Southern Halo, the most successful sire in Argentine history, died in his paddock at Haras La Quebrada near Buenos Aires from complications from the infirmities of old age, according to Gustavo Gonzalez. The 24-year-old Maryland-bred son of Halo out of the Northern Dancer mare Northern Sea had been pensioned this year.
Southern Halo was Argentina’s leading sire from 1994 to 2000, and in 2004 and 2007. He topped the broodmare sire’s list from 2004 to 2008 and ranks as the current leader. His 167 stakes winners include 56 group/grade I winners and 16 champions.
Southern Halo also stood at John Magnier and partners’ Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky., and in Japan. His Kentucky-bred stakes winners include millionaire More Than Ready , who won the King’s Bishop Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga. More Than Ready has achieved success as a stallion in Kentucky and in Australia.
Southern Halo also was represented by major North American winners Miss Linda and Edenwold. An Argentine-bred champion, Miss Linda won the 2001 Overbrook Spinster Stakes (gr. I) at Keeneland. Edenwold was voted Canada’s 2005 champion 2-year-old male. He won the following year’s classic Queen’s Plate Stakes.
Bred by E.P. Taylor, Southern Halo went through the 1984 Keeneland July yearling sale, where he was purchased for $600,000 by the Irish branch of the British Bloodstock Agency. He initially raced in Ireland, where he was unplaced in two starts.
Southern Halo won or placed in 15 of 22 races and earned $344,875 in North America for owner Stavros Niarchos while trained by D. Wayne Lukas. Southern Halo’s five stakes-placings included runner-up efforts in the Super Derby (gr. I) and the Swaps Stakes (gr. I).
“I (told) him goodbye the last weekend. He didn’t suffer or feel pain”, said Hernan Ceriani Cernadas III, son of the late Hernan Ceriani Cernadas and owner of La Quebrada with his family. “A few days ago, when someone said that Southern Halo was the Sadler’s Wells of Argentina, John Magnier said, ‘Southern Halo has joined around him people of the class of Robert Sangster (of Coolmore), E.P. Taylor, D. Wayne Lukas, Hernán Ceriani Cernadas.’ ”
Southern Halo will be buried at Haras La Quebrada near another North American-bred stallion, Solazo, sire of the second dam of North America’s two-time Horse of the Year Cigar.