Interview with Jamie Osborne, the trainer behind a rare British runner in the second leg of the Triple Crown – in conjunction with his daughter Saffie
Some, perhaps justifiably, may lament the absence of Kentucky Derby hero Sovereignty from the Preakness Stakes. However, an extra layer of interest and intrigue will be provided by a horse trained an hour or so from London who has pedigree roots in Kentucky and Chile, was sold in France and earned his place at Pimlico by producing a string of consistent displays in Dubai.
The horse in question is Heart Of Honor, a three-year-old by unheralded Kentucky-based sire Honor A.P. out of a Chilean-bred mare who is based in the quiet Berkshire village of Lambourn, traditionally known for being a centre of jumping excellence, rather than Flat racing.
Indeed, Heart Of Honor’s enterprising trainer Jamie Osborne was a prolific and celebrated jump jockey during the 1990s –‘overrated jockey, underrated trainer’ suggests his Twitter profile – when he landed some of the code’s most important races. The trainer’s daughter Saffie takes the ride on what will be her US debut.
He was said to be a favourite of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s mother – always known as the Queen Mother, and for decades a prominent figure in jump racing. Blessed with flair and charisma in and out of the saddle, Osborne often stood apart from his counterparts as a jockey, and similarly his training career, which started in 2000, has rarely followed an orthodox route.
Flat racing, in his words, was always a fascination and a “fresh challenge that people might not have expected me to do”.
He came agonisingly close to pulling off a major triumph in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Classic when Toast Of New York was dramatically and narrowly denied by the Bob Baffert-trained Bayern.
A subsequent last-place finish behind Gun Runner in the Pegasus World Cup was less auspicious but Osborne has continued to diversify his operation, notably exploiting the riches on offer in the Middle East.
This, indeed, is how he has come to dream of emulating the legendary Dermot Weld as the only European trainer to capture a Triple Crown race on the other side of the Atlantic. (Weld did it with Go And Go in the 1990 Belmont Stakes.)
Butting heads with Godolphin’s Charlie Appleby in turf races at the Dubai Carnival forced a policy rethink for Osborne, a natural horseman keen to explore what could be achieved on dirt in the region. “It’s an idea I’ve had for a while, but it relied on finding somebody to back and like it,” he says.
Financial clout
“Thankfully, Jim and Claire Bryce, who own Heart Of Honor, liked the idea and gave me the financial clout to source some animals to potentially do this. Without backing, you can’t just suddenly decide to go and buy dirt horses, who aren’t necessarily suited to UK owners.
“When you arrive at Meydan for the carnival, it’s hard to win on turf; I think there were seven races where it was only Godolphin in front of us on it.
“That was with our horses running great, but Charlie doesn’t tend to ply his trade on the dirt, so it’s one way of avoiding him.”
In Heart Of Honor, Osborne sourced an individual who was not cheap – costing €160,000 at a French breeze-up sale this time last year – but had the credentials to make the new venture interesting at least.
“His pedigree wasn’t one of his strengths as he’s by a $10,000 first-season sire I knew little about,” he adds.
“We gave good money for a horse from a first-crop sire, so he could have looked very expensive, but I thought he was a standout as a physical. His breeze wasn’t anything spectacular and he didn’t clock a great time, but I thought he had quite a dirt action, which was a plus.
‘We’re not looking for ‘now’ horses’
“He’s a very well-balanced horse who stood up a beautiful horse, if a little weak-looking and immature. One of the beauties of what we’re doing is we’re not looking for them to be ‘now’ horses – it’s for the coming winter, so if a horse needs time, we can give it to them.”
Time was duly given to Heart Of Honor, whose debut came five months after his purchase, when he finished a respectable second in a novice contest at Southwell before victories on dirt either side of Christmas at Meydan.
A second in the UAE 2,000 Guineas - “we were beaten fair and square” - was followed by two “unlucky” runner-up efforts in the Al Bastakiya (Listed) and G2 UAE Derby, which helped convince connections a daring and uncharted tilt at the 150th anniversary Preakness might be a worthwhile option.
“Part of the decision in going to Pimlico is the fact that he would never run in Europe, so we were going to have a fairly long period of inactivity waiting to go back to the Middle East,” says Osborne, notably articulate and thoughtful.
“If we felt he wouldn’t be capable of performing this spring because he was in need of a break, then we wouldn’t be doing it. The horse was the determining factor in whether we tried this little adventure and it’s an unusual thing for a British trainer to do, mainly because very few people have these horses – they don’t buy them.
“You could argue there’s a bit of lunacy when you buy a dirt horse and train in the UK. It was with Dubai in mind, but it’s also in your head that, if you do drop on a good one, we could have some sport in America as well.”
