop of Flightline, the last true phenomenon to have been seen on a racecourse.

When reading of the sale, I doubt I was the only one to have treated it with a healthy degree of cynicism. The price was so far above that of any other horse in the catalogue and it seemed strangely convenient that the underbidder was a collection of the wealthy owners involved in Flightline himself, who certainly wouldn't have minded the Lane's End stallion making headlines.

At the same time, it's an intriguing story. The colt is undeniably a beast; big and powerful without looking fully furnished. He's out of a high-class mare by multiple champion sire Into Mischief and showed he can shift with a rapid breeze at Ocala which set the cat among the pigeons. 

With such a big reputation already, he wouldn't need to run up a great sequence to quickly become a valuable stallion prospect himself but history is full of the kind of cautionary tales which mean you still want to see it before you believe it.

Zedan has an immediate connection with one of the highest-profile sales flops in history, not least because they were both consigned by the same pair, Randy Hartley and Dean DeRenzo.

It is 20 years since The Green Monkey became the most expensive thoroughbred bought at an auction, for $16 million at the Fasig-Tipton Calder Select Two-Year-Olds In Training Sale.

The Forestry colt had produced, by general consensus, an astonishing one-furlong breeze of 9.8 seconds and a battle for the ages ensued in the ring with Coolmore heading off Sheikh Mohammed for him.

Flightline: unbeaten megastar's first crop hits the track this yearCredit: Edward Whitaker

There remained a huge amount of interest in The Green Monkey, whose three-race career proved the dampest of squibs, but I suspect the razzmatazz around Zedan whenever he makes his debut will be something else entirely.

The Green Monkey's connections, the Coolmore partners and Todd Pletcher, are not exactly grandstanding publicity seekers and the colt himself did not appear until September 2007, having missed his two-year-old season and the Triple Crown trail because of one or two niggling problems.

We're now in the clickable, rolling news age and Zedan's owner and trainer are different beasts.

Zedan himself, a US-born Saudi Arabian businessman recently linked with a takeover of Preston North End FC, is a larger-than-life personality while Baffert had no qualms with standing next to The Burger King mascot as American Pharoah completed his Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes of 2015 - although he's said to have donated the advertising fee to charity.

Baffert is a divisive figure in racing owing to his past transgressions, but he's a compelling one too. 

With the iridescent silver hair and ever-present sunglasses, he looks straight out of a Days Of Our Lives-style daytime soap and is a polished, quotable performer during structured interviews.

The story was considered interesting enough to be featured in CNN last week. “The great ones, they know," Baffert told them of Zedan. "They know they’re bad asses.’’

What was just as interesting was hearing the 73-year-old speaking in a more informal manner on the backstretch with the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association, whose social media accounts have been promoting the state's racing scene.

He was asked at length about Zedan, who he explained he had watched breeze at the sale in Florida before rushing over to inspect him shortly afterwards.

"I probably should have seen him last because once I saw him, it was sort of hard to look at the other horses," he said.

The Flightline colt sells for a record-breaking $10.5 millionCredit: OBS

"He reminded me of Unbridled's Song first time I saw him at Pomona, Barretts sale. He [Unbridled's Song] just kept coming out of the stall, this big massive horse and I go, 'wow, I can't afford this horse'. Then when they breezed him he galloped down there in like ten-flat, just ridiculous."

Unbridled's Song infamously broke similar sale records at $1.4m in 1995 before being returned by the purchaser, Hiroshi Fujita, over a dispute about a small chip in one of his ankles. 

His original owner Ernie Paragallo raced him and the dashing grey would win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Wood Memorial and Florida Derby. Unbridled's Song experienced his own injury issues around the Triple Crown but proved an exceptional and influential sire.

There were superlatives aplenty about Zedan when the hammer came down but Baffert, having initially thought it might take $7 million to secure the colt following some discussions with his team, quickly realised something even more out-of-the-ordinary was in the offing during the days between his appearance in the under tack show and the sale itself. 

"I said, 'you know what I think he's going to bring more than seven'," he recalled from one of many conversations with Amr Zedan. "I have a feeling because I know the Flightline group, I think they're calling every Jockey Club member, they're going to team up, I think it's going to be you against them."

That's what it boiled down to, with Donato Lanni on behalf of Zedan seeing off David Ingordo, who had advised on the purchase of Flightline himself and was representing his ownership team.

Baffert watched it play out on his laptop from his stable office, and knew the colt was his when his phone rang immediately afterwards.

The question now is when and where Zedan will appear. Baffert is expanding his presence in Kentucky, where racing is on a far surer footing than back home in California. However, he explained that he keeps new two-year-olds away from his older horses in the beginning, so as not to import any potential illnesses into the barns, which is why Zedan was shipped back to his home base at Santa Anita.

He was vague about plans, which is understandable as the horse has just arrived and his first filmed trip to the track was nothing more than a gentle jog around.

There isn't that Royal Ascot rush with two-year-olds in America and the premium ones tend to first come out around August time, with a programme tailored towards the end of the calendar.

At least outwardly, Baffert doesn't look like he'll feel the pressure and carries the confidence of someone who has seen and done it all before.

"One of my owners called me up and said, 'Is it any different when you train an expensive horse like that? And I go, well [Grade 1 winner and future stallion] Nysos is worth more than him!'" 

He continued: "It's not what you gave for him, it's what they're worth right now."

We all know what's most likely to happen. There are about 120 Flightline two-year-olds floating about and we haven't seen a single one race yet. The chances of any of them, let alone this specific individual, being anywhere near their father's equal are pretty remote.

If Zedan gets stuffed, plenty will again delight in the hubris of the wealthy racehorse owner. He could easily be the morning glory, the keepy-uppy skills specialist who can't actually play in a real football match.

But what if he actually wins and looks good? Is there a plan in place for this?  

Hartley and DeRenzo might have ended up buying The Green Monkey back and standing him themselves but they have produced their fair share of stars, too. Two years ago, Shisopicy clocked an equally blistering time at the OBS April Sale and went on to land the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint.

Yes, it’s all a bit vulgar and over-the-top but if Zedan can attract a bit of outside interest into racing then it's surely a positive. Eye-catching exercise gallops, hopes, dreams and unabashed spending by the uber-rich are all part of its allure. 

Flightline was a beautiful, regally bred and brilliant racehorse whose visual impression and form ratings rank alongside any others in modern times. He deserves to still be talked about.

The polo-playing Amr Zedan's net wealth seems to range between nine and ten figures, so he can probably swallow the outlay if it all goes awry.

We know what he gave for Zedan but what will he be worth? I, for one, am looking forward to finding out.

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Martin Dixon, successful punter and pundit, shrewd sales purchaser and all-round good egg, has joined the Racing Post. You can read his first column here 

Pedigree pick

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