Heart of Honor Gets Needed Practice With Starting Gate

The contenders for the $2 million Preakness Stakes (G1) put in their final preparations over the Pimlico Race Course track May 16, but no one was out longer than British invader Heart of Honor .

The son of Honor A. P.  's busy morning had three stages: a one-mile gallop, a break from the starting gate, and schooling in the paddock. He was ridden in the morning by Saffie Osborne, daughter of the trainer, Jamie, who had just arrived from England the day before.

"He's a knob, he's not good," Jamie Osborne said about the colt in the starting gate. "It's taken him a long time to not be polite in there. It's just an, 'Oh, after you,' kind of thing. He won his first two starts in Dubai, but he was just by far the best horse. He was the last out of the gate both times."

Osborne's team continued to work with the colt on breaking sharper, but as he began to learn how to accomplish that first jump out of the gate, his behavior inside the gate has gotten worse.

"It's a balance between how much we do," Osborne said.

In the Feb. 21 Al Bastakiya at Meydan, he reared up as the gate opened and broke last. He would rally to finish second, narrowly missing victory.

In the April 5 UAE Derby (G2), which he was defeated a nose by Admire Daytona , they were able to get a gate attendant to stand in the gate with him. Having someone in the gate with the horse is common in the United States, but a rarity in Dubai.

"I think the way it's done here (in the U.S.) will actually help him (in the Preakness), someone standing in with him," Osborne said. "We had someone with him World Cup night and he was better."

Saffie Osborne said the schooling session was extra important as American starting gates are typically smaller and have more padding.

"We just wanted to make sure it was something he had done before tomorrow," she said. "He jumped well. He got a little bit fractious in there, but he always is. Hopefully he won't be in there too long tomorrow."

After his break from the gate, Heart of Honor went to the paddock to school. The Pimlico paddock is enclosed indoors, something he has never seen before in his one start in England and five starts in Dubai.

Jamie Osborne said that he had requested to saddle the horse at the barn before walking over to the racetrack, saying the colt can be a "prick" to get the saddle on. Ultimately, his request had been denied. Therefore, Heart of Honor will saddle inside the paddock rather than during the traditional Preakness saddling on the turf course in front of the stands.

"He behaved beautifully," Saffie Osborne said of the paddock schooling. "(The paddock at Meydan) is quite spacious and quite quiet whereas the inside parade ring (at Pimlico) is enclosed and something he's not used to. We just wanted to make sure he'd been in there before tomorrow."