An unusual lot at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale on Monday will put a price on Flightline, the brilliant – and now retired – winner of Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic. A 2.5% slice of the world’s best racehorse will be sold to the highest bidder and when the hammer falls, most guesstimates suggest Flightline will be worth at least $70m.
Rarity value alone will bump the price, of course, but Flightline did everything that any fan – or breeder – could have hoped to see in what turned out to be his final start. The winning margin of eight and a quarter lengths was a record for the Classic, and Flightline powered clear, under a hand ride, after sitting just behind a blistering pace for the first mile.
