The Kildare father-son duo keeping racing in the family

The Harty family have been a part of the Irish racing landscape for centuries and can be traced back to 1860 when John Harty was riding winners.

Patrick Harty is a fifth generation trainer on the Curragh and the family continued making history in 2021 when Patrick and his father Eddie Jnr became the first holders of a joint training licence in Ireland.

“It worked out beautifully, we had two runners on our first day with a joint licence. Our first runner was owned by Bobby Guiry, who was one of the most incredible supporters of the Harty family. When my grandfather was doing well training in the early 70s with bumper horses and winners, Bobby picked up on that pretty quickly and said he was the man he wanted to have his stock with,” Patrick recalled.

“Even though there was an eight-year gap between my grandad and dad’s licences, Bobby was straight on to support him. When we announced that we were getting a joint licence he was thrilled.”

The Harty duo had their first runner in the May meeting at Punchestown that followed the festival and, three races after Lily Light Foot got their joint-venture under way, they had their first winner. Whatucallher won a three-mile handicap hurdle race and the Kildare pair were off the mark.

“As a Kildare man, who went to school locally, Punchestown has that extra bit of significance and then the fact that it is the home of jump racing in Ireland..”

June 2025 will mark the fourth full year of the father and son training partnership, something Eddie had long been campaigning for and something Patrick perhaps didn’t grasp how much he was going to love.

“I didn’t realise that I was going to get as much satisfaction out of it as I did. It was Dad who was keen on the joint-licence. He just walked into me one day and said they were coming through so I need you to fill out this form and complete the trainer’s course. I could have said no if I wanted to and I remember thinking during the training course if this was the way I wanted to go about it. I always cared about the horses, but I guess I didn’t realise how much more you can care when your name is actually on the ticket,” Patrick explained.

“It is great to say that we had a winner, but I can genuinely say that I had a winner. If I go up to someone at the sales, an owner or potential client and say 'will you send my father a horse?’ straight away you are on the back foot, but if I have a beer or a coffee with them and say ‘will you send me a horse?’ it has more depth and strength behind it.”

Patrick’s journey to this point starts in a family rich in racing history and stories of his grandfather (Eddie Snr) representing Ireland in the 1960 Rome Olympics, as well as winning an Aintree Grand National nine years later.

“I could take you through them jump by jump, but they are fantastic stories that I probably didn’t appreciate as much as I should have when I was younger. What an incredible achievement and grandad was an incredible horseman, and still is. If you put him on a horse I’m sure he could still do plenty of things that I couldn’t,” Patrick smiled.

“His horsemanship goes beyond just racing. His achievements in the saddle representing Ireland in an Olympic team and then within a decade of that winning a Grand National.”

After taking out his own licence in 2004, Eddie Jnr would provide plenty of lasting memories for the family too and perhaps fewer more memorable than a Supreme Novices' Hurdle win at Cheltenham in ‘08 with Captain Cee Bee.

Patrick recalled, “It was an incredible experience. I went over there as a 16 year-old with very limited experience in racing, but I had been watching Dad training horses for a few years. Out of ignorance as much as anything, we always believed Captain Cee Bee would become what he turned out to be. In the years afterwards, you really appreciate what he did at the time and how difficult it was to do what he did.

“He was Dad’s first runner at the Cheltenham Festival and he won. I have had my name on the license for four years in June and I have only had my first runner at the Festival this year. We were delighted and proud of Irish Panther finishing 10th.”
Patrick added, “My grandfather bought Captain Cee Bee as either a foal or a yearling and he loved him from the day he saw him. Not long after he was broken in, riding, and doing a bit of cantering, there was something about the horse that he knew was special and he named him after his own father.”

A 16 year old Patrick emptied his pockets to back the Harty’s Captain Cee Bee and got paid plenty of dividends too with a 10/1 winner.

Patrick transitioned into a riding career of his own in the years following and managed 50 races between the track and point-to-point.

He said, “It was fun. I never managed to get a winner on the track, much to my disappointment and with plenty of seconds. I rode two point-to-point winners in England. My first was for Mark Bradshaw and that was a great thrill. I was very grateful for that and I rode another winner for an old family friend.

“I loved it and I learned an awful lot. You watch racing on TV and the horses gallop around in a circle, jump the jumps, or on the flat go 35-40mph, and it all looks fairly clinical and easy. When you are in the middle of a race, the pace increases or decreases, horses get tight from the outside, run a bit wide on a bend, hit a soft spot, you appreciate all that then. You figure out in those moments what it takes to make a good racehorse. It is not just speed and stamina, they have to balance and everything else to go with it.”

Patrick acknowledged his limited opportunities as a jockey standing at 6ft 2, but was quick to load credit on now Grand National-winning jockey Patrick Mullins who is of similar stature. However, the experience that led Patrick to the great adventure that he now enjoys alongside his father came after the end of his riding. After a reluctant conclusion to his Leaving Cert and surveying his options, he travelled to England for a stint with Nicky Henderson.

“I went over there in November 2010, two years after Dad had trained a Cheltenham Festival winner, and I thought I knew everything. I figured out after a week that I hadn’t got a clue about how racing worked and how to train racehorses. I had seen Dad do it very successfully, but to see it on the scale that Nicky Henderson has was completely eye-opening,” Patrick explained.

“I went over for a few moments, loved it, and came back home for the summer working away. I didn’t fancy the idea of going to college and I ended up going back to Henderson’s for what turned out to be another four years. I got promoted to assistant trainer, which was a lot of responsibility on young shoulders, but learned a tonne, great time.”

He said, “While I am on the licence and Eddie’s on the licence, my mother is an integral part of the team. She was an incredible veterinarian, has backed away from the surgery now, but she still runs the lab in Sycamore Lodge. Without her knowledge and work ethic, we probably wouldn't have achieved half of what we have achieved so far.

“It’s good (working with his dad). As anyone can imagine working closely with family, we butt heads plenty, but we have a good working relationship because we are always working on it.

“At the end of the day, while we might have different ideas and thoughts about how to go about things, we both have the same goal in mind.”

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