Osborne’s Dirt Strategy Leads Heart of Honor to Belmont Stakes
English trainer Jamie Osborne has taken an unconventional path to Saturday’s GI Belmont Stakes with Heart of Honor (GB) (Honor A.P.), a €160,000 purchase from the 2024 Arqana May Breeze-Up sale originally acquired for Dubai’s dirt circuit rather than European turf racing.
The colt, who was bred to excel on dirt and physically fits that profile, represents Osborne’s strategic pivot toward Middle Eastern racing opportunities.
“The motivation for buying him was that we were taking squads of horses to the Middle East for the winter and just banging our heads up against Charlie Appleby,” Osborne explained as this week’s Gainesway Guest of the Week on the Thoroughbred Daily News Writers’ Room Podcast, presented by Keeneland.
Osborne identified a competitive advantage in Dubai’s dirt program, which comprises approximately 60% of Meydan’s winter racing calendar.
“Godolphin is so strong out there, they’re really tough to beat. A good example this year on the turf, I think we had seven seconds to Charlie [Appleby]. So it can be a little bit frustrating,” Osborne said. “We thought, why don’t we try something different and see if training a dirt horse is possible. Heart of Honor was bought, not with the American Triple Crown in mind, he was bought to entertain them in Dubai during the winter racing on the dirt.”
The strategy paid dividends when Heart of Honor finished second by a nose in the G2 UAE Derby. With Dubai’s racing season concluding, Osborne targeted America’s Triple Crown races, resulting in a fifth-place finish in the GI Preakness Stakes before Saturday’s Belmont attempt.
Osborne’s 23-year-old daughter Saffie will again take the mount, continuing their unique family partnership.
“It’s a whole different dimension to what I’m doing,” Osborne said of working with his daughter. “She doesn’t lack strength, this child, she’s like a little weightlifter. It’s quite extraordinary. She won the genetic lottery really, because she’s got three elder brothers that, believe it or not, are six-foot-four, six-foot-three, and six-foot-two. She’s just five-foot-two.”
The trainer appreciates their professional relationship beyond family ties. “If you take away the fact that she’s my daughter, she does a great job for us. I’m not saying that every winner doesn’t give her enormous pleasure, but I think she gets extra pleasure from one of ours.”
Osborne himself transitioned to flat racing after a successful career as a steeplechase jockey that ended in 1999.
“I switched over to flat racing because I don’t like the English winters,” he explained. “The worst thing about being a jump jockey is it happens in the winter and England is a horrible place in the winter. The days are very short and it’s always raining and cold.”
His training career emerged as a practical decision rather than a lifelong ambition. “I didn’t really want to be a trainer at all until retirement was really looming. I thought, ‘Well, maybe it’s a bit silly trying to go and earn a living elsewhere when the only thing I know is this sport.'”
In the podcast’s “Fastest Horse of the Week” segment, sponsored by WinStar, the team highlighted Nysos (Nyquist), who posted a 108 Beyer when winning the GIII Triple Bend Stakes at Santa Anita.
The podcast panel — Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley — also analyzed the Belmont Stakes field. Finley favored Sovereignty (Into Mischief), while Moss and Cadman both identified Sovereignty and Baeza (McKinzie) as the top contenders. The team additionally previewed Friday and Saturday’s Grade I stakes at Saratoga.
