|09.08.202209.08.2022|7:21pm7:33pm
Flightline and jockey Flavien Prat after the Met Mile at Belmont
“This definitely qualifies as three old farts sitting around the campfire.”
In this week’s edition of the Friday Show, spurred on by Flightline’s 19 1/4-length victory in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Sept. 3, Paulick Report publisher Ray Paulick is joined by award-winning Turf writers Jay Hovdey (who coined the campfire comment) and Tim Wilkin to try and put some perspective on the John Sadler-trained Tapit colt’s historic performance at Del Mar.
Hovdey, from Southern California, is a 2012 inductee to the Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Wilkin, honored with the Walter Haight Award from the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters in 2019, began covering the Saratoga race meet for upstate New York newspapers in 1980. Both have seen countless champions and breakout performances over the years.
“Anybody that watched that race whose jaw didn’t drop to the floor watched the wrong race,” Wilkin commented. “Now the debate starts. Where is this horse in the all-time list?”
While Wilkin wants to see more racing from Flightline before putting him with the greatest horses ever, Hovdey suggests that the modern era may require us to look at a Thoroughbred’s body of work differently than before.
“This is a horse who requires almost a confluence of the head and the heart to appreciate,” Hovdey said, “because from all angles he is doing things that only the greatest racehorses can do and he’s doing them in a context that doesn’t really satisfy traditional values.”
Watch this week’s episode of the Friday Show below:
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