Flagstaff , a grade 1 winner and millionaire, will not race in the Nov. 6 Qatar Racing Breeders Cup Sprint (G1) at Del Mar and has been retired, coach John Sadler informed broadcaster Michelle Yu on TVG’s Breakfast on the Breeders’ Cup tv program. Breeders’ Cup officers additionally confirmed his withdrawal from the race.
A 7-year-old gelding by Speightstown owned by Lane’s End Racing and Hronis Racing, Flagstaff had been one of 12 horses pre-entered last week to the $2 million, six-furlong Sprint, a race in which 3-year-old Jackie’s Warrior is expected to be favored.
Winner of the Churchill Downs Stakes Presented by Ford (G1) on Derby Day May 1, Flagstaff had subsequently hit the board in three consecutive graded stakes. He was second in the Oct. 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G2) in what proved to be his final start.
Bred in Kentucky by Summer Wind Farm and out of the A.P. Indy mare Indyan Giving , the gelding is a half brother to the champion 2-year-old male of 2018, Game Winner .
Mayberry Farm purchased Flagstaff for $475,000 in 2015 at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton’s select yearling sale in New York, from the Lane’s End consignment. He retires with a 7-7-4 record from 22 starts and earnings of $1,075,585.
Sadler and the house owners of Flagstaff couldn’t be reached for touch upon retirement plans for the gelding. Sadler beforehand informed BloodHorse that Flagstaff wouldn’t race as an 8-year-old.
