The drive is the same for trainer Kathy Stabe

By Glenn Davis

She may not be a household name like Gai Waterhouse and rising star Annabel Neasham, but for Deagon’s Kathy Stabe the drive is the same.

Stabe has been training for 17 years and like Waterhouse in her early days had to break down many barriers in the once male dominated racing industry.

Stabe trained her first city winner in 2012 when Modern Warfare saluted at Doomben and hasn’t been in the metropolitan winner’s stall for 10 years since Thomas The Tank was also successful at Doomben.

“It was very confronting when I first started training so I gave myself five years to train a city winner as a lot of trainers don’t even do that,” Stabe said.

“Once I did that I was very happy so I then ventured into syndication setting up my own syndication company called KIS (Keep It Simple) and expanded to having 16 in work.

“But, it got to the stage that it was too many horses for me, so I cut back as I like to have eight to 10 in work.”

Stabe was 30 years of age when she gained her trainer’s licence after a long background in show jumping.

“I started off training two horses, which I had bred myself, as I only had an owner-trainer’s licence,” she said.

“I left show jumping because of the politics but when I started training it was very daunting as I never received much help and I had to learn on my own and rode track work myself.

“I’m six foot tall so that made it hard but thankfully a lot of the track riders helped me out.

“I’ve been training for a while now at Deagon and I love it - it’s awesome.”

Stabe is prepared to travel to most centres looking for a winner and will head to Warwick on Tuesday to saddle up Cluster’s Rein in the Class 1 Handicap over 1500 metres.

Cluster’s Rein has started only six times for a win and two placings and is coming off a last start second on a track rated a Heavy 9 at Ballina on March 4.

The three-year-old son of Cluster broke through for his maiden victory over 1400 metres at Beaudesert earlier this year. 

“He had never been on a wet track until Ballina, so I wasn’t sure how he’d go,” she said.

“The winner carried 3.5kgs less than us and that’s what beat him but had the rain not come on the day I’m sure he would have won.”

Stabe has no fears with a wet track any more with Warwick currently rated in the soft range.