LIFE in the 21st century is very different from the early 19th century when organised racing in Ireland started to take shape; duels with pistols are outlawed, men don’t routinely wear wigs and the inhaling of snuff has all but died out.

However, a constant since that time has been that a member of the Harty family has had a licence to train racehorses. The current carriers of that heritage, Eddie and Patrick Harty, need little introduction, as the former has been training successfully at Mulgrave Lodge on the Curragh since 2004, being joined on the licence by 34-year-old son Patrick in 2021.

The family history encompasses Grand National winners, Olympic participation, Breeders’ Cup and Cheltenham successes, featuring such personalities as Buster, Cyril, John, Eddie Snr and Eoin. While Eddie Jnr is best known for training the brilliant Captain Cee Bee (named after his grandfather) to win the 2008 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, in truth, there has been a constant stream of quality winners from the yard, both over jumps and on the flat.

However, the past year has seen the yard making more significant shapes in rarefied company, with a pair of listed-winning sprinters (Carla Ridge and Arugam Bay) on the books plus a jumps horse who is taking them back to Grade 1 company this Christmas. That striking beast is Irish Panther and he, legitimately, looks a big player in the reinstated Racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown on St Stephen’s Day. Formerly trained by the late Edward O’Grady, he was bought by father and son in a Tattersalls Online sale in October 2024.

Fulfilled the brief

Patrick, who spent five years with Nicky Henderson, relates the tale of his purchase: “It was Brian Whelan, whose family owns Bermingham Cameras, which sponsors our yard, who was involved in the purchase of Irish Panther. He was wanting to have a horse who could take him to some of the big days in Irish racing and Irish Panther had shown a level of ability to do that. It was publicised that he had bled on his last start before being sold last year but we bought him anyway, for only 19,000gns. Touch wood, there has been no recurrence of bleeding; he spends plenty of time in a paddock every day, which seems to have helped.”

Whelan was later joined by another of the yard’s owners in the venture. Patrick continued: “Jennifer Condren, or Coyle as she is listed in the racecard, is a local woman. She plays football, along with her daughter, for the local team, Moorefield, and their pitch backs onto our land.

“Jennifer said she always looked over at the horses being ridden in the arena here and dreamt of owning one. Initially, she was part of the Ladies Syndicate with us, but that didn’t work out so well so she decided to dive in again and went halves with Brian into Irish Panther and has been rewarded for that now, so it is great.

“They are two friends who met through the yard, they bought him and it has been dream stuff for them. They spent a nice sum of money but, looking at the results of point-to-point sales and in-training sales, it was sensible money. Now they have got a runner with a genuine chance in a Grade 1.”

Irish Panther fulfilled the brief of getting the pair to big meetings last term, running well in defeat in several races at Leopardstown over Christmas, the Dublin Racing Festival, Cheltenham and Punchestown. However, he was still a maiden at the close of season and had a tendency to race keenly. A summer break, during which he filled into his frame, plus plenty of work (he wears a hood every day with the same rider) seems to have helped and he looks a transformed horse since returning.

He started back by winning a maiden hurdle at Clonmel, which was little more than a schooling exercise for him. Then he went to Naas for what was a warm enough beginners’ chase. He jumped well and made much of the running for a cosy success. The second and third, Jacob’s Ladder and Pure Steel, have franked the form by winning competitive novices since, so the big step up in grade is warranted.

Eddie elaborates: “Well, you find out very quickly when you are lucky enough to train higher-rated horses that there are few enough options for them, but he was bought for days out so we both think he goes there with a shout. If it turns out that he is not a Grade 1 horse - I don’t think it will - we will adapt accordingly.

Unfinished business

“I am glad they [Horse Racing Ireland] saw sense and reinstated the Racing Post Novice Chase. Time-wise, it fits as well because he has had two relatively quick runs already. The hard work is done with him, he has had two runs and had a couple of hardish bits of work since, so it is just a matter of getting him there now. Also, we have unfinished business with that race as Captain Cee Bee looked to be coming to win that race and beat Sizing Europe, when he tipped over at the back of the last.”

Patrick adds: “Irish Panther jumped a hurdle in the right shape for a chaser, for a start. He had run in a point-to-point so we knew he would be somewhat adequate over fences. Also, I had done a bit of homework before we bought him and was told that he had jumped fences.

“He does jump well; there are three Curragh schooling fences that are huge and he jumped them perfectly. We schooled him there once, so didn’t need to do it again, he knows what to do. His owners bought him for fun. Hopefully he has relaxed out of being keen. He is a very intelligent horse; when he gets to an obstacle he eyes it up a long way out.

“In fairness to Eddie, when we were at Cheltenham for the County Hurdle last March - it was a slowly-run race, didn’t suit him - he said we will come back again next year, but it will be in the Arkle. Hopefully, we will.”

Flat success

Whatever happens at Leopardstown and beyond (“We have a nice, unraced horse by Maxios to run at Christmas too”, chimes Patrick) with Irish Panther, the yard has plenty to look forward to with its team of flat horses next season, with stakes performers and maiden winners amongst their number.

Top of that list is the now 110-rated Carla Ridge. The New Bay filly followed some fine runs in defeat in Group 3 races last season by storming to a 10-length win in the Listed Darley Brigid’s Pastures Stakes in October at HQ.

