Sunny's Halo (CAN)
February 11, 1980 – June 23, 2003
Halo (USA) x Mostly Sunny (CAN), by Sunny (USA)
Family 4-m
February 11, 1980 – June 23, 2003
Halo (USA) x Mostly Sunny (CAN), by Sunny (USA)
Family 4-m
Sunny's Halo provided one of the Kentucky Derby's feel-good stories of the 1980s, coming back from injuries sustained at the end to his juvenile season to win on behalf of a small trainer who had given up nearly everything else to condition his dream horse. A champion in Canada at 2 and just short of that level at 3 in the United States, Sunny's Halo went on to become an inconsistent sire but begot several good runners before his death in 2003.
Race record
20 starts, 9 wins, 3 seconds, 2 thirds, US$1,247,791
1982:
1983:
Honors
Assessments
Highweighted on the Canadian Free Handicap for 2-year-old males at 126 pounds, 1 pound above second-rated Flying Pocket and King Alphonse.
Rated at 108 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap for American-raced juveniles of 1982, 18 pounds below co-highweights Roving Boy (the official champion) and Copelan.
Rated at 126 pounds on the Daily Racing Form's Free Handicap for American 3-year-old males of 1983, 1 pound below divisional champion Slew o' Gold.
As an individual
A lengthy, rather light-framed chestnut horse, Sunny's Halo battled physical problems throughout his career including stress fractures in his shins, a sore ankle, and a persistent skin rash. He was a strong-willed, dominant animal who, while at stud in Texas, insisted on being the first stallion allowed to breed if more than one horse was scheduled to be covering on a given day.
As a stallion
According to records kept by The Jockey Club, Sunny's Halo sired 506 winners (50.1%) and 36 stakes winners (3.6%) from 1009 named foals.
Notable progeny
Dispersal (USA), Irgun (USA), Race the Wild Wind (USA)
Connections
Foaled in Ontario, Sunny's Halo was bred and owned by David Foster. He was trained by David Cross Jr. and was ridden to his Kentucky Derby triumph by Eddie Delahoussaye. Syndicated for US$7.5 million at the end of his racing days, he entered stud in 1984 in Kentucky at Domino Stud and later moved to Walmac Stud. In 1998, he was purchased by a partnership and moved to Texas, and he also shuttled to Brazil several times during his stud career. He last stood at Double S Ranch, Bullard, Texas, and was euthanized after suffering a stroke in June 2003. He was originally buried at the ranch by his majority owner, Bill Hanna, but was disinterred after the sale of the ranch to real estate developers in spring 2006. He was reburied on the grounds of the Kentucky Derby Museum, Louisville, Kentucky.
Pedigree notes
Sunny's Halo is inbred 4x5 to 1936 Derby Stakes winner and 1946 American champion sire Mahmoud. He is a half brother to Straw Beret (by Chief's Crown), dam of 2001 Turkish champion older male Medya (by Second Set).
A winner on the track, Sunny's Halo's dam Mostly Sunny was sired by the Canadian-based Princequillo horse Sunny, a five-time stakes winner. She is a half sister to Where To (by Hidden Treasure), fourth dam of two-time Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (USA-G1) winner Goldencents.
Mostly Sunny was produced from the non-winner Doily, a daughter of two-time Italian champion Daumier. Doily, in turn, is out of the winning Count Fleet mare Lecount, who also produced Shady Countess (by Umbrella Fella), dam of multiple stakes winner Hero's Countess (by Yesterdays Hero)
Books and media
Sunny's Halo is profiled in Chapter 11 of Avalyn Hunter's American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (2003, Eclipse Press).
Fun facts
Last updated: May 7, 2024
Race record
20 starts, 9 wins, 3 seconds, 2 thirds, US$1,247,791
1982:
- Won Grey Stakes (CAN, 8.5FD, Woodbine)
- Won Swynford Stakes (CAN, 7FD, Woodbine)
- Won Coronation Futurity (CAN, 9FD, Woodbine)
- 2nd Clarendon Stakes (CAN, 5.5FD, Woodbine)
- 2nd Victoria Stakes (CAN, 5FD, Woodbine)
- 3rd Tremont Stakes (USA-G3, 6FD, Belmont)
1983:
- Won Kentucky Derby (USA-G1, 10FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Super Derby Invitational Stakes (USA-G1, 10FD, Louisiana Downs)
- Won Arkansas Derby (USA-G1, 9FD, Oaklawn)
- Won Rebel Handicap (USA-L, 8.5FD, Oaklawn)
- 2nd Volante Handicap (USA-G3, 9FT, Santa Anita)
- 3rd Whitney Stakes (USA-G1, 9FD, Saratoga)
Honors
- Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (inducted in 1986)
- Sovereign Award, Canadian champion 2-year-old male (1982)
Assessments
Highweighted on the Canadian Free Handicap for 2-year-old males at 126 pounds, 1 pound above second-rated Flying Pocket and King Alphonse.
