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English-based trainer Jamie Osborne doesn’t think like everyone else does. Which explains why he paid €160,000 at the 2024 Arqana May Breeze-Up Sale for a horse that was bred to be a dirt horse and looked like a dirt horse. The horse turned out to be Heart of Honor (GB) (Honor A.P.), who is among the eight horses that will contest Saturday’s GI Belmont Stakes. On this week’s TDN Writers’ Room Podcast presented by Keeneland, Osborne came across as a man who has a plan. He was this week’s Gainesway Guest of the Week.
Heart of Honor’s jockey will again be Osborne’s 23-year-old daughter Saffie.
“Imagine if she was just an ordinary rider and I’d have to sack her for the good of my business,” Osborne said. “It wouldn’t go down very well, would it? But no, thankfully she can ride. 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. She is very strong and I do enjoy working with her. It has its moments. But it’s different. If you take away the fact that she’s my daughter, she does a great job for us. And I’m not saying that every winner doesn’t give her enormous pleasure, but I think she gets extra pleasure from one of ours. She knows how hard I’ve had to struggle through the last 20 years.”
In our “Fastest Horse of the Week,” segment, which is sponsored by WinStar, we went over the many reasons there are breed to WinStar stallion Constitution. The fastest horse of the week was Nysos (Nyquist), who ran a 108 Beyer when winning the GIII Triple Bend Stakes at Santa Anita.
Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders’ Association, West Point Thoroughbreds, 1/ST Racing and 1/ST TV, the team of Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley went over the Belmont S., horse by horse. Finley liked Sovereignty (Into Mischief), Moss thought the race came down to Sovereignty and Baeza (McKinzie) and Cadman thought the same way. The team also previewed the many Grade I stakes that will be offered on Friday and Saturday at Saratoga.
Click here to watch the show.
Click here for the audio-only version.
photo credit: Sarah Andrews
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