|
Top Flight
Rated as the best American filly or mare of the period between the two World Wars by no less an authority than the legendary racing writer Joe Palmer, Top Flight was the last champion bred by Harry Payne Whitney, who died the fall after the filly’s birth. At first, she did not seem particularly promising. Her sire, *Dis Donc, had raced only once, finishing third, and the only reason Whitney gave him any chance at stud was his pedigree. By the French champion Sardanapale, considered by many authorities to be the best horse in training anywhere in the world in 1914, *Dis Donc was a half brother to *Chicle, a good racehorse for Whitney and already a proven sire by the time of Top Flight’s birth. Flyatit, the dam of Top Flight, was also quite well-bred. A winning half sister to three good horses in The Nut, Today, and Afterglow, she was sired by the 1907 Belmont Stakes winner and good sire Peter Pan out of *Afternoon, whose dam Matinee was a full sister to the Handicap Triple Crown winner Whisk Broom II. Flyatit had some ability, but she was noted for temperament and probably never achieved as much as her true talent might have warranted. Foaled April 15, 1929, Top Flight was not considered a particularly attractive weanling or yearling. A leggy, rather delicate-looking filly, she was on the small side, eventually maturing at about 15.2 hands. Nonetheless, she went into training with Thomas J. Healey, along with the other Whitney juveniles. She apparently made some impression while in training, for she made her first start on June 17, 1931, in the Clover Stakes at Aqueduct. She won, leading wire to wire over the five furlongs. Three weeks later, she won the five and one-half furlong Arlington Lassie Stakes by five lengths over Modern Queen. She did not enter competition again until the Saratoga meeting, when she won the Saratoga Special by one and one-quarter over Indian Runner. Top Flight showed she had inherited her dam’s bad manners in her next start, the Spinaway Stakes. So fractious at the post that she had to break from outside the starting gate, she nonetheless won by five lengths from Dinner Time; the latter filly would later make her mark as the dam of the top racehorse and sire Eight Thirty. The opposition for the Matron Stakes at Belmont was less formidable, and Top Flight won by one and one-half lengths under stout restraint from Sonny Workman. Top Flight was the only filly in a field of twelve for the forty-second running of the Futurity Stakes, and with 127 pounds aboard, she conceded actual weight to all her rivals except Tick On, winner of the Hopeful Stakes, who carried 130 pounds and was at level weights with the filly on the scale. Top Flight was favored at 6-5 and for once was headed early, but she came on in the stretch to win by two and one-half lengths from Mad Pursuit. In the beaten field were future Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Burgoo King and future Belmont Stakes winner and three-year-old champion Faireno. The filly’s next race was scheduled to be the Selima Stakes, but she came up with a cough and was forced to scratch late. Despite the interruption in her training, she went to the post for the Pimlico Futurity at one and one-sixteenth miles, where she was once again the only filly in a field of twelve and was favored at odds of 11-10. Tick On made her work for it, for he found firm going in the middle of the track while Top Flight was trapped along the rail where the going was heavier, but the filly turned back the challenge to win by a neck with Burgoo King third. Her unbeaten juvenile campaign thus concluded with seven victories for earnings of $219,000, not only a seasonal earnings record for a female but enough to make her the leading money winner for all ages and sexes that season and the leading female money winner of all time. Healey at that point admitted Top Flight to be the best juvenile he had ever trained, ahead of even 1916 champion juvenile male Campfire. Top Flight was the winter book favorite for the Kentucky Derby, but she was withdrawn from consideration for the Run for the Roses after running fourth to Universe in the Wood Memorial, beaten seven and one-half lengths. She was instead sent after the Acorn Stakes, the Coaching Club American Oaks, and the Arlington Oaks against her own sex and won all three easily. With her connections’ confidence restored by the victories, she was then sent after the Arlington Classic against males and ran fifth after leading for the first mile. About the only consolation for her performance was that she finished ahead of eventual champion three-year-old male Faireno, who ran eighth after engaging in a speed duel with the filly. Returned to feminine competition, Top Flight bounced back in the Alabama Stakes, then once again tried mixed company in the Delaware Handicap and finished fourth and last behind the colt Flagstone. Again, Top Flight led early before tiring late and finishing eased up; why she tired so readily when she had won easily at ten and eleven furlongs remains a mystery. Sent against older females, she won the Ladies Handicap with the same ease with which she had handled her feminine peers, but her final race, the Potomac Handicap, proved another debacle. She ran fourth, conceding weight to the three colts who outfinished her, and came out of the race with an injury that forced her retirement. She ended her career with twelve wins from sixteen starts and earnings of $275,900. Top Flight’s broodmare career was hampered by soundness problems in her offspring. Her first foal, the *Royal Minstrel filly Singing Top, fractured her pelvis in her first start and was able to start only once more. Her second foal, the Peace Chance colt Flight Command, won the U. S. Hotel Stakes but tailed off afterwards; her third, the Man o’ War colt Sky Raider, won both starts as a juvenile but then injured his feet and was forced into retirement. Her 1940 foal died as a yearling; her Gallant Fox filly Bug Bug was a non-winner in two seasons of racing; her *Mahmoud colt Blue Falcon proved a decent winner but no more at three; and her *Mahmoud filly White Lady injured a knee at two and did not race that year, then won two races at three before reinjuring the knee. White Lady later produced two stakes winners and became the great-great granddam of the Italian champion Sikeston. Top Flight’s last foal was the winning gelding Top Honors, by Eight Thirty. Top Flight was barren from 1947 onwards and died on August 23, 1949 following a paralytic stroke. She was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1966. © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
