Title: "Heart of Honor’s Trainer Aims for Redemption at Belmont Stakes After Preakness Setback"

Journalism stole the spotlight at the 150th edition of the Preakness Stakes. The dramatic race saw the pre-race favorite get bumped by Goal Oriented and still miraculously beat Gosger down the stretch. The come-from-behind victory captivated the horse racing world’s attention. Yet, the only thing fifth-place finisher Heart of Honor’s trainer looked at was his horse’s bad start.

HOH’s trainer, Jaime Osborne, saw his horse acting up at the gates before breaking away slowly after they opened. The slow start resulted in Journalism beating the brown colt by 8 3/4 lengths, despite the mishap that slowed the champion down in the early stage. Yet, the fifth-place finish after a troubled start was enough to give Osborne hope for the upcoming Belmont Stakes. And now he’s going all in to fix the issue that caused it.

“On the day he fluffed his lines,” Osborne said about Heart of Honor. “The key to him is being a little bit more relaxed when he goes in. He half fell in love with his pony before the Preakness, that didn’t help him. His brain wasn’t where we wanted it when we loaded, consequently, he was very slow. Whatever chance we had in that race, we did give it away at the gate.”

So what’s the solution? “Extensive gate practice” for the UAE Derby runner-up. The Dubai Maritime City (DMC) Stakes winner has already shown that he can hang with the best when he behaves. “Before the U.A.E. Derby, we were very intensive and he was really good on that occasion,” explained Osborne. The result? HOH nearly won that race.

While Admire Daytona won the race, he only beat the three-year-old by a nose. So Jamie Osborne trained Heart of Honor to behave better at the gate before leaving England, but the horse got distracted before Preakness, and it all fell apart. So the trainer is confident that with a little more effort, HOH will put in a far better effort at Belmont. And HOH will have to be at 100% to have any chance at the seemingly stacked Belmont Stakes.

While Heart of Honor prepares to show better gate discipline for the Belmont Stakes, the field is shaping up nicely. The official draw is still a week away, and entries will remain open, but a lot of horses have arrived at the Saratoga Race Course weeks ahead of the Belmont Stakes. This year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Sovereignty, was among the first to arrive because the champion skipped the Preakness 150.

Meanwhile, Journalism regained the hype spectacularly at the Preakness Stakes. Daily Racing Form’s New York correspondent, David Grening, shared a crucial update about this year’s Preakness champion on May 18. “Preakness winner Journalism could ship to Saratoga early in the week while his connections decide whether or not to run in Belmont,” he wrote on X.

“They want to run, they hope the horse shows them all the right signs,” added Grening. Since then, the Derby runner-up has made his way to the Saratoga Race Course. While the Preakness or the Kentucky Derby champions’ connections have yet to decide if they will enter their colts into the race, all the chatter is pointing toward the two champions having a showdown at the final leg of the Triple Crown.

That being said, Heart of Honor may have to deal with many more top-tier competitors than these two champions. Baeza, the third-place finisher at the Kentucky Derby, Bob Baffert’s original Derby pick, Rodriguez, and many more may just take a shot at the Belmont Stakes crown. So it’s paramount for Jamie Osborne to get HOH back on track.