DEL MAR, Calif. – Those closest to Flightline worked around the colt on Sunday morning at trainer John Sadler’s Del Mar barn in the quiet, hushed tones of someone in the Reina Sofia admiring Picasso’s “Guernica.” Fitting, because in the Pacific Classic on Saturday, Flightline fashioned a masterpiece. His 19 1/4-length victory in the 1 1/4-mile Pacific Classic over such proven 10-furlong horses as Country Grammer and Express Train marked his fifth victory without a defeat, and produced the highest Beyer Speed Figure of his career, 126. According to Andrew Beyer, who makes the eponymous figures, that’s the biggest number given a horse since Ghostzapper (128) won the Iselin in 2004, and equals the second-biggest number given any horse since the Beyer figures moved into the public domain, first with the launch of The Racing Times in 1991, and then moving on to Daily Racing Form. Flightline came out of the race well, and will spend the next week here before moving north in the early hours of Sept. 12 to Santa Anita to begin serious preparations for his next start, the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 5 at Keeneland. Flightline earned a fees-paid berth to the Classic with his victory in the Pacific Classic. :: DRF Bets members get FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic. Join now! Juan Leyva, who rides Flightline in the mornings, was sitting just outside the barn office, adjacent to Flightline’s stall, in awe of what he had seen the previous afternoon, but satisfied that the high regard in which he’s held Flightline since he first got on him has come to fruition. “I’ve been saying that this is what this horse could do,” said Leyva, a former jockey – he’s a Breeders’ Cup winner – and now the top assistant to Sadler. “People would say, ‘Oh, that’s just because you get on him.’ But he’s just an unbelievable horse. “He’s intelligent. He’s finally figured out what to do. He’s devastating to those other horses. He relaxes the first part, and then he goes into turbo drive. They were going a good clip for a mile and a quarter, and to him it’s like, C’mon, let’s start running.” Flightline was just off of Extra Hope through a half-mile in 46.06 seconds, then clicked off fractions of 1:09.97 for six furlongs and 1:34.47 for one mile en route to a final time of 1:59.28, just .17 off the track record set by Candy Ride in this race in 2003. The surface over which Candy Ride raced was adjudged to be faster on Beyer figures, as he got a Beyer of 123 for that victory. Flightline, after jogging down the road -- standard procedure with Sadler the day after a race to check on how his horses are moving -- was back in his stall being done-up in requisite protective bandages by his groom, Adolfo Correa. Rene Quinteros already had led him out of the stall to walk at 3:45 a.m., as he does every morning, and Cesar Aguilar was looking after Flightline’s feet. “Those guys are the backbone of Flightline,” Leyva said. “They’re three people who are very intimate with his care. He knows and trusts them. They make sure nothing is out of place, nothing is overlooked. They’re his caretakers. Every one of them has something special to do with Flightline. None of them want to take a day off. There’s a lot of passion that drives this horse to what he is.” Leyva said Correa is a preternaturally calm person, and that Flightline takes his cues from him. “He was so calm in the paddock yesterday,” Leyva said. “That’s how Adolfo is.” Flightline is the pinnacle of Sadler’s career, one that has spanned 40 years, and may finally bring him overdue recognition in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. He was best known early in his career for fast, one-turn horses like Melair, Olympic Prospect, and Track Gal, but he trains every type of horse – turf, dirt, sprinters, routers, fillies, colts, stakes horses, claimers – and excels with all. Flightline gave Sadler his fourth Pacific Classic win in the last five years. “The patience it takes, the discipline it takes, to stick with a plan with a horse like this, John deserves so much credit,” Leyva said. “All the planning that went into this, it was a masterpiece.” Flightline now owns three straight Grade 1 wins, the Pacific Classic following the Malibu and Met Mile. Both Sadler and Kosta Hronis, part of the Flightline ownership group, on Saturday left open the possibility of Flightline continuing to race at age 5. The only thing certain now, though, is that Flightline will be pointed to the Breeders’ Cup Classic. What awaits after that is to be determined. But other than those who have to compete against him, few could want to hasten his farewell.