By DRF.com
CHICO, Calif. (May 9, 2025) — Kathy Walsh, the retired trainer who died on Thursday, was a reluctant pioneer.
When she began training in 1970, following the death of her father Jim, female trainers were largely unwelcome.
In that regard, Walsh broke barriers. She won training titles at Longacres in Washington State and Canterbury Downs – now Canterbury Park – in Minnesota. She won Grade 1 races in Southern California and had a starter in the Kentucky Derby.
Walsh was 85 at the time of her passing at an assisted living facility in Chico, Calif. She had been ill in recent years, her friends said. She had her final starter in the fall of 2021 and her last winner earlier that year.
Born in Sonoma, Calif., in March 1940, Walsh won 1,232 races from 8,030 starters who earned more than $19.3 million. She was married in 1980 and did not train for a few years in that decade. She raced under her married name of Kathy Hutchinson from 1987 to 1991.
Walsh’s major stakes winners included Nany’s Sweep in the Grade 1 Santa Monica Stakes at Santa Anita in 2001, and breeder/owner George Schwary’s California-bred Georgie Boy in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity in 2007. Georgie Boy would later win three Grade 2 races in 2008 and 2009.
In 1998, the Walsh-trained Hanuman Highway, who finished eighth behind Real Quiet in the Kentucky Derby following a second-place finish by a head to Victory Gallop in the Arkansas Derby.
Walsh won four training titles at Longacres from 1972 to 1978. She was inducted into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame in 2009.
Walsh had a personal best 77 wins in 1979, the year she raced extensively at Longacres and Bay Meadows in Northern California with a stable that consisted mostly of claiming horses.
The stable earned a career-high of $1,432,446 in 2009, the season Georgie Boy won the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes and California Cup Sprint, and Cal-bred Bootleg Annie (bred by Richard Wira & Yvette Wira) won the California Cup Distaff at Santa Anita and the Fran’s Valentine Stakes at Hollywood Park.
From the 1990s to the late 2010s, when her stable’s size began to diminish, Walsh was based primarily at tracks in Southern California. At Del Mar, aside from the Del Mar Futurity, Walsh won the Oceanside Stakes twice – with Devious Boy in 2003 and Vauquelin in 2007.
Walsh began working as an assistant in 1962 and later said that the start of her career was greatly aided by her father’s success.
“I had a lot going for me when I started,” Walsh once said. “Women weren’t quite as acceptable, but I didn’t have a lot of the same problems that others had because of my father.”
One mentor was the legendary trainer Buster Millerick, a close friend of Jim Walsh’s. Kathy Walsh once described Millerick as “an adopted grandfather.”
Later in her career, Walsh’s list of notable clients included Budget Stable, Mark Dedomenico, Al and Sandee Kirkwood, Sanford Robertson, George Schwary, and Jim Vreeland.
Horse owner Carl Grether’s family had runners with Walsh in the early 2010s, including the Santa Anita winner Amy’s Outburst. Grether recalled on Friday that Walsh had a loyal group of employees.
“She had some really good assistants and exercise riders and the barn was always immaculate,” he said.
Pam Gomez spent eight years as an assistant trainer to Walsh. In a 2007 interview with Daily Racing Form, Gomez described Walsh as “a tough one.” Because of her work ethic, Walsh was once compared to Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg, Gomez said at the time.
“She’s very old school,” Gomez said of Walsh. “She learned everything the hard way, and she expects people to work hard. I galloped for a guy that said she’s a Van Berg with a bra.
“She’s never been the sort of trainer looking for the camera. She didn’t want that part of racing. She’s more about the horses and getting them to perform. She’s very loyal to her horses and the people that she works for.”
On Friday, retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, now a jockey agent in Kentucky, compared Walsh to another Hall of Fame trainer in the late Charlie Whittingham. Stevens remembered that Walsh demanded that owners let her make vital decisions regarding the stable.
“She did pave the way,” Stevens said.
“She took no B.S. off anybody,” he said. “She called the shots.
“To me, she was the female Charlie Whittingham. She let those owners know that she was in charge. If you give me the responsibility to take care of these horses, I’m calling all the shots.”
Walsh is survived by her brother Edward as well as nieces and nephews. No services are scheduled.