Nunthorpe Stakes
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.