Warm Heart takes Ribblesdale honours for O’Brien and Moore

Hot favourite Al Asifah proves disappointing.

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.

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