New York Trainer Kathleen Feron Dies at 52

Longtime New York trainer Kathleen Feron died Oct. 2 at her home in Pawling, N.Y., following a lengthy illness. She was 52. 

She was diagnosed in 2015 with frontotemporal degeneration, a rare disorder that affects the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, after suffering episodes of memory loss. The disease affected Feron's ability to speak and her physical movements. She continued training until October 2016.

Feron was the private trainer for John Hettinger's Akindale Farm in Pawling. She began working there as a teenager, returning to the farm during college breaks and forgoing graduate study in order to work there full time. Among the horses she campaigned are multiple stakes winners and half sisters My Dinah and Them There Eyes. In partnership with former Akindale Thoroughbred Rescue manager Erin Pfister and assistant farm manager Karin Millard—breeding in the name of Chasemedaly Farm—Feron bred Strategic Missile, a grandson of graded stakes winner D'Accord, a son of Secretariat. 

"Kate saved his life," Millard said. "He suffered a lacerated jugular at the farm and blood was shooting all over the place. Kate staunched the blood flow until the vet could get there." 

Strategic Missile raced 33 times and earned $178,878.  

Feron grew up in Pawling and was hired by then-farm manager Peter Penny in the mid-1980s. When Penny left in 1994 to work at Fasig-Tipton, where he is now the Florida account executive, Feron assumed his role as manager.

"She was very smart," said Penny, who traveled from his Florida home to attend a celebration of Feron's life in Pawling Oct. 5. "She was enthusiastic, and you could tell that she loved horses. She really liked the whole farm experience. She was willing to learn and she was a hard worker, and that's not easy to find."  

Feron refused to set up a training base at any of New York's tracks, preferring to train from Akindale Farm despite the logistical difficulties that entailed. 

"She said, 'That's what Mr. Hettinger wanted,'" recalled her spouse, farrier Ray Galluscio. "So that's what she wanted to do." 

Hettinger stipulated that upon his death, Feron could take one of his broodmares to breed as her own. He died in 2010, and she chose Them There Eyes, by Holy Bull who was out of a D'Accord mare. 

She also became the owner of Avril a Portugal, another daughter of D'Accord, and in 2011 she bred the mare to Freud , producing a bay filly that brought $55,000 at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Preferred Yearlings Sale. Pinhooked at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, the filly brought $110,000 from Michael Dubb, who named her Fourstar Crook and campaigned her in partnership with Gary Aisquith and Bethlehem Stables. She was trained by Chad Brown.

A multiple graded stakes winner, Fourstar Crook retired last year with a record of 12-4-1 from 20 starts and more than $1.62 million in earnings. She sold for $1.5 million to Katsumi Yoshida last year at The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's breeding stock sale. Fourstar Crook was voted 2018 New York-bred champion turf female; Feron was too ill to attend the ceremony in April.  

"We made sure all of Fourstar Crook's races were on so that she could see them," Galluscio said. "She couldn't communicate, but we thought she knew what was going on."  

"Up until the end, she did what was right for the horses," Pfister said. "She would stop on horses before they became unsound, and she was so involved. She was always researching equine nutrition and training techniques, and she was always open to learning something new."  

In a training career for Akindale that began in 1998, Feron saddled 684 horses for a record of 49-64-72 and earnings of over $2.86 million. 

"She didn't always have a lot to work with," Penny said. "We had lunch in Saratoga one day, and I told her, 'I'm really proud of you. You're doing a heck of a job with what you have to work with.'"  

"She loved the farm," said Millard, who worked with Feron for 30 years. "Akindale was in her blood. John recognized her dedication and thought of her as a daughter."

Feron is survived by Galluscio and their daughter, Kathleen; her father, David Feron, and mother, Myrna Cherrix; and sisters Carrie Feron and Nancy Nielsen, along with nieces and nephews Charlotte Anderer and Jonathan and Elizabeth Nielsen.

Her family has asked she be remembered in any way that honors animals, including Akindale Thoroughbred Rescue, and with donations to the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration.