by Frank Angst
Winning Colors, one of just three fillies to win the Kentucky Derby (G1), was euthanized at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington on Sunday following complications from colic.
The roan filly was 23. Winning Colors has been buried at Greentree Farm, a division of her home, Gainesway Farm.
“Winning Colors was always a champion, she had great physical prowess and athleticism. She was one of my fathers' favorite horses and everyone at Gainesway is saddened by her passing," Gainesway President Antony Beck said.
No filly has won the Derby since Winning Colors captured the Louisville classic in 1988, when she joined 1915 winner Regret and 1980 winner Genuine Risk as the only females to win the 1 1/4-mile test. Regret also is buried at Gainesway.
At 31 years old and retired to Newstead Farm in Upperville, Virginia, Genuine Risk is the oldest living Derby winner.
In 1988, Winning Colors secured the first of four Derby victories for her eventual Racing Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas and the first of three Derby victories for her eventual Racing Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens.
Lukas went to $575,000 to purchase the Caro (Ire) filly for Eugene Klein at the 1986 Keeneland July selected yearling sale. Winning Colors won both of her starts at two—winning her maiden debut at Saratoga Race Course and an allowance race at Santa Anita Park. She won her first career stakes start, the La Centinela Stakes at Santa Anita by 6 ½ lengths, before finishing a close second to Goodbye Halo in the Las Virgenes Stakes.
After that effort, Winning Colors won the Santa Anita Oaks (G1) by eight lengths before waltzing to a 7 1/2-length win in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) in her first start against males. Just the third filly to win the Santa Anita Derby, the effort convinced Lukas to give her a shot in the Kentucky Derby.
In Louisville, Winning Colors seized a clear lead from her 16 rivals through a quarter-mile in :23. She added to that lead, opening four lengths through six furlongs in 1:11.40 and then held off runner-up Forty Niner by a neck. She is one of just 22 Derby winners to lead at every point of call.
Winning Colors then finished third in the Preakness (G1) and sixth in the Belmont (G1) Stakes. She closed out the year in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) at Churchill, where she lost by a nose to undefeated champion Personal Ensign in one of the most memorable finishes in North American racing. Winning Colors was named champion three-year-old filly that season.
Winning Colors raced one more season, capturing the Turfway Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap in 1989.
As a broodmare, Winning Colors has not produced a stakes winner. After some breeding problems from 2000-’05, she produced a filly by Orientate in ‘06. That filly is now in training with Ron Stevens in Aiken, South Carolina. She also produced a filly by Mr. Greeley in ‘07. Both fillies are gray or roan.
Frank Angst is senior writer of Thoroughbred Times