Rated at 108 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap for American-raced juveniles of 1982, 18 pounds below co-highweights Roving Boy (the official champion) and Copelan.
Rated at 126 pounds on the Daily Racing Form's Free Handicap for American 3-year-old males of 1983, 1 pound below divisional champion Slew o' Gold.
As an individual
A lengthy, rather light-framed chestnut horse, Sunny's Halo battled physical problems throughout his career including stress fractures in his shins, a sore ankle, and a persistent skin rash. He was a strong-willed, dominant animal who, while at stud in Texas, insisted on being the first stallion allowed to breed if more than one horse was scheduled to be covering on a given day.
As a stallion
According to records kept by The Jockey Club, Sunny's Halo sired 506 winners (50.1%) and 36 stakes winners (3.6%) from 1009 named foals.
Notable progeny
Dispersal (USA), Irgun (USA), Race the Wild Wind (USA)
Connections
Foaled in Ontario, Sunny's Halo was bred and owned by David Foster. He was trained by David Cross Jr. and was ridden to his Kentucky Derby triumph by Eddie Delahoussaye. Syndicated for US$7.5 million at the end of his racing days, he entered stud in 1984 in Kentucky at Domino Stud and later moved to Walmac Stud. In 1998, he was purchased by a partnership and moved to Texas, and he also shuttled to Brazil several times during his stud career. He last stood at Double S Ranch, Bullard, Texas, and was euthanized after suffering a stroke in June 2003. He was originally buried at the ranch by his majority owner, Bill Hanna, but was disinterred after the sale of the ranch to real estate developers in spring 2006. He was reburied on the grounds of the Kentucky Derby Museum, Louisville, Kentucky.
Pedigree notes
Sunny's Halo is inbred 4x5 to 1936 Derby Stakes winner and 1946 American champion sire Mahmoud. He is a half brother to Straw Beret (by Chief's Crown), dam of 2001 Turkish champion older male Medya (by Second Set).
A winner on the track, Sunny's Halo's dam Mostly Sunny was sired by the Canadian-based Princequillo horse Sunny, a five-time stakes winner. She is a half sister to Where To (by Hidden Treasure), fourth dam of two-time Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (USA-G1) winner Goldencents.
Mostly Sunny was produced from the non-winner Doily, a daughter of two-time Italian champion Daumier. Doily, in turn, is out of the winning Count Fleet mare Lecount, who also produced Shady Countess (by Umbrella Fella), dam of multiple stakes winner Hero's Countess (by Yesterdays Hero)
Books and media
Sunny's Halo is profiled in Chapter 11 of Avalyn Hunter's American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (2003, Eclipse Press).
Fun facts
- Sunny's Halo was the second Canadian-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby, following 1964 victor Northern Dancer.
- Sunny's Halo was the first Canadian-bred horse to win over US$1 million during his 3-year-old season.
- Trainer David Cross believed so strongly in Sunny's Halo as a Kentucky Derby prospect that he gave up conditioning all but two other horses from a 35-horse stable to focus on Sunny's Halo.
- The night before Sunny's Halo win the Kentucky Derby, Cross, his wife Patty, and groom John “Top Cat” Sears Jr. got a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and slept in their colt's barn. The night afterward, they were enriched not only by the trainer's cut of the purse but by winnings from a US$200 win ticket that Patty had purchased from a Las Vegas winter book at 100-1 odds.
- After Sunny's Halo suffered stress fractures in both shins to end his juvenile season, he became one of the first big-name Thoroughbreds to be treated with hydrotherapy in an indoor swimming pool, using the equine pool at Hollywood Park.
- Following Sunny's Halo's disappointing loss in the 1983 Arlington Classic, a drug positive for an antihistamine medication prescribed to treat the colt's persistent skin lesions turned into a nightmare for trainer David Cross, who had previously had a completely clean record and always maintained that he had stopped use of the drug within the recommended time window to allow it to clear the colt's system prior to the race. Initially handed a five-day suspension, Cross found himself targeted by the Illinois Racing Commission, which sought to ban him from racing for life. Cross won the case but spent over US$100,000 in legal costs, lost most of his clients, and also lost his beloved wife, who had been battling cancer and died while the case was still in progress. While he managed to rebuild his stable after a hiatus from the sport, later financial reverses forced him to sell his Kentucky Derby trophy, which fetched US$8,928.56 at auction in 2002. (The purchasers, two horsemen who had known Cross in better times, donated the trophy to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.)
- At the time of his death, Sunny's Halo was the all-time leading Texas-based stallion by progeny earnings.
- David Cross had also trained the colt's dam Mostly Sunny. When Mostly Sunny retired from racing, it was Cross who suggested sending her to Halo for the mating that produced the Derby winner.
- The Sunny's Halo Lounge is located in the Grandstand Pavilion at Churchill Downs. According to the track website, it is the only hospitality space at Churchill Downs with a direct view of the track and is a good vantage point from which to view the races as they finish.
Last updated: May 7, 2024