Flightline Continuing Market Dominance as Freshman Sire

The commercial Thoroughbred market's infatuation with Lane's End Farm's high-profile freshman sire Flightline   has continued through the first major 2-year-olds in training sales with remarkably even more enthusiasm than was seen for his first crop as yearlings.

Granted, the Flightline offerings as juveniles were limited to six across the three major 2-year-olds in training sales—the Ocala Breeders' Sales March and Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training sales and Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale—with most breeders of the stallion's first crop choosing to hold onto the progeny. But those six produced an astounding $2,329,167 average. 

Pushing the average sky high was a colt out of graded-placed stakes winner Lucrezia  (Into Mischief  ) that sold for an OBS record $10.5 million during the Spring sale. Pinhookers Randy Hartley and Dean DeRenzo bought the colt as a weanling for $575,000 during the 2024 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, making the colt the second-highest-priced Flightline foal at the sale. The colt was purchased on behalf of Texas auto dealer Tom Durant, who has been pinhooking horses with Hartley and DeRenzo for about seven years. Lane's End founder W.S. Farish co-bred the colt with Ed and Beverly Seltzer, and Lane's End sold him as part of a dispersal of the Seltzer's Solera Farm stock. 

READ: Durant: The Man Behind the $10.5M Flightline Colt

Even without the $10.5 million purchase, however, Flightline would still top the sire standings. With the record price backed out, the son of Tapit  's average still settles at $695,000 and well above second-ranked sire Gun Runner  , who has a $544,286 average from seven sold. 

For the most part, the leading sires by average (among sires with three or more sold) is a who's who list that includes elite sires Curlin   ($475,000), Nyquist   ($467,692), Not This Time   ($416,667), and Into Mischief ($409,167) among the top 10. Ranked among these proven sires are highly regarded freshman sires Life Is Good   ($327,895) and Jackie's Warrior   ($319,828), who rank second and third by average, respectively, in their sire class.

The top 10 does include one interesting surprise with Ashford Stud's Mo Town  , who has been represented by four sold at these three sales but his $381,250 average puts him in eighth place among the leaders. 

Mo Town is a grade 1-winning son of Uncle Mo, who won the 2017 Hollywood Derby (G1T) and the 2016 Remsen Stakes (G2). As a sire, he ranked among the top 10 as a freshman sire of 2022 by progeny earnings and was co-ranked in fourth as a second-crop sire by number of graded stakes winners with three alongside Girvin   and Collected  . To date, Mo Town has sired 19 black-type winners that include seven graded stakes winners and 2024 Canadian champion female sprinter Play the Music . 

Mystic Lake , a millionaire and three-time graded stakes winner, is Mo Town's top performer so far. The stallion has yet to sire a grade 1 winner.

Mo Town was represented by another millionaire at the OBS March sale, where his son out of the unraced Into Mischief daughter Reckon sold for $1.05 million to Baoma Corp. Agent Donato Lanni signed the ticket on the colt, now named Motga, who was consigned by Jesse Hoppel. The colt stood out during the sale's under-tack show with a :20 2/5 quarter-mile breeze, just one-fifth of a second off the OBS track record.

Among the year's freshman sires, six are tracking with averages above $200,000 from the three major 2-year-olds sales. Aside from Flightline, Life Is Good, and Jackie's Warrior, the others include Corniche   ($234,967), Early Voting   ($220,417), and Drain the Clock   ($207,275).