Let the visitors be entertained by Bob Baffert’s jokes or eavesdrop on Todd Pletcher’s training tidbits.

Harrington prefers laying low with Creative Cause, likely to be one of the top betting choices for Saturday’s race.

The gray-roan colt has never finished out of the money in any of his eight career races, posting four wins, two seconds, and two thirds. He’s among the best of five strong California horses in the expected 20-horse field. Of course, Baffert and Pletcher hold their usual strong hand, with two Derby horses each.

Harrington has but one.

“This is probably two Derbys for me,’’ he said Tuesday. “It’s my first and my last.’’

Harrington followed his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather into the business, starting out training and racing quarter horses at bush tracks as a teenager. Later, he became a veterinarian and worked the racetracks until returning to training nearly 20 years ago.

Creative Cause is the best horse he’s ever had.

“Everybody grows up dreaming of going to the Kentucky Derby and most people realize they’re probably never going to make it, and I never thought I would make it,’’ he said. “You got guys like Baffert and Pletcher who have most of them [horses], so for a little guy like me it’s pretty rewarding.’’

The colt is owned by Heinz Steinmann, an 80-year-old credited with bringing skiing to California from his native Switzerland. He owns Mountain High resort in Wrightwood, Calif., located in the mountains north of Los Angeles. He’s been Harrington’s main client for years and the two teamed to run Swiss Yodeler, who won some of California’s biggest stakes races in the late 1990s.

Creative Cause has mixed it up on the Derby prep trail with Baffert’s top colt, Bodemeister, and trainer Doug O’Neill’s I’ll Have Another. He beat Bodemeister to win the San Felipe Stakes, and lost by a nose to I’ll Have Another in the Santa Anita Derby last month. As a 2-year-old, Creative Cause beat I’ll Have Another in the Best Pal Stakes and last fall finished third behind Derby rivals Hansen and Union Rags in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.

“He falls under the radar, which I like. I don’t want him to be the favorite, I don’t want everybody talking about him,’’ Harrington said.

Bodemeister, along with Hansen and Trinniberg, is expected to set a fast pace in the 1 1/4-mile Derby. Creative Cause likes to tuck in behind the leaders and stalk the pace. I’ll Have Another has good speed, but usually pushes the pace rather than sets it. O’Neill figures I’ll Have Another could lag in the middle of the pack.

“You just need to be running through the stretch,’’ O’Neill said. “It’s not so much how fast you’re running early but if you can stay out of trouble and have [enough] horse to run down the lane, you got a chance.’’

Creative Cause has trained well on Churchill’s dirt track since arriving from Los Angeles. Harrington figures he’ll push him a bit harder Friday to take the edge off so the colt won’t be too high-strung Saturday, when more than 100,000 screaming fans will be on hand to watch the Derby horses walk from the barn to the paddock.

“It’s a damn long ways over there,’’ said Harrington, who may skip the procession that some trainers say makes for an indelible Derby memory. “My main focus is being able to perform in the paddock and get the saddle on him.’’

People keep telling Harrington he should be excited about finally having a Derby horse, but he doesn’t see a win changing his life.

“I doubt that I’ll get a flood of new horses. I don’t even want more clients,’’ he said. “I obviously would like more horses like this, but these kind of horses are really, really hard to come by.’’