Warm Heart retires a winner, defeats the boys in Pegasus Turf

Hallandale Beach, Fla.

Must we really say goodbye?

Warm Heart went out in style, setting a track record and becoming the first filly to dispatch the boys in the Grade 1, $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

Although she is a two-time Group 1 winner in Europe, the sixth edition of the Pegasus Turf suggested the 4-year-old, Ireland-bred daughter of Galileo is just beginning to peak. In becoming the first filly to win the 1 1/8-mile race and the first international competitor to do so, she set a mark of 1:44.45 for trainer Aidan O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore. English Channel’s 1:44.51 had stood since Feb. 22, 2007.

Click here for Gulfstream Park entries and results.

“We’d love to be having her and racing her, but the lads’ business is breeding these horses,” O’Brien said by phone from Europe after Warm Heart prevailed against hard-charging I’m Very Busy by a half-length. They were followed by Catnip, defending champion Atone and disappointing Integration, who suffered the first loss of his four-race career.

Added Charlie O’Connor, director of sales for Coolmore America, “What can we say about her? She’s unbelievable. She will retire at the top of the game.”

As is typically the case, Warm Heart enhanced her value to such a degree that business considerations outweigh the fans’ hunger for stars. And it will be off to the breeding shed to add to Coolmore’s regal broodmare band. The connections had said all along that this start, the 11th of her career, would be her last. Nothing has changed, no matter how exciting her on-track future might have been.

O’Brien indicated that mating plans call for her to be sent to 2018 Triple Crown champion Justify.

“She’s an absolutely incredible broodmare to be going to Justify, who looks probably the most incredible stallion that ever was based on what he’s done so far. It’s so exciting, really,” O’Brien said.

Warm Heart won for the sixth time to go with a pair of runner-up performances and a third-place effort. She closed with earnings of $2,194,409.

She missed by a desperate neck to Inspiral in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf in November at Santa Anita. She made her first seven starts in Ireland and England before showing she could take her game anywhere.

She steeled herself for the Breeders’ Cup with a victory in France. After her narrow Breeders’ Cup miss to a stellar rival, she ventured to Asia and finished third in the Dec. 10 Hong Kong Vase (G1) with Moore aboard.

“Ryan said it just didn’t work out for her the last race, but she’s tactical, she’s tough, and she quickens,” O’Brien said. “She doesn’t do a lot once she gets there, but that is the way she has always been. She’s very classy and very hardy. Loves the fast ground, fast track.”

She got the fast going she wanted. But this was no gimme.

“The trip was the shortest trip she could ever run, and we were a bit concerned about that,” O’Connor said. “The draw outside was a bit concerning.”

It was almost as if she knew what to do to overcome those disadvantages after breaking from post 9 in a full field of 12. “She broke smart and put herself in a good spot,” Moore said. “I was always happy to wait.”

The issue became whether Warm Heart, fourth in the early going and then third and then second, would get the crease inside that she needed against front-running long shot Main Event. Moore felt sure that she would.

“The leader, he was always leaning out, and he was weakening,” the jockey said. “I knew I had plenty of horse, so no problem.”

No problem, indeed. Warm Heart and Moore bided their time before she spurted through the opening she needed along the rail. It was over.

The outcome surely was heartening for Pegasus organizers, who have to think this will encourage greater international participation.

“We always love coming over here,” O’Connor said. “We’re part of America.”