Galileo one-two-three in Yorkshire Oaks takes sire to the brink of a top-level century

Another remarkable result from the peerless Galileo saw him complete a one-two-three in the Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks which took him to the cusp of yet another milestone.

Warm Heart was the 99th individual top-level winner recorded around the world for the late Coolmore sire as the homebred filly battled on well under James Doyle to pip Free Wind.

Galileo, who died in 2021, has this year’s crop of juveniles and a smaller group of yearlings to come and had only the three runners in the event he last won three years ago with Love, having triumphed in the race as far back as 2008 with Lush Lashes.

Warm Heart is out of Sea Siren, herself a multiple Group 1 winner at sprinting distances in Australia and a daughter of Fastnet Rock who had a short spell with Warm Heart’s trainer Aidan O’Brien at the end of her career.

The late Galileo is closing in on 100 Group or Grade 1 winnersCredit: Patrick McCann

The three-year-old, who reached Group 2 heights in the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot, just held off the five-year-old Free Wind by a head. Also three times a Group 2 winner owned by George Strawbridge, she is out of the very smart Duke Of Marmalade mare Alive Alive Oh and was bought as a yearling from Tattersalls and Islanmore Stud for 325,000gns. She was bred by Sue Ann Foley. 

Galileo’s clean sweep was completed by another three-year-old filly who has already contributed to her sire’s exalted tally in Savethelastdance, the Irish Oaks winner out of American Oaks heroine Daddys Lil Darling.

It should really be a matter of when not if Galileo breaks that record with likely runners and up-and-comers in so many more Group and Grade 1s to come. There is just the chance the century could even arrive this weekend as Stone Age makes a new start for Chad Brown in Saturday’s Sword Dancer Stakes at Saratoga.

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