[F]lightline, who will load into the starting gate as the favorite in the Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday, needs to be in the conversation for the fastest racehorse of all time. And yes, that's a list that includes Secretariat. [...]

[W]hat he is doing now is extraordinary. He is not merely undefeated, he is near untouchable. He has won his five races by a combined 62 ¾ lengths and all but one has been by 11 lengths or more. Whatever skeptics remained turned into converts in his most recent race, the Pacific Classic. Running in a race that included two turns for the first time and a race that stretched for more than a mile for the first time, Flightline won by 19 ¼ lengths, leaving the Dubai World Cup winner among others in his dust. "It's eerie when you think about it -- he's never had to even think about a competitor, because he's never had one,'' says Terry Finley, the CEO and president of West Point Thoroughbreds, which purchased Flightline at the 2019 Saratoga sale. "I love that idea. He's never even had to think about another horse.''

While studying at Harvard in the 1960s, a man by the name of Andy Beyer came up with a measurable for horses, and in 1992, the Daily Racing Form started publishing those figures. Only one horse has recorded a better Beyer speed figure than Flightline's 126 in the Pacific Classic, and none have matched his five-race string of excellence -- 105, 114, 118, 112, and 126. "It's like comparing Babe Ruth to Mickey Mantle; it's not easy to compare generations, but he is a great, great horse,'' Sadler says. "One of those rare horses that only comes along every 20 years." For those who at least want some recent comparisons, Triple Crown winner American Pharoah won the Breeders' Cup Classic by 6 1/2 lengths in 2015; his Beyer figure was 120. It was, by far, the best of his career.