Heart Of Honor primed for crack at Preakness glory

Jamie Osborne believes Heart Of Honor is “not a forlorn hope” as his UAE Derby runner-up prepares to jet off to America for an ambitious tilt at the Preakness Stakes.

The three-year-old enjoyed an excellent winter campaign in Dubai, impressing in victories at Meydan in December and January before finishing second in three successive races, most notably when beaten by a nose when bidding to emulate former Osborne star Toast Of New York in the UAE Derby.

Toast Of New York was famously beaten a nose in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at the end of his three-year-old campaign and 11 years on, Heart Of Honor is now set to begin an arduous journey to Baltimore to make his Stateside debut in the second leg of the American Triple Crown on May 17.

Osborne said: “He leaves here tomorrow and there’s lots of moving parts to his life over the next five or six days, which makes it even tougher for him, but sadly there’s no way around that.

“He’ll land in Churchill Downs sort of middle of the night tomorrow, he’ll do his 48 hours quarantine there, then we’re going to exercise him on the track at Churchill for a couple of days and then ship him down to Pimlico on Monday afternoon.

“It’s 11 hours from Churchill Downs to Pimlico, which is not ideal, but clearly he’s a horse that wouldn’t ever run in Europe, so if we weren’t doing this, he’d have his shoes off and be having a break and it’s a long time between now and next winter’s Middle Eastern season.”

Osborne insists Heart Of Honor has shown him all the right signs since returning from Meydan and confirmed his daughter Saffie will keep the ride at Pimlico.

He added: “If at any stage he’d come back from Dubai and showed us that he wasn’t going to be able to perform at his best over the next couple of months, then we wouldn’t be going, but they’re only a three-year-old once, he appears to have thrived since he came back, so we felt it was a risk worth taking.

“He improved during his stay in Meydan, he looked to have improved physically before the UAE Derby and obviously that reflected in his race – and it looks like he’s continued to improve.

“We’re under no illusions, it’s a tough ask for him, but I believe he’s not a forlorn hope.”