Warm Heart takes Ribblesdale as Al Asifah fluffs lines

Warm Heart brought up a hat-trick when storming to an impressive Ribblesdale Stakes success at Royal Ascot.

Trained by Aidan O’Brien, the daughter of Galileo arrived at the meeting having won her previous two outings, scooping Listed honours at Newbury last month. This time, she took her form to the next level in the hands of Ryan Moore as she won this Group Two in tremendous fashion.

Moore had Warm Heart close to the pace set by those on the front-end and found himself perfectly placed to strike in the home straight.

Although French raider Crown Princesse and the 5-6 hotpot Al Asifah briefly loomed up dangerously to mount a challenge after the two-furlong pole, there was no passing Warm Heart who just kept finding extra and soon put daylight between herself and her rivals in the closing stages to score at 13-2.

She returned a two-and-a-half-length-winning verdict over runner-up Lumiere Rock, with the mount of Frankie Dettori, Bluestocking, running on for third.

It was a fourth win in the Ribblesdale for both O’Brien and Moore, while it was also Moore’s fourth victory of the week following his treble on the opening day.

O’Brien said: “Ryan gave Warm Heart a lovely ride and I'm delighted with her. She ran a very good race at Newbury the last day and we weren't sure whether the trip would be too far for her. Ryan planned to take his time with her today, to find a handy position and wait as long as possible.

"Ryan is brilliant, an incredible fella. He must be nearly 40, but every year he gets better. He gets better because he puts so much in day in and day out. When he comes over [to Ireland] he stays with us and runs six or seven miles every morning before he sits on a horse. He's so fit, so focused and so committed, and when you ask him a question all the information comes out about the horse, the ride, the ground. He's an incredible horseman, very cool under pressure and a total professional. We're so lucky to have him.

Talking about the filly, he added: “Warm Heart ran at Newbury over a mile and a quarter and we thought that was maybe as far as she was going to get. We didn’t know when she got to the front today whether she would run out of stamina, but obviously we saw she probably doesn’t want to get to the front too early.

“She got the trip very well today and Ryan gave her a beautiful ride. She’s out of a great mare and usually those fillies with good pedigrees do improve – physically she’s doing great.”

Moore said: “In Warm Heart’s previous race they went real hard, while in this race they didn't. She's a very straightforward filly and it all worked out.

"It's very hard here and you need the little things to work for you. Sometimes the ball bounces for you and sometimes it doesn't. That's racing.

"She's definitely a better filly today [compared to her previous run at Newbury]. It was up to a mile and a half, but it wasn't strongly run race so we haven't answered the question [of whether she truly stays the longer trip] but she's won a lovely prize today."