Patrick recounts: “The ground was soft that day and we always felt that she wouldn’t be effective on it. Her action suggests she wants better ground and her rider at home, Cian Cullinan, said early last season that she didn’t feel as strong when galloping on easier ground. But what she did was a revelation and the aim is to win a group race with her next season. She is now the highest-rated sprint filly in Ireland and should be up to doing that. She is just a gorgeous filly and has just come back into training looking great after a break.”

He added: “She was actually my first foray into the French sales. Her owner Dan Kiely had bought into two horses with us, one of them, Tai Tam Bay, had won nicely in Naas and he expressed an interest in finding another. We had gone to the breeze-ups before, but I find it very hard to buy in the UK so I went to Deauville with Peter and Ross Doyle. Once I saw her, I couldn’t stop going back to look at her.

“Then I couldn’t get Dan on the phone, so we had a crack at her anyway. I had never bought a horse for a six-figure sum, so I was hoping to get her for 80 or 90 grand. But when she went to 100, Ross said ‘You can’t leave her’, so I had one more go and got her for €105,000. Dan is a man who loves racing and has a nice few horses with us. He has also bought Michael’s Well, a Havana Grey gelding who won a Navan two-year-old maiden on his second start. Chris Hayes rode him that day and really liked him so he is another exciting horse to look forward to.”

Patrick continued: “Arugam Bay is a great story. She’s a filly by Soldier’s Call who her owner/breeder, Michael Roe, couldn’t sell as a yearling. Basically noone wanted her, so thankfully they sent her down to us and she won a listed race at Tipperary in the summer and has earned over €40,000. Her work suggests that she will win more races but, whatever happens, she will have a residual value when she retires.

“Another lovely two-year-old is Killashee Warrior, who won a Thurles maiden after finishing fourth to Diamond Necklace in the Listed Ingabelle Stakes on Irish Champions Weekend. In a funny twist, Eddie trained her granddam. She never won for him, and was actually unlucky not to win on the opening day at Dundalk but went on to breed 13 winners from 14 runners including four blacktype. Once Eddie saw her at the yearling sales last year, he wasn’t leaving without her.”

New recruits

The yard also has plenty of new recruits from the yearling sales who have just come back in after getting a break. There’s a filly by Sioux Nation out of a half-sister to Twilight Son, a Phoenix Of Spain filly out of a listed-placed winner (“We love Phoenix Of Spain, we had a Curragh maiden winner by him this year, Simurgh, who has since been sold to Australia,” recalls Patrick), and a Saxon Warrior filly who is a half-sister to the dam of White Birch (“She is for new American clients, who we are excited to have and we love the stallion too, have had good luck with him.”).

There’s also a Supremacy filly, a Kodi Bear filly and a Starman filly, plus a filly and a colt by Soldier’s Call. The Hartys are also looking forward to an unraced two-year-old colt by Australia, owned by Airlie Stud, who is described as “backward but nice”.

A notable feature of the success the yard has had with flat horses in recent years has been the link with agents Peter and Ross Doyle at the yearling sales. However, it is a relationship that has much deeper roots than that, as Eddie explains.

“My father was always pally with Jack Doyle and, as a result, I had known Peter ever since. About seven years ago now, myself and Peter were on a golf trip in Scotland and I got chatting with him about buying flat yearlings. It was something I had been mulling over for a while.

“I asked him: ‘How much does it cost to buy a yearling with a chance?’, so he told me and I said ‘Fine’. I rang him some time after and told him to buy three of them and that was it, that was the start of the link.

“They were a good bunch. We sold one to Hong Kong, one to Paul Nicholls, and one is still running, Longbourn. He got to a rating of 100.

“We have built on that relationship since. I mean, if you are on your own at the sales, you just can’t see every horse. But myself and Patrick go to a sale two days before and the Doyles will have seen everything and brought it down to a shortish list, so we have only got to look at 20% of the sale. At a lesser sale, we only have to look at 5% of them, so that work is done for you.

“They are great people to work with. It’s funny but when I had Captain Cee Bee, I was called a flat trainer and when I started getting more flat horses in the last few years I was described as a National Hunt trainer! We just love having good horses of any kind, really. But I always have jumps horses for J.P. He has been a constant and a very loyal man. He also had the Grade 1 winner Coney Island with us. We have been very lucky together.”

Veterinary insight

That ‘us’ includes Eddie’s wife Marie, a well-known equine vet who was a former partner in Anglesey Lodge. Like many racehorses that don’t take well to not being in training, Marie failed to adapt to retirement and took on the role of running the lab at Sycamore Lodge, while still playing a vital part in the family business.

Patrick relates: “Every Wednesday afternoon, we trot every horse in the yard and Marie examines them and we also weigh them. When the rider is on them, their adrenaline is up and the rider can’t feel if something is off. But when they are in the cold light of day, trotted without a rider on concrete, if there is any noticeable change in them we investigate further.”

Recent additions to the workforce, the couple Cian Cullinan and Jessica O’Gorman have gelled to great effect. The former is credited with helping to get Irish Panther to settle, while Jessica has ridden four winners for the yard since taking out her apprentice licence this season, earning plenty of outside plaudits too.

Fergus Gallagher has been a longer-serving member: “They broke the mould when they made Fergus,” says Patrick. “He is 53 and bouncing around like he was 23.”

Also still going strong there is old stable favourite Baron De’L, an eight-time winner, now 22. He is a horse who racing fans of a certain generation will remember (and probably backed at some stage). The Baron is happily living out his retirement back in the field in which he was born, gazing in at the youngbloods who have assumed his mantle. If that younger generation can match his appetite for the game, then Mulgrave Lodge will continue to have a fruitful time of it.