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| Jonathan Sheppard |
Stats Updated Through: 11/19/2009
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| 2009 Stats: | | Starts | | 52 | | 1st-2nd-3rd | | 8-9-8 | | Earnings (Rank) | | $1,092,484 (69) | | Win % (In-The-Money %) | | 15% (48%) |
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Top Associated Horses:
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Just as Well,
Informed Decision,
Forever Together,
Winter View,
Cloudy's Knight,
Project Rose |
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Biography, Highlights and Media:
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- Born: Dec. 2, 1940 in Ashwell, England, near Newmarket
- Residence: Unionville, Pa.
- Family: wife Cathy; sons Daniel, David Alexander, Jonathan Parker (deceased), stepson Joseph Herman Jr., daughter Diana, and one granddaughter
- Racing Background: The son of a 40-year British racing official, Sheppard attended Eton College before arriving in America in 1961 ... One of the first people he met was legendary steeplechase trainer Burley Cocks. For the next nine months, Sheppard worked at Cocks' farm in Unionville, Pa. ... After a brief return to England, Sheppard spent the next two years riding races for Cocks, and estimates that he won on about 25 of 250 rides ... Sheppard then turned to training and soon had a string of six horses
- Racing Career: One of his initial clients was George Strawbridge Jr., owner of Augustin Stable, and one of steeplechasing's most successful owners. They have been together for 43 years … He has enjoyed great success both with flat and steeplechase runners and is one of only two trainers – with Hall of Famer Sidney Watters Jr. – to handle flat and steeplechase champions since the advent of the Eclipse Awards in 1971. ... In 2008, Strawbridge's Forever Together was voted the Eclipse Award as the champion turf filly following victories in three Grade 1 races, including the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Pointed for a repeat in 2009, Forever Together has won the G2 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland and repeated in the G1 Diana at Saratoga. … The 4-year-old filly Informed Decision, also owned by Strawbridge, is headed toward the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. The daughter of Monarchos won the G2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes to improve her record to 5-0-1 in six graded stakes starts this season, including two G1 wins and two G3 wins. … Sheppard trains and owns Just as Well, bred by and given to him by Strawbridge, a filly who has won the G1 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes and G3 Arlington Handicap in 2009. ... Also winning stakes for Sheppard in 2009 were Winter View, winner of the G3 Grey Goose Betwitch and the G3 All Along; and the 9-year-old Cloudy’s Knight, who came back from a one-year layoff to win the G3 Kentucky Cup Turf and the G3 Sycamore Stakes and is now headed for the Breeders' Cup Marathon. … Through Oct. 25, 2009, Sheppard was ranked 18th in the trainer standings with 55 wins from 293 starts for earnings of $4,322,197. ... Sheppard’s standout steeplechase horse Mixed Up won the 2009 Southern Bank and Trust Bank Imperial Cup Hurdle Stake and the G1 A.P. Smithwick Memorial at Saratoga ... Sheppard was the leading trainer of steeplechasers in money won in 18 straight years (1973-90) and 24 overall (also 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2007). Through October 25, 2009, he was third in the steeplechase standings with 14 wins from 91 starts and earnings of $540,221 …. He has been the leading trainer in races won in a year 23 times since 1970 … He has won the Breeders’ Cup Grand National Steeplechase four times (1988 with Jimmy Lorenzo, 1989 and 1992 with Highland Bud, 1999 with Ninepins), the New York Turf Writers Cup at Saratoga 12 times and the Colonial Cup a record 11 times. … His National/Eclipse steeplechase champions are: Athenian Idol (1973), Café Prince (1977-78), Martie’s Anger (1979); Flatterer (1983-86), Jimmy Lorenzo (1988), and Highland Bud (1989). ... On the flat, Sheppard trained Storm Cat, who won the G1 Young America in 1985 at The Meadowlands over 1986 Belmont Stakes winner Danzig Connection, but then lost by a nose to Tasso in the 1985 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile ... Storm Cat retired with four wins in eight career starts and then developed into one of the best sires of his generation ... Sheppard and his wife, Cathy, played a key role in convincing Storm Cat’s owner, William T. Young of Overbrook Farm, to stand the horse himself rather than sell him. “Back then, Mr. Young sