Patience the Key for Harty

Any sigh of relief heard after E Dubai broke his maiden earlier in the meet probably came from Eoin Harty.

A promising son of Mr. Prospector, E Dubai rolled to victory in his career debut, giving Harty, 37, his first win since he began training for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Godolphin Racing Inc.

“It felt great to get the monkey off my back,” said Harty, who had lost with his first eight starters. “That monkey was starting to feel a lot like a gorilla.”

Not to say that Harty, who has been involved in racing in one form or another his entire life, was feeling pressure from his employer. Winning 2-year-old races in the summer is not a priority for Godolphin. Rather, having success next spring--specifically, in the Triple Crown--is the main objective.

“They’ve been great,” said the Dublin-born Harty, who has 31 2-year-olds in his stable. “There have been no problems. There’s no added pressure or anything like that.

“[Godolphin] understands what kind of horses they bought. Their goal is to find a Kentucky Derby kind of horse and the kind of horses we have here aren’t necessarily the kind who are going to break their maiden going five or five and a half furlongs.”

Harty, the son of a former jockey and trainer, has plenty of racing in his heritage. He has four uncles who were jockeys and trainers and his grandfather, great grandfather and great-great grandfather were trainers.

After coming to America from Ireland in 1981, Harty worked at three farms in Kentucky, including Crescent and Taylor Made, before spending seven years as an assistant to former trainer John Russell.

He then became Bob Baffert’s chief assistant and worked for the three-time Eclipse Award winner for seven years until he got a phone call last fall at Gulfstream Park.

In Florida helping prepare the Baffert runners for the Breeders’ Cup, Harty was contacted by John Ferguson, one of Sheikh Mohammed’s advisors.

“I’ve known John a long time and he called to say they were interested in developing their 2-year-olds in the United States and they were looking for a trainer,” Harty remembered. “He asked me if I would be interested.

“Of course, I was interested. Very seldom in your lifetime do you get an opportunity like this, but I probably had the best job in the states at the time.”

Blessed with stock by sires such as A.P. Indy, Storm Cat and Deputy Minister, Harty has been patient with Godolphin’s youngsters, but plans to be active during the remainder of the Del Mar season, which continues through Sept. 13.

Besides E Dubai, who won under jockey David Flores in 57 3/5 seconds for the five furlongs, other promising Godolphin youngsters expected to be seen in the coming weeks are Dubai World and Aslaaf, a son of Quiet American. Harty also remains high on Qawaqeb, a Kris S. colt, who disappointed in his debut at Hollywood Park but improved with blinkers and was second a week ago.

E Dubai could surface next in the $150,000 Best Pal Stakes on Aug. 23, then the $250,000 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 13.

In either race, Harty, no doubt, would be going against his former boss, Baffert. Two years ago, Baffert won the Best Pal with Worldly Manner, who later was sold to Godolphin, and the trainer has won the Futurity four years in a row.

Harty, whose first name is pronounced Owen, said he had good teachers in both Baffert and Russell.

“John was a very good horseman and a very good businessman,” Harty said. “He taught a lot of basic horsemanship qualities. He was very astute and had a lot of different philosophies about a lot of different things, that, later on made a lot of sense to me.

“I learned a lot from Bob. He taught me how to deal with people, how to deal with the media and how to get these young horses ready. At least, I hope he taught me how to get these young horses ready.”

Horse Racing Notes

Riboletta, who swept the Hawthorne, Milady and Vanity at Hollywood Park, will be a very short price to win her fourth in a row in the $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Handicap on Saturday. Six others were entered against Riboletta, who will carry top weight of 125 pounds. From the rail out, they are: Lovellon, Speaking Of Time, Excellent Meeting, Bordelaise, Cookin Vickie and Gourmet Girl. . . . Dark Moondancer, the beaten favorite in the Eddie Read Handicap earlier this month, will miss the Arlington Million on Aug. 19 because of an undisclosed injury. He will be sidelined for about three months.