FESTIVAL NEWS: IT IS 26 years since Mercy Rimell became the only woman to train a Champion Hurdle winner since the race was first run in 1927. Sabrina Harty will join her on that exclusive roll of honour if Won In The Dark justifies hopes that he's the lively outsider among Ireland's team of runners today.
On the face of it the 30-year-old Curragh trainer is a very different proposition to the formidable Rimell whose housefrau stare could provoke a panzer commander into shifting his feet uncomfortably. But in racing terms, both have racing pedigrees to die for.
Rimell’s husband Fred was a racing legend, winning a pair of Champion Hurdles with Comedy Of Errors among a collection of other top prizes in the sport. When he died his wife took over the licence.
Sabrina Joan Harty is building a racing operation from scratch, but training is in her blood.
Her father “Buster” was a jockey and a trainer. His brother, Eddie, rode Highland Wedding to win the 1969 Grand National. Her cousins have continued the tradition.
Eddie Harty Jnr won the festival opener with Captain Cee Bee last year. His brother, Eoghan, is one of the top trainers in California, winning, among many other Grade One races, the Santa Anita Derby. Not that there has been a stream of transatlantic advice on the run up to the festival.
“Americans don’t get the jumping thing do they? They think it’s horrendous having a bet on a jump race considering the horses can fall,” she grins, hinting that cousin Eoghan may have gone a trifle native.
In contrast, jumping is a home from home to the woman who was an international event rider for Ireland before taking out a licence to train five years ago. Her first runner, Yourasaint, was a horse she also rode in a Thurles bumper where the pair of them promptly finished stone last.
It took two years of hard work before Bulhill Flyer became her first winner, as a 33 to 1 shot in Roscommon. He won two more that year and in 2007 Kieren Fallon rode Bold Heta to win at Naas and provide Harty with a first flat success. Around the same time, a diminutive son of Montjeu arrived in the yard with a price-tag of just €1,800 around his neck.
“He’d been running over six furlongs as a two-year-old and he was waiting to go a mile a half. We ran him on the flat and he won, but he took to jumping hurdles straight away,” she says.
“Some take longer to perfect their jumping technique but not him. He always got low to his hurdles. He was like a pony, very intelligent. He really does weigh things up very quickly.”
So much so that a juvenile career yielded a third to Celestial Halo in last year’s Triumph Hurdle before a second Grade One victory of the season at Punchestown. This season he travels back to the festival on the back of a fine second to Sublimity at Leopardstown over Christmas that makes him a contender today.
Last year Katchit ended a long barren spell for five-year-olds in the Champion Hurdle, but Harty still believes her pride and joy is up against it.
“It is still harder for five-year-olds against the older horses. I believe our horse will be even better next season. Mind you there does seem to be a lot of five-year-olds in the race this year which makes things a bit strange.
“But we know he handles the track which is a plus and we know he will be able to travel well in the race. It’s hard to say if he has improved since Christmas, but I certainly don’t think he has gone backwards. His summer coat is breaking through which is good and what we would really like now is some good ground,” she says.
Given such conditions there are plenty in the know who believe Won In The Dark can shake up plenty of those beneath him in the betting. His patient racing style means he is unlikely to be seen until the latter stages. But there remains only one place where being sighted matters and that’s the winning post.
