Father-and-son training team hoping to break new ground with first Group success this weekend

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If Carla Ridge won the Al Shira'aa Racing 'Mutamakina' Stakes at Leopardstown (2.25) on Sunday, it would mark a major milestone for the father-son training duo of Eddie and Patrick Harty.

Flat Group success has eluded the pair since they took out their joint licence five years ago and, although Eddie has enjoyed numerous Graded victories over jumps since he began training in 2004 following the retirement of his father and namesake some years earlier, he is yet to add a pattern Flat race. 

In Carla Ridge, they may have found a filly who can help them take that next step forward.

She finished last season with a ten-length obliteration of an 18-runner Curragh Listed contest on soft to heavy ground, leaving her sitting top of the three-year-old sprinter ratings among her own sex.

“Ratings-wise, she’s probably the highest we’ve had,” said Eddie Harty. “It’s nice to have one who was actually the top-ranked in her division going into this season. She was very good at the Curragh. Funnily enough, when the ground came up heavy we were thinking of taking her out, and then she bolted up!

“Winning a Group race is something we've always aspired to, although the first Flat Listed wins I got are now Group races, so you could make the case that we’ve got it before.”

Carla Ridge blew the field apart on her final start last seasonCredit: Patrick McCann

In 2009, Harty trained the winners of the Alleged Stakes and the Flame of Tara before they were elevated in status.

His first Listed Flat successes came on the back of a maiden Grade 1 win over jumps the previous year with Captain Cee Bee in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, and the JP McManus-owned gelding would go on to add another win at the top table when landing the 2010 Ryanair Novice Chase at Punchestown.

“We’re 80 per cent Flat now,” said Harty. “It went fully National Hunt for a while, mainly due to the success of Captain Cee Bee. Things were different at the time and it made commercial sense. Unfortunately, not long afterwards it didn’t make commercial sense. You’ve got to adapt.”

Questioned which sphere he found to be more competitive in Ireland, Harty was definitive.

“Over jumps now," he said. "There’s a wider spread of trainers and owners having good Flat winners, whereas that spread is much tighter over jumps.”

When Patrick joined Eddie on the licence in 2021, the pair made history as the first joint licence-holders in Irish racing. Harty said having Patrick aboard had made things more enjoyable.

He said: “It’s good to have somebody to share it with. He looks after certain things, and I look after others. When it’s going well, you have somebody to celebrate with, and when it’s not going well, somebody to share the burden.”

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