A champion on and off the track, Cassandra Go’s death at Ballyhimikin Stud at the age of 25 will be sadly mourned, but what a legacy she left.
This is a family we featured when Godolphin’s Cross Counter (IRE) won the Melbourne. Still, there is little doubt that Coolmore was the big beneficiary, mainly through Cassandra Go’s granddaughter Magical.
By Galileo’s son, Teofilo (IRE), Cross Counter, and Galileo’s seven-time Group 1 winning daughter Magical descend from the half-sister’s Persian Secret and Cassandra Go. That pair are also half-sisters to underrated stallion Verglas who won the Coventry Stakes and was runner-up in the Irish 2000 Guineas.
The winner of the King Stand Stakes and runner-up to Mozart in the July Cup, Cassandra Go (Indian Ridge) far exceeded her half-sister on the track.
Coolmore’s decision to invest in three daughters of Cassandra Go reaped huge dividends.
It began at the Goffs Million in 2005 when John Magnier outlaid €400,000 for the Rock Of Gibraltar filly Theann at the same sale the following year Demi O’Byrne needed to go to €450,000 for Cassandra Go’s Pivotal filly Halfway To Heaven.
Eleven years later, MV Magnier had the final say at 1,600,000 gns for the Invincible Spirit filly Fantasy.
Theann was a Group III winner and started her broodmare career the right way by producing the dual Group 1 winner Photo Call (Galileo) and the Group II Richmond Stakes winner Land Force (No Nay Never).
Halfway To Heaven fared even better. Following three wins at the highest level on the track,, the Irish One Thousand Guineas, Sun Chariot Stakes and Nassau Stakes, Halfway To Heaven has just about cemented her blue hen status as the dam of Magical, triple Group 1 winner Rhododendron and the Group III winner Flying The Flag. All three being by the champion Galileo.
A stakes-winner in France, Persian Secret produced 11 winners led by the stakes-winner Sheba (Alzao), third in the G1 Mother Goose Stakes, and the Gr III Prix de Meautry Royal Barriere winner Do The Honours (Highest Honor) who won five of her ten starts.
To a mating with Kingmambo, Do The Honours produced the stakes-placed Waitress, who is the dam of Cross Counter (IRE).
