Goodbye Halo was an American Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. A daughter of the noted sire Halo, she won 10 graded stakes races over a race career spanning from ages two to four. Following her racing career, she was sent to Japan for broodmare duty and most notably produced the sire.
Background
Goodbye Halo was a chestnut mare bred in Kentucky by Dr. William O. Reed. Reed was an equine surgeon who most notably performed surgery on Ruffian following her breakdown during her match race with Foolish Pleasure. In addition to practicing veterinary medicine, Reed also bred racehorses at his Mare Haven Farm near Lexington, Kentucky. Goodbye Halo was sired by Halo, a good turf runner who won the 1974 United Nations Handicap and three other stakes races. At stud at Windfields Farm in Maryland and later Stone Farm in Kentucky, Halo sired 62 stakes winners including Sunday Silence, Glorious Song, Devil's Bag, Saint Ballado, Misty Gallore, and Coup de Folie. As a yearling, Goodbye Halo sold for $47,000 to Lion Crest Stable, acting as an agent.
Goodbye Halo began her three-year-old season with a victory in the Grade 3Santa Ynez Stakes on February 3, 1988. The 123-pound highweight and odds-on favorite, she went out to an early lead and easily won by five lengths in a final time of 1:23 for seven furlongs. On February 20, she also won the Las Virgenes Stakes, in which she defeated future Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors by a neck. On March 13, she finished third in the Santa Anita Oaks to Winning Colors. Goodbye Halo was then shipped to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Oaks. She and stablemate Jeanne Jones, coupled for betting purposes, were sent off as 0.9–1 favorites. Goodbye Halo ultimately won the race over Jeanne Jones, with Willa on the Move third. She then spent the summer of 1988 racing in New York. In the Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes on June 10, Goodbye Halo stalked the early pace-setters from the outside and took the lead in the stretch, winning by lengths over 36–1 longshot Make Change. She also won the Coaching Club American Oaks and finished fourth in the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes. In October, Goodbye Halo ran third in the Las Palmas Handicap before being shipped back to Churchill Downs for the Breeders' Cup Distaff. She finished third behind the undefeated Personal Ensign and 1988 Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors. She finished her 1988 campaign back in California with a second-place run in the Dahlia Handicap and a fifth-place finish in the Matriarch Stakes, both at Hollywood Park.
In January 1990, Goodbye Halo was offered at Keeneland January as a broodmare prospect, where she was bought for $2.1 million by Morio Sakurai and was subsequently sent to Japan. In 1995, Goodbye Halo produced, who went on to become a Japanese Group 1 winner and sire. Sired by Dancing Brave, he won the Takamatsunomiya Kinen as a five-year-old before retiring to stud, where he sired Group 1 winners and.
Pedigree
Goodbye Halo is inbred 3x4 to Turn-to, meaning that Turn-to appears once in the third generation and once in the fourth generation of her pedigree.
