Remembering a great horseman from a famous Irish racing family

One often comes across a phrase in obituaries referring to a person as “the last surviving link” with such-and-such. There is no danger of any such expression occurring in an account of the life of Cyril 'Buster' Harty, who died last month at the age of 90.

Harty belonged to a continuum, framed by his place in one of the most distinguished family traditions in Ireland’s equestrian history. This is a story with origins in County Limerick in the 1880s, consolidated by major and varied achievement in the 20th century, and embellished in recent decades by triumphs at racecourses in Ireland, Britain, the United States and Dubai.

Harty was the eldest of three sons of Captain Cyril B Harty from his second marriage. His father was joint-champion amateur jockey with Cecil Brabazon in 1920. Two years later he rode the final winner of the Irish Grand Military at Punchestown, a venue formerly associated with royal patronage and garrison troops.