This year’s Preakness won’t have the Kentucky Derby winner, but it will have a rare European shipper.
On Tuesday, the connections of Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty announced their horse would skip the Preakness and point to the June 7 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. Trainer Bill Mott cited the two-week turnaround as the reason Sovereignty would be held out of the Preakness.
On the same day, over a rising course in Upper Lambourn, England, Heart of Honor put in a workout that pleased his trainer, Jamie Osborne, enough to confirm the runner-up in the U.A.E. Derby for the Preakness.
“Immediately after the U.A.E. Derby, I wasn’t expecting that we would be doing this,” Osborne said in a phone interview Tuesday. “In the last few weeks, before the U.A.E. Derby, he seemed to change. He put on muscle and his works have stepped up a notch and I’ve seen that continuation since he’s been home.
“The horse was going to be the one to dictate to us whether this was viable,” Osborne added. “Look, all the signs are good. Clearly, there’s nothing for this horse to run in Europe through the summer.”
Heart of Honor’s work was not a traditional timed move as horses would do in the U.S.
“He would have galloped on a Polytrack on a [course] that rises quite a lot,” Osborne said. “He wouldn’t have clocked any 11-second furlongs.”
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In 2021, Japan’s France Go de Ina finished sixth in the U.A.E. Derby but came to the U.S. to compete in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, finishing seventh and eighth, respectively.
Heart of Honor is an English-bred son of Honor A. P., who won the 2020 Santa Anita Derby and finished fourth in that year’s COVID-delayed Kentucky Derby. Heart of Honor has two wins from six starts and, most recently, was beaten a nose by Admire Daytona in the U.A.E. Derby at Meydan. Admire Daytona’s last-place finish over a sloppy track in last Saturday’s Kentucky Derby did not rattle Osborne.
“Can’t judge him by what Admire Daytona did in the Derby. His run was too bad to be real,” Osborne said. “I do think we may have improved since Dubai World Cup night. At the same time the horse has to overcome a lot, especially in the next 10 days.”
Osborne was referring to the travel schedule for Heart of Honor. He was scheduled to leave England on Thursday and arrive at Churchill Downs, where he’ll have to do 48 hours of quarantine. Osborne is hoping Heart of Honor can train at Churchill on Sunday and Monday mornings before vanning to Baltimore later Monday afternoon. He hopes Heart of Honor can be on the track at Pimlico Tuesday morning.
“We’ll just keep the moving parts oiled and that’s all we can do,” Osborne said. “It’s a big ask for any horse to do this but we’re sportsmen. He’s owned by a great couple, Jim and Claire Bryce. It’s an adventure.”
Heart of Honor wore blinkers for the first time in the U.A.E. Derby and Osborne felt they did improve the colt’s performance.
“He lost a couple of races in Dubai through being a little bit lazy, getting too far back,” Osborne said. “He wasn’t breaking from the gates initially and he was setting himself up for an uphill task. He was unlucky not to win the Al Bastakiya. A stride past the line he was in front.”
This isn’t Osborne’s first venture to the U.S. In 2014, after Toast of New York won the U.A.E. Derby – that year run over a synthetic surface – he came to the U.S. and ran sixth in the Belmont Derby on turf. Toast of New York stayed in America and finished second to Shared Belief in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on synthetic and ended his 3-year-old season with a nose defeat to Bayern in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita, his first try on dirt.
Osborne will take this adventure with his 23-year-old daughter Saffie, who has ridden Heart of Honor in three of six starts and will be aboard him in the Preakness.
“I have confidence in her, the owners have confidence in her. There’s no reason to swap her in spite of a lack of experience in American dirt racing,” Osborne said.
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Provided Heart of Honor runs respectably in the Preakness, Osborne said the plan is for him to stay in the U.S and run in the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 7. He would leave after that and be pointed to a 4-year-old campaign that would be geared around the Saudi Cup and Dubai World Cup.
◗ Kentucky Derby runner-up Journalism went back to the track Wednesday for the first time since the race. He jogged one lap around the Churchill main track.
Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, part-owner of Journalism, posted video of it on X and wrote “Journalism is under consideration for the Preakness [with] his energy, action, and appetite being monitored closely in coming days.” #BelieveBig.
◗ Firming up Preakness rider assignments: Irad Oritz Jr. will be on River Thames and Luis Saez will ride Gosger. The other five confirmed Preakness starters, as of Wednesday, and their riders were: American Promise (Nik Juarez), Clever Again (Jose Ortiz), Heart of Honor (Saffie Osborne), Pay Billy (Raul Mena), and Rodriguez (Mike Smith).
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