Jamie Osborne - man on a mission

Jamie Osborne on Heart Of Honor and his Meydan project

By Vicki Gibbins

Horse Racing

Sun July 20, 2025 · 5M ago

“The plan had worked, everything had gone well and a stride before and a stride after, he looked like he was in front – it was just the winning line was in the wrong place.”

The analysis is delivered in typical Jamie Osborne style: direct and to the point.

“I didn’t take that very well but then I’m old enough and ugly enough to move on.”

A nose: that was all which stood between a well-executed plan and try-again next year.

In May 2024, a scheme that had been formulating in Osborne’s mind was launched. With the backing of owners Jim and Claire Bryce, the Lambourn-based jockey-turned-trainer was planning to send a small but select team of specifically purchased dirt horses to Dubai, with the dream of taking the Dubai Carnival by storm – and having a bit of fun along the way.

“We’d been doing Dubai Carnivals for many years, and the turf races are very tough. You think you’ve got a good one and then Charlie Appleby turns up with a better one. We had seven seconds on the turf this year, all of which were to Godolphin. Godolphin have a very light presence on dirt and the plan was to see if we could compete on the dirt in Dubai in the winter," he explained.

“We set out in year one buying a handful with the idea that we’d spend the summer trying to work out which the good ones were. We would take the best one or two to Dubai.”

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Amongst the initial purchases, was Heart Of Honor. The dark brown colt fit the initial specification; by Santa Anita Derby winning stallion Honor A.P. and out of a Chilean-bred mare who had won the Grade One Premio Arturo Lyon Pena. A predominantly American dirt pedigree, with the early promise to suggest he could compete on the international stage.

“By this time last year, Heart of Honor was probably the standout [of the dirt horses we bought]. He was still very immature but he had a way of going that made you think he might be quite good," Osborne said.

“We gave him a run at Southwell, where he stayed on well to finish second and we felt he was good enough to win a maiden in Meydan, providing he took to the dirt. To say, it was our intention – it was our hope but you can’t take a once-raced horse out there and think I’m going to win a UAE Derby.”

He very nearly did. Second in the UAE 2000 Guineas, the colt joined forces with Osborne’s daughter Saffie for the traditional UAE Derby Trial, the Listed Al Bastakiya, and was denied a neck in a thrilling finish with locally-trained Galactic Star. The margin was even smaller two weeks later, when Heart Of Honor lost out to Japanese raider Admire Daytona by a nose in the UAE Derby – booking a surprise passage to the Preakness and the Belmont in the process, where he finished fifth and sixth.

The plan, conceived in a small corner of Berkshire, 3518 miles from the ‘wrongly placed’ winning post at Meydan, had nearly worked. It was enough to convince Osborne, and the Bryces, to give it another go.

Returning to the Arqana Breeze-Up Sales in 2025, Osborne upped the ante and increased the spend, buying four dirt horses for a total of 630,000 euros.

With the Heart Of Honor experience under his belt, he knew exactly the type of pedigree he was looking for.

“Dirt and the ability to get two turns. There is no point us taking a really fast horse out there, or that won’t get further than six furlongs – the programme dries up for those. The dirt horses are very different and going to America reminded me what we were looking for," he said.

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The quartet included two 250,000 euro purchases; a physically impressive grey Tapit colt, from a Black Type producing Curlin mare, and a Justify colt, out of a half-sister to Breeders Cup Classic hero Blame.

“Size is very, very important. Heart of Honor was probably the biggest horse in the UAE Derby and the most physically impressive. In the Belmont and the Preakness, he was probably the smallest and the least physically impressive. The good horses have size, big hips, very strong hind legs. The hind legs can be a bit straighter than we would take and they can be a little more upright in front than we’d normally have here, but size is the common thread.

“When we were buying this year, there were plenty of pedigrees that suited us, but if they weren’t enough of a physical, we left them. We probably left a nice one behind, but you’ve got to have a set of rules.”

The experience of Meydan is unique; a far cry from the rolling hills and traditional English countryside that surrounds Osborne’s Lambourn base at Old Malt House Stables. You need a certain type of horse, one that Osborne easily describes:

“A sound one and a sane one. Training on a racecourse is very different from here; they’re racing and training in the same place. If you’re going to be training on dirt every day, your horse needs to be very sound. Then if you’re sound and sane, you have to have a fair bit of ability. There’s no point having a sound, sane and slow one.”

Dubai has its own, obvious, draws and it’s easy to see why trainers are tempted to return year-on-year.

“It’s an enjoyable place to spend the winter and the older I’m getting, the less I like the English winters. The worst thing about being a jump jockey was that it happened in the winter," he smiled.

“When the racing here is a little less complicated, with a small squad of horses, it’s very easy to run both places. Jimmy McCarthy will park in Dubai, the team manage things here and I go between the two. It’s an easy flight; you get on the plane in the dark and the driving rain, then the doors open at the other end, you can feel the heat and sunshine – there’s not a lot to dislike about it.”

It could be a hard sell to persuade UK-based owners to buy a dirt horse that may never race in Europe, but Osborne understands he is lucky to have the support of Jim and Claire Bryce. The couple, who were able to travel the world with Heart Of Honor in 2025, are staunch supporters of the trainer and enjoy the ‘little adventures’ that the Meydan project has provided.

“Thankfully Jim and Claire like the idea, they like being in Dubai over the winter, they enjoy their racing enormously, they enjoy the intrigue of it. They’re players, they understand the odds, they understand the odds are against us, they have the ability to back me and as long as it’s not a complete disaster, hopefully they will still do that.”

So the plan enters its second year with the enthusiastic backing of the Bryces, the cautious optimism of Osborne and a small team of expensive additions.

“I have my favourites at the moment, we have six colts to choose from. I would like to think that I’ve spent better this year, whether we’ve got another Heart of Honor, I don’t know. I think I learnt a lot from the first year and I think we’ve more shots of having a nice one this year than last," he said.

“If I don’t find another good one this year out of this batch, you could argue that the project could be a flop.”

No pressure, then.