WARM Heart overturned the Irish Oaks form when she became the 99th Group or Grade 1 flat winner for the multiple champion sire Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) recently, denying Free Wind by a head in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks.

The Coolmore-bred three-year-old has been steadily improving since she made her debut last November at Dundalk, finishing fourth. At Royal Ascot, Warm Heart won the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes, giving Aidan O’Brien his fourth winner of that race. Prior to that she landed a listed race at Newbury.

Warm Heart’s dam Sea Siren (Fastnet Rock) was a three-time Group 1 winner in Australia before she made her way to Royal Ascot to race in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes, where she finished eighth. She then changed trainers, leaving John O’Shea and joining Aidan O’Brien. Sea Siren was off the track for more than a year, but won a listed race at Fairyhouse and placed in a pair of Group 3 races, all her starts from Ballydoyle.

In Australia, Sea Siren won the six-furlong Group 1 BTC Cup, the seven-furlong Group 1 Doomben, and the six-furlong Group 1 Manikato Stakes when in the care of O’Shea. In addition to Warm Heat, she is the dam of three other winners, all by Galileo, and they include the pattern-placed Celestial Object. Sea Siren’s two-year-old of 2023 is Bremen (Galileo), a winner on his second start.

Excellent producer

Sea Siren has three stakes-winning siblings, Group 3 winner Oratorio (Stravinsky) and listed winner Discorsi (Galileo) among them. She also lists New Zealand Group 2 winner Lady Dehere (Dehere) as a half-sister, and that mare has proved herself as an excellent producer, responsible for the dual Group 2 winner Oracy (Zabeel) and the stakes-winning duo Lady Maroal (Power) and The Lady (Stravinsky). The listed-placed Ruthless Lady (Keeper) is another of Lady Dehere’s daughters, and is the dam of last season’s Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes winner Ruthless Dame (Tavistock).

Sea Siren’s dam was the unraced Express A Smile (Success Express), and she was an own-sister to a stakes winner. Their dam was a leading juvenile in Australia, Hold That Smile (Haulpak), who went on to win the Group 1 Karrakatta Plate.

Warm Heart is the latest example of the potency of crossing daughters of Fastnet Rock (Danehill) with Galileo. She is one of eight stakes winners bred on this cross, and they also include Russian Emperor, the outstanding Hong Kong runner who has won three Group 1 races.

Sea Siren has a yearling colt by Camelot (Montjeu) born to southern hemisphere time, and she recently had a colt by Coolmore’s dual Group 1 winning stallion, Home Affairs (I Am Invincible). She is set to be covered by St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni).