Eion Harty, Trainer for Mr Hot Stuff
Eoin Harty was born on November 23, 1962, in Dublin, Ireland. He currently lives in Arcadia, Calif. with his wife Kathy, son Eddie.
Harty is a fourth-generation horseman. His great-grandfather began his racing career in Ireland as a jockey, then a trainer in 1880. Eoin’s grandfather, Cyril, trained Knight's Crest, winner of the 1944 Irish Grand National. His father, Eddie, was an accomplished equestrian who competed in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome and later won the prestigious Grand National Steeplechase as a jockey … Harty moved to the United States at age 17 after working one year at the Irish National Stud
Spent 14 years as an assistant trainer in California with John Russell and Bob Baffert and learned how different training styles can be. While Russell worked mostly with European grass runners, Baffert's strength was with precocious juveniles ... Earned acclaim while working as Baffert’s top assistant, helping craft the Kentucky Derby- and Preakness-winning campaigns of Silver Charm and Real Quiet in 1997 and 1998, respectively … During the 1999 Breeders’ Cup at Gulfstream, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Godolphin Racing contacted Harty about taking over a newly formed American stable of juvenile runners … Harty made his training debut in 2000 with the Godolphin babies on the West Coast … He developed eventual Dubai World Cup winner Street Cry during the colt’s juvenile year, which included a third in the 2000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile ... Fillies Tempera and Imperial Gesture finished one-two in the 2001 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies ... Tempera earned an Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly … Other well-known “graduates” of Harty’s juvenile program while working solely for Godolphin included graded stakes winners E Dubai and Essence of Dubai … Harty spent four winters in Dubai, but changed course during the winter of 2003-04 and remained in the U.S. to train a growing number of horses for the Maktoum family’s Darley Stable, highlighted by 2003 Norfolk Stakes winner Ruler’s Court, who posted a 14-length conquest in stakes-record time of 1:41 1/5, and 2006 G1 Ballerina Stakes winner Dubai Escapade … Now trains a public stable of 50-55 horses, based at Santa Anita, with Darley remaining a top client ... Harty met Bill and Susan Casner of WinStar Farm in Dubai when he accompanied Silver Charm there. Casner is a big proponent of synthetic surfaces, so in July 2007, as Southern California’s major tracks were installing synthetic surfaces, he sent three horses by Tiznow to Harty—Colonel John, Well Armed, and Tiz Now Tiz Then, all of whom became major stakes winners. Colonel John went on to win the 2008 G1 Santa Anita Derby and Travers Stakes, while Well Armed won a pair of grade II events, the San Diego Handicap and San Antonio Handicap. One day after Colonel John won the Travers by a slim nose, Well Armed lost the G1 Pacific Classic by the same narrow margin. Harty also has two 2-year-olds for WinStar – Mr. Hot Stuff, a full brother to Colonel John, and Oyster Cat … Other stakes winners for Harty: Desert Party (winner of the 2008 Sanford Stakes), Tizdubai, Lydgate, Forest Grove, Unification, Shamoan, Zosima, Sunray Spirit, Marietta, Sahara Heat and Burmilla. His 2008 stable also includes multiple stakes-placed Past the Point, who finished second to Curlin in the Woodward Stakes. ... Through Oct. 5, 2008, Harty's runners had earned $3,375,186, and won 22 races from 146 starts. ...
