His entry in the Preakness Stakes on May 17, his entry on the Pimlico race course, trainers Jamie Osborne and Heart of Honor, probably because they had no starter for the second round of the Triple Crown, which had bred outside North America since the Irish breeding Celtic Ash in 1960.
“Bloody hell,” Osborne said of learning that little infamy.
As surprising as Nugget might have gone to him, Osborne noted that Colt was linked to the United States. Invented in Kentucky, Heart of Honor is out of Scat Daddy Mare Ruby Love and will be standing at the end of the central Kentucky lane by 2020, Santa Anita Derby winner Honor AP. The mares were sold to David Redbirds at Foral for $90,000 at Keeneland November breeding stock sales in 2021.
Heart of Honor has since swapped hands three times in the sales ring, most recently Osborne paid $172,341 at the 2024 Arqana Breeze-Up Sale.
With a nearly exclusive race at Meydan Racecourse, Heart of Honor was second in his debut at Southwell Racecourse, a roughly two-hour drive northeast of Birmingham in Colt’s native England.
Owners Jim and Claire Blythe (Jim and Claire Limited) wanted a Middle Eastern runner.
“We had a hard time competing with Godolphins on the grass. Godolphins have no major presence in Dubai soil,” Osborne said. “So we said, ‘What do you know? Why don’t we try to do something a little different?” And that happened, we had a good season. ”
That season includes victory in the first two starts at Meydan, followed by three seconds. This included the United Arab Emirates and the United Arab Emirates Derby presented by Ronkins, sponsored by Jumeirah, and was won by praise Daytona.
That competition shows how Heart of Honor will portray where it fits into Preakness Field. The odds of the morning of 12-1 certainly suggest that he has a chance to fight.
“It’s like reading Swahili for me,” Osborne said. “He is one of the best horses in the Middle East and in the winter he is the best three years old in the Middle East. His form stacks up with horses who won the Saudi Derby (Golden Bekoma).
So why should you please?
“There’s nothing this horse will run in Europe,” Osborne said. “We took him home, gave him a nice long break and doubted he could come back from next year’s Middle Eastern season, so he came back from Dubai and bouncing off in great numbers, and we just thought this was necessary.
That push includes a “penciled” plan that ships the Colt to the Saratoga race course if it comes out in good condition, as you run in the Belmont Stakes. Osborne said Heart of Honor will return to the country for a break before preparing for his final return to the Middle East.
“The horse is trained and hasn’t missed a day since it debuted last October. I hope that he will do one or two prep runs in Dubai, one or two preparations in the Saudi Cup and return to the Dubai World Cup,” Osborne said.
Jim Bryce said the one-month turnaround from the UAE Derby to the Kentucky Derby was too early for Colt. We made it an ideal landing site, especially for two more weeks, to prepare preakness, especially when factoring across the Atlantic and factoring smaller fields.
“A quick summary is that you’re only three years old and you thought, ‘You have to give me a shot.’ It costs a lot in logistics to get him here, but he appears to be traveling well,” he said of him and his wife’s first starter.
The whole experience was an adventure of connection.
Heart of Honor had to fly from the UK to the US. He was in quarantine at Churchill Downs before hitting Pimlico.
“I think he looks great,” Osborne said. “Obviously, he did something like the last wind, 10 days, but that’s not a perfect preparation. But he had to get through a fair regime to get to this point, so I wanted him to leave a bit.”
Osborne assistant Jimmy McCarthy reported that Heart of Honor hadn’t left the oats, and a few days later on the Sloppy Pimlico track, the trainer said “looks bright.”
“He certainly doesn’t look like a travelling horse,” he said.
However, it took me to get used to the softer surfaces. Even when he left the barn on Wednesday, Heart of Honor balked by stomping on the mulch, which gave him more way than he was comfortable. Adjustments were expected. There isn’t much rain affecting the race at Meydan.
“We came from a country famous for rain. We didn’t have around eight weeks. I had to come here,” Osborn joked.
Osborne’s achievements in the US
Dirt races are not as foreign to trainers as internationally bred runners for this race.
Osborne trained New York toast. He won the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park after finishing second in the Pacific Classic Steaks that year. New York Toast returned to the US a few years later for the 2018 Pegasus World Cup invitation stakes, finishing second in the Lucas Classic Stakes that year.
He draws out some similarities between the toast of the near-miss in New York and the heart of the heart in the UAE, the race he lost by his nose. However, his current runner journey is a little more personal. Because Iron has Osborne’s 23-year-old daughter Saffy. She raced in the UK on Wednesday, flew to the US Thursday, and was in Pimlico on Friday.
“Toast was painful, but I think the UAE Derby was obviously more painful, despite the fact that the two races lack the same kind of prestige,” Elder Osborne said. “Yeah, for Safi, it was really tough, and I think when your kids are riding you, it brings a completely different dimension to what I do, and while it was amazing, it wasn’t.
The 57-year-old said having his daughter as a rider has helped him with his own career. He admitted that some people suggest they go in a different direction. He said Blythe had known Saffy for a long time and saw her grow up. She was part of the team and never considered going in a different direction.
“I enjoy working with her,” he said. “I think it gave me a new passion. I’ve been doing the last 25 years. It’s easy to lose enthusiasm unless you’re producing very good horses every year. And I think she’ll come in and she’ll make me feel a little younger.”
Heart of Honor has added a Blinker to the UAE Derby. This is the fact that Osborne has not only contributed to the race being the best ever, but he believes that he is optimistic that his best race hasn’t come yet.
“Compared to most people here, we’re filming in the dark, and we understand that and we’re happy to be able to roll the dice,” Osborne said. “You know, when I ran toast in the Breeders’ Cup Classic…it was another shot in the dark.
“We weren’t scared to do anything different. Try it out. What’s the worst thing to do? You’ll come back with your tail between your legs. Luckily there are some great sports owners who are happy to take this shot.
Brix agrees. They hope there is something special.
“We hope that the waves won’t burst,” Jim Bryce said.