International and imaginative
Toast Of New York, who did win a UAE Derby for the stable albeit on a synthetic surface, underlined Osborne and his team’s ability to campaign a horse internationally and imaginatively. That horse was second in Del Mar’s Pacific Classic 69 days before his bold show in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
“That was 11 years ago and everyone involved enjoyed it and there were lots of happy memories even though we didn’t win a race,” continues the 57-year-old, who had formative spells as a youngster in the States with John Russell at Hollywood Park and Tommy Skiffington at Saratoga.
“In the back of my mind, I suppose I’ve been hoping another horse would come along and justify an ambitious trip on the other side of the Atlantic, but there are lots of things to worry about.
“I am lacking knowledge and the Preakness will be a steep learning curve,” he admits. “A disadvantage is that the UAE Derby was like a home game for him – he was there for five months – and this is very much an away game.
“There are a lot of moving parts to it and he’s got to come through quarantine with no hiccups, but he’s the right sort of character to do this. He seems to take whatever is put in his way so I think we’ll be okay, but, when you’re shipping horses, things can go wrong.”
Jimmy McCarthy – like Osborne, a former jump jockey – has been tasked with overseeing Heart Of Honor’s Stateside preparation and is “a very safe pair of hands who knows the horse inside out”.
Fun and excitement
Should the Preakness go “okay”, an outing in the Belmont Stakes is on the cards for Heart Of Honor according to Osborne, who has tasted top-flight glory and Royal Ascot success as a trainer at home. “There are lots of ways you can play this game, and you don’t necessarily have to play it the same way as everyone else,” he explains.
“We don’t have hundreds of horses and I’m always trying to punch above my weight and always trying to provide some fun, excitement and an adventure to our owners because, at the end of the day, nobody needs a racehorse.
“People buy a horse to enjoy it and Jim and Claire are enjoying this enormously. Hopefully the journey is only just beginning and, God willing, we can have an injury-free few years and adventures with him.”
Fun-loving and socially comfortable, Osborne has long possessed a touch of the cavalier. But while he has never been bound by convention, neither is he queuing up to be disappointed in his latest quest.
“While Toast was defeated in the Classic, he ran with great credit,” he reflects. “As a trainer, if you’re going to do something different, priority number one is don’t be too far wrong – don’t look silly!”
Acknowledging the dream of training a meaningful contender for a British Classic might be trickier to realise, Osborne goes on: “We have to be realistic. What’s the chance of me winning a Derby or Guineas over here with the horses that come into my yard?
“You have to sieve through a lot of very well-bred horses to have a chance in those races and we’re playing in the middle-to-low end of the market. Unless something changes radically, I’m a million-to -one to ever win one of those races.
“Who knows how this horse will stack up against the American horses? He has to step up – but it’s not impossible and he’s not going to be a million-to-one in the Preakness.”
‘There would be a degree of emptiness if Saffie wasn’t involved’
Jamie Osborne’s daughter Saffie made history at Meydan last year when she became the first female rider to partner a winner at the track.
The jockey is now set for another notable moment in a flourishing career aboard Heart Of Honor in the Preakness Stakes on what is destined to be her first ride of any kind in the US.
Saffie has partnered winners in Australia and also scooped a valuable sprint in Qatar last year alongside that memorable Meydan strike on Ouzo, while she has been a rising star of the weighing room in Britain for the past few campaigns.
The 23-year-old goes to Maryland on the back of a high-profile victory on Hickory, also trained by Dad, in the valuable Victoria Cup at Ascot on Saturday [May 10].
The popular jockey’s lack of experience in the States is not something the colt’s camp are worrying about. “As far as I’m concerned, and Jim and Claire are concerned, we’re doing this together,” stresses Jamie Osborne.
“She’s our rider and Jim and Claire are great friends who have known Saffie many years and watched her grow up.
“I think there would be a degree of emptiness to any result if Saffie wasn’t involved,” he goes on. “There’s always a balance with local knowledge versus knowledge of the horse and there will be people who say we’re giving ourselves a disadvantage by having Saffie on board, but as far as we’re concerned, it was never an option not to have her.”
Osborne jnr enjoyed a standout season in Britain last year with 87 winners and her father adds: “If you could quantify it and say we’ve got a two per cent less chance of succeeding with a jockey who has never ridden in an American dirt race, but it’s Saffie, then we’re having Saffie.
“It’s a situation where, thankfully, she’s a very good rider. It would have been one of those really tough parenting decisions if she was ordinary and I had to sack her for the good of my business.
That would have been hard, but thankfully that’s not the case and she’s good enough. She’ll do her homework and her knowledge of the horse is an advantage. She has no experience out there, but we’ll live with that.”
• Visit the Jamie Osborne website and the Preakness Stakes website
Reflections on the Kentucky Derby: Sovereignty’s Preakness absence devalues Triple Crown
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