Halina's Forte

Halina’s Forte turned heads in her career debut during Churchill Downs’ November 2024 meet when she won a 5 ½-furlong maiden race on dirt by 4 ½ lengths. The daughter of champion sprinter Mitole then moved up to stakes company and finished second in two sprint stakes at Churchill Downs and Fair Grounds to close out her juvenile campaign. She started 2024 by taking her first stakes race, the seven-furlong Ruthless Stakes at Aqueduct, by 1 ¾ lengths but could not handle a class jump and racing two turns in the Grade 1 Central Bank Ashland Stakes at Keeneland, where she finished last of eight.

Trainer Phil Bauer kept Halina’s Forte at sprint distances thereafter, and the filly ran well over the next year and a half, making six starts through the end of her 3-year-old season and winning the 5 ½-furlong Galway Stakes at Saratoga during summer 2024 after that race was washed off the turf as well as pair of allowance races at Churchill Downs.  

She started out 2025 with a close runner-up finish in the Prairie Rose Stakes at Prairie Meadows and then was moved up in class to face a tough field in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss Stakes July 20 at Saratoga. Breaking from the rail in the six-furlong test, Halina’s Forte stayed in that ground-saving position and rallied stoutly to edge R Disaster by a half-length and post a 24-1 upset victory.

Owned by Chuck Rigney, Florida-bred Halina’s Forte is out of the stakes-winning Yes It’s True mare Lunarlady.