Klein, his wife Joyce, and guests, were seated at their usual prime turf club table overlooking the finish line. Miami, Dino, and Ava were seated rows above them at their own higher, less well-located table. The attendees at both tables had been down to the paddock to view the fillies as they were being saddled. They’d seen Lukas wearing an elegant blue pinstripe suit and polka dot blue and white silk tie. He had reassembled Winning Colors’ white halter before turning her over to Luis. Luis then paraded her in front of the admiring fans, as she bounced with energy while flipping her long mane side to side. The fillies paraded in front of the stands for several minutes before warming up on the backstretch.
Gary Stevens took his perch atop the tall filly and led her to the track to warm up. As she pranced in the warm up, she bit the filly in front of her before Stevens could snatch her head back. Stevens took this as a good sign.
The trumpet player in his bright red formal coat and black top hat played the familiar tune, “Call to the Post.”
Dino was very confident of Winning Colors and awaited the moment she’d show the world the future champion he believed she was destined to be. He and Miami had bet $3,000 on her at the windows and were excited and confident of her superiority against the current Eastern champion, Goodbye Halo.
Stevens was concerned about Winning Colors as he led her to the gate. She was clearly unhappy as she threw her head up and to the right. She shied away from the gate the first time he led her to enter. She was agitated—starting and stopping her steps. The jockey spoke to her softly, working to ease her spirits. He noticed that her eyes were darting from the gate to the other fillies as he calmed her. She finally entered the gate quietly.
The crowd was loud as the gates opened. Winning Colors broke forward and seized the lead, but drawn to the inside of her position was the speedy filly Bolchina at 23-1. Winning Colors was fanned, three wide, losing ground into the quick left turn. Bolchina dived inside and challenged the lead with Winning Colors, who, for the first time in her races, was on even terms with another horse in a race. Winning Colors’ competitive instinct kicked in and she responded to the challenge as she exploded with speed past Bolchina, sprinting to reestablish herself in front. She’d used considerable energy so early in the race. The two leaders, Winning Colors and Bolchina, were flying on the lead now!
Goodbye Halo was under top national jockey, Jorge Velasquez. He was racing at a relaxed five lengths back from the two leaders, not being asked for more run by Velasquez. The two leading fillies continued dueling on the front end, both wanting the lead.
Bolchina tried but could not get back on even terms with Winning Colors. Stevens suddenly found himself two-and-a-half lengths in front of Bolchina while blasting down the backstretch. Goodbye Halo was relaxed and content several paths outside the rail to let the two other fillies battle for supremacy for the lead down the long Santa Anita backstretch, and then into the start of the stretch turn.
As Winning Colors dove into the start of the far turn, Velasquez asked his mount for run and she willingly accelerated and boldly charged up to within a length behind Winning Colors. For a moment it looked as if Goodbye Halo would rocket past her, but Winning Colors felt Goodbye Halo’s presence on her flank, and again with her long strides accelerated to re-open her lead back to a large two-and-a-half length advantage. Winning Colors and Goodbye Halo stormed down the start of the long stretch together. Winning Colors had been asked twice already in the race to stay in front of two challenging, stakes class fillies.
Up in the turf club, Miami and Dino smiled at each other after seeing their gray filly take control over the field. Ava looked like a princess.
The roar of the crowd was so loud, the fillies and jockeys could hear it even over the pounding of the horses’ feet into the hard and fast dirt of the track. The expected match race between the two best fillies in the country was on!
The fans encouraged their favorites while those at the Kleins’s table shouted, “Keep going!” to Winning Colors.
Dino, normally quiet when watching races, was yelling in a deeper voice than Miami had ever heard in their 15 years of race watching together. “Go baby, go! Go girl…go girl…go girl!”
Goodbye Halo put her head down and dug in, gaining desperate bits of ground with each stride on Winning Colors as they charged together into the stretch run, while distancing the rest of the field. The two champion fillies pulled away from the rest of the field by three, then five, and now eight lengths, up to 30 lengths ahead of the remaining horses.
The race was just between the two star fillies.
Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero was watching the battle from the sidelines and later said the race reminded him of the “Ali verses Frazier” boxing ring match.
The two young horses were running full out for their lives as they charged for home, and both dug in; neither would yield to the other. Stevens tried to steer Winning Colors out to the right, trying to race ride her and let her ever so slightly cause Goodbye Halo to not run a straight line. Winning Colors would have no part of it. She darted to the inside, running tucked against and nearly touching the rail, absolutely refusing to quit. Her ears were pinned back while opening again to
