Halfway to Heaven

Halfway to Heaven (foaled 25 April 2005) is a retired Irish-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and an active broodmare. After winning one minor race as a two-year-old in 2007, she emerged as one of the leading fillies in Europe the following year, recording Group One successes in the Irish 1,000 Guineas, Nassau Stakes and Sun Chariot Stakes. She was retired from racing at the end of the year having won four of her nine races and became a successful broodmore, producing two Group One-winning daughters. Background Halfway to Heaven is a grey mare with a small white star bred by Trevor Stewart at the Ballyhimkin Stud in County Tipperary. During her racing career she was an extremely dark-coated grey, appearing to be almost black. Her sire Pivotal was a top class sprinter who won the King's Stand Stakes and the Nunthorpe Stakes in 1996. He went on to become an "excellent" sire, getting the winners of more than a thousand races across a range of distances including Sariska, Somnus, Peeress, Kyllachy (Nunthorpe Stakes) and Excellent Art (St James's Palace Stakes). Halfway to Heaven's dam, Cassandra Go was a top class sprinter, whose wins included the King George Stakes, Temple Stakes and King's Stand Stakes and was a descendant of the Kentucky Oaks winner Native Street. As a yearling, Halfway to Heaven was sent by the Ballyhimkin Stud to the Goff's sales in September 2006 where she was bought for €450,000 by the bloodstock agent Dermot "Demi" O'Byrne on behalf of John Magnier's Coolmore organisation. Like many Coolmore horses, the details of Halfway to Heaven's ownership varied from race to race: she was sometimes listed as being owned by Michael Tabor, while in other races she was listed as the property of a partnership of Tabor, Susan Magnier and Derrick Smith. The filly was trained throughout her racing career by Aidan O'Brien at Ballydoyle. Racing career