All-Star Heart a hell of a ride for hobby breeders

The couple are well renowned as champion riders and breeders in the reining game, something that has taken them across the world, but have always maintained a connection to the thoroughbred industry through their shavings and sawdust business in Tatura in northern Victoria.

Moses has previously worked at Cathy Hains' Burnewang North thoroughbred breeding operation, while Halliwell's father trained horses and he followed suit, being a hobby trainer up until a few years ago, when he decided to focus on breeding quarter horses.

It was during this period as a trainer that he acquired a mare called Catch A Heart (Show A Heart), who would help him maintain his interest in thoroughbreds as a hobby breeder.

"We bought her through Mick Price. Mick had trained her originally and I was training horses back then and looking for one," Halliwell, who was inducted into the Reining Australia Hall of Fame in 2018, told TDN AusNZ.

"She had bled at her last start at Mornington and so to get her back again, we had to get her to trial in front of the stewards. She won the trial by 5l and then they did a fibrillation test, and she never passed that, so we decided to breed with her.

"She was such a big, nice broad mare. She was just beautiful. She is great natured and she was a good racehorse. She won by 3l at her first start and won her first trial by 10l."

A staying pedigree

Catch A Heart's pedigree was pretty strong on stamina, being out of a stakes-placed mare in Belzain (Woodman {USA}), who was second in a Bendigo Cup and was a sister to a stakes winner over 2200 metres in Zero Engagement, and from the family of G2 Herbert Power S., winner Shewan (Blevic).

Her first foal, Go For Your Life (Skilled), only had two starts, but the second, a filly named Catch A Hero (Von Costa De Hero) has proven handy for Halliwell and Moses as owners, winning three races for Echuca trainer Gwenda Johnstone.

They then sold a colt by Kuroshio through Yarran Thoroughbreds at the 2017 Melbourne VOBIS Gold Sale, getting $40,000 for him. Named Curious Heart and trained by Cranbourne trainer Doug Harrison, he has had two wins.

For the next mating, Halliwell and Moses had a clear idea of where they wanted to go.

"We loved Puissance De Lune as a racehorse. He was just a cracker, so we decided to go with him and that's how we got Heart Of Puissance," Halliwell said.

As a colt, he was always destined for the ring and was catalogued in the 2018 Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale, again through Yarran Thoroughbreds.

"Keiran and I prepped him. We nicknamed him jaws, because he'd always bite you when you would feed him or lead him, but otherwise, he was pretty quiet. He was just a big goober," Halliwell said.

The 'big goober' was picked up by renowned judge John Foote for $40,000 and found his way into the stables of Ciaron Maher and David Eustace for a big group of owners.

Destined for the All-Star

While his pedigree and type would indicate he would take some time and distance to find his best, he debuted with a win over 1300 metres at Warrnambool and followed that up with a win over 1600 metres at Moonee Valley.

At just his third start, he finished third in a G2 Sandown Guineas beaten by only 0.5l, showing his potential as a top class horse.

Those spring performances saw him develop quite a following and momentum grew behind a push to get the colt into the All-Star Mile.

A concerted campaign by his owners and the stable, plus a bit of help from a few of Halliwell's customers at the sawdust and shavings business, saw him garner 5212 votes, enough to get him into ninth, and into the field as the least experienced runner by some distance.

So Halliwell and Moses will embark on the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Caulfield on Saturday to watch their boy take on an elite field in the second edition of the race.

"He's in a cracking field, so we will see. He's a 72 rater and has only had four starts and there's horses rated 114 in the race. We will wait and see what happens. We will be there to have look. Hopefully he runs in the first five," he said.

Whatever Heart Of Puissance does, Halliwell believes he will continue to improve on with every indication from his pedigree that he will make a much better horse at four and five.

"He's just a big leggy goober at the moment," he said. "He was always going to be that type of horse because of the mother and father basically. They are more stayers."

Success flows on

The colt's early racetrack success has already paved the way for better opportunities for the rest of the family. Catch A Heart foaled a Puissance De Lune filly in September and six weeks later, Gerry Ryan, who raced and owns the sire, came knocking with an offer Halliwell and Moses couldn't refuse.

One of only two thoroughbred broodmares that the couple own, she is in foal back to the grey stallion again.

"It’s crazy, you couldn’t believe it would happen. We’ve got two broodmares and to get a runner like that in a big race is an amazing thing. We'll see how he goes," Halliwell said.