Goodbye Halo

[King Glorious]

Watching this racing special on ESPN Classic reminded me of something. Goodbye Halo was a REALLY good filly. She is probably one of the 3-5 most underrated horses I can think of since I've been watching racing. Talk about born in the wrong year? If she's born in just about any other year, she's a multiple Eclipse award winning champion and would be on any list of the top 10 fillies of the past 25 years easily. She really had a remarkable career but just came along at the wrong time. People forget that two starts before Winning Colors won the Derby, Goodbye Halo beat her in the Las Virgenes. In that classic BC Distaff where Personal Ensign ran down Winning Colors at the wire, Goodbye Halo was right there with them, beaten only half a length. As a 2yo, Goodbye Halo won the Demoiselle and the Hollywood Starlet (beating Jeanne Jones who had lost the BC Juv Fillies by a nose). As a 3yo, in addition to beating Winning Colors in the Las Virgenes and that nice run in the Distaff, she also won the Kentucky Oaks, Mother Goose, and CCA Oaks. She even ran 2nd and 3rd in two graded stakes on the grass against older. As a 4yo, she did get one grade one win (La Canada) but unfortunately for her, the Bayakoa era was beginning and she finished second to her four times (Hawthorne, Apple Blossom, Santa Margarita, and Spinster) and third to her in the Vanity. I know, I know. If she was good enough, she would have won some of those races. I say it's no disgrace to just be a notch below Personal Ensign, Bayakoa, and Winning Colors. She was consistently good for three seasons and if not for the presence of three of the best fillies anyone would want to have, she would be much more highly regarded than she is. She was really good.