Third G1 Win for Warm Heart
Australian triple Group I-winning Fastnet Rock mare Sea Siren is back enjoying life as a broodmare at Coolmore Australia, while her globetrotting daughter Warm Heart (4m Galileo x Sea Siren, by Fastnet Rock) kicked off 2024 with a course record breaking win in the Group I Pegasus Invitational Turf (1800m) at Gulfstream on Saturday.
The Aidan O’Brien trained Galileo mare won a maiden at Leopardstown in May last year and from that point never looked back. Warm Heart graduated swiftly through Listed and Group wins before claiming a pair of Group I victories in the UK and France and ended her year with placings in the Group I Breeders Cup Filly and Mare Turf and Group I Hong Kong International Vase at Sha Tin.
Dispatched to Gulfstream for her first run of the year, Ryan Moore gave Warm Heart a magical rails hugging ride and she responded with a flashing run along the fence to win by half a length. The final time of 1:44.45 for the nine furlongs on firm turf broke the previous record set by English Channel back in 2007.
“She’s always traveling very comfortably,” said Moore.
“I didn’t want to be there too early, and I didn’t want to be tipping out into the straight, and I thought I’d rather just wait. She’s a great filly. She’s had an incredible year. She hasn’t had a bad race. The leader, he was always leaning out, and he was weakening and I knew I had plenty of horse, so no problem. I was happy to wait.”
A homebred for the Coolmore partners, Warm Heart has the overall record of six wins and three placings from 11 starts and has a date at stud this year in Kentucky with Justify, who also sired a new stakes-winner on the Gulfstream program when Alpha Bella (4m Justify x Andina, by Singspiel) took out the Group III La Prevoyante Stakes (1 ½ m). She is the 26th stakes-winner worldwide for Justify.
Warm Heart is sister to Group III placed Celestial Object and is the best of four winners from five foals to race so far from triple Group I winning Fastnet Rock mare Sea Siren.
A brilliant sprinter for the John O’Shea stable, Sea Siren posted Group I wins in the MVRC Manikato Stakes, BRC Doomben Ten Thousand and BTC Cup before finishing eighth in the 2013 Group I Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot. She finished her career with a short preparation under Aidan O’Brien which yielded a stakes win and two stakes-placings in Ireland.
Sea Siren started her stud career in Ireland for Coolmore, but is now back in Australia and had a yearling colt by Camelot fetch $275,000 for Coolmore at Magic Millions when secured by Waller Racing/Mulcaster Bloodstock.
She had a colt by Home Affairs last spring and is now in foal to Justify.