‘You Have to be Resilient and Steadfast’: New Trainer Lavinia Fabre on Learning From the Best

[Wandering Eyes]

A name has recently appeared among the ranks of trainers in France which is both familiar and new at the same time. Lavinia Fabre, the daughter of Andre and Elisabeth Fabre, wasted little time in securing her first winner with just her second runner at Saint-Cloud on October 16, but her stint as a sole trainer will be short-lived as the 36-year-old has plans to embark on a partnership with her renowned father later this year.

To a degree, Fabre's official arrival on the racing scene was entirely predictable. Both her parents have been fully immersed in the sport for all of her life, with her mother's contribution to the stable being every bit as significant as the man whose list of achievements in the world of thoroughbred racing runs to eight Arcs and umpteen Classics for a wide range of the sport's most powerful owners and breeders. But sometimes apples fall farther from the tree. Fabre says that her two brothers have no interest in racing, and she herself worked in public relations after completing a masters degree in marketing.

“I really hated every minute of it,” she says plainly from more familiar surroundings while attending the Arqana October Sale in Deauville last week.

“I worked for a big French company and my main clients were Philip Morris and McDonald's. I'm not going to lie, it was awful for me to be stuck in an office. I just did not enjoy any of it.

“I like the outdoor life. On those mornings when it's raining and it's cold and it's miserable on the tracks in Chantilly, I always think it could be worse, I could be in front of a computer right now.”

There is of course a degree of paperwork to be done in modern-day training establishments, including, as Fabre outlines, the finalisation of the training partnership which should be completed by the end of the year. While presently training her three horses from part of her father's yard, she is also on the lookout for her own stable.

“I'm looking for a yard in Chantilly, but that's very difficult,” she says. “The plan is to stay in my dad's yard for a bit and then when the opportunity comes up, find something for myself. I want to find something that suits me, and to be training on Les Aigles [gallops].

“The partnership should happen by the end of the year. We're working on the paperwork right now, making sure that it's all done properly. So in the meantime, I put my own horses under my name, because I wanted to.”

Her first winner, the juvenile Wadi (Earthlight), triumphed in her own colours after she bought the David Redvers-bred colt at Arqana in August 2024.

“It's nice to have a winner by myself. It's a horse that I bought myself, so it has definitely given me a bit of confidence,” she admits.

Fabre is at Arqana to oversee the sale of one of two horses she bought as foals last year. The Victor Ludorum filly was in the end bought back at €35,000 and may well next be seen in her own colours. Not finding a buyer should not be too much of a deterrent as her first attempt at pinhooking ended in that particular filly becoming the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner Zellie (Wootton Bassett).

“I love pinhooking and this is kind of how I started my racing career, buying foals, and it's still what I really enjoy,” she explains. “I bought a foal with a group of friends that we wanted to pinhook, and we weren't able to sell her because everyone said she was too fat. So we ended up having to keep her and put her in training with my dad, and she ended up winning a Group 1. I mean, it was really lucky because it was definitely unlucky when it happened. I had borrowed money to buy her and it took me a year to pay the money back – a year extra. So it was a bit of an emotional journey, but it worked out amazingly in the end.

“I got money from her to keep pinhooking and buy more foals, and I've been doing that ever since. I buy a couple a year, and now that I'm a trainer, the idea is to buy two, sell one, and keep one to have in training.

“I would love to buy yearlings but at this point they're quite expensive. I don't really have those kind of budgets, but buying foals is a lot of fun.”

Though her brothers “don't want anything to do with horses”, Fabre has clearly been inspired by the careers of her parents, all the while witnessing the total dedication required to be a racehorse trainer.

She says, “One thing that I've seen from them, from being born in that house, is how they've always been very consistent with their hard work. And that's something that has always almost scared me to become a trainer, to think there are no breaks, no holidays, no days off. It's every single day you've got to be out there and there are no excuses.

“That is really challenging – and they've done it for over 40 years. But that's what I've learned: if you want to be good, that's the secret. It's about being consistent and not wavering. They've obviously had amazing years, but also hard years – we've had viruses, there have been hard times.”

Fabre continues, “They never waver in their hard work, where a lot of people would give in or think they should change everything about the way they train. And they've always said, 'No, we've got a method that works, we're going to stick to it and ride out the storm.' So you have to be resilient and steadfast.”

While she was encouraged by the fact that she was part of a large class of young people when studying for her trainer's licence, Fabre acknowledges the difficulties faced by many when it comes to setting up their own business.

“If you're starting out and you don't have family connections or money, it's really difficult. There are really competent trainers who haven't been able to get their chance, and I'm aware and grateful that I'm in a unique situation for that.”

Having grown up in France and been educated in England, Fabre also spent a three-month stint working in racing in Australia, where she was inspired by the local system of spelling horses for short times during the racing season.

“I loved Australia, but at that time I had just bought my share of the family farm, so I was kind of, not stuck, but settled in France. Otherwise I would have tried to stay in Australia. The racing there is really on the up, so it was an exciting place to be.”

Andre Fabre has of course had notable success in travelling his horses to compete in various parts of the world, and this is something his daughter is keen to continue. The fact that she speaks flawless English will only be an asset in that regard.

“I love England. It's a big part of my life, so I always love going racing in England. You just have to get very competitive horses now, but I'd love to go racing in Asia as well – Hong Kong and Japan would be incredible, but right now, my focus is on winning handicaps in Clairefontaine,” she says with a grin.

Will that change a little once her name appears alongside her father's in a training partnership?

“We've been working together for a few years now, so it's very comfortable. It's been going great, and with my mum as well,” she says.

“Maybe I'll go to the races more to give him some breaks but, basically, me becoming the co-trainer, I don't think it will change much of the day-to-day.”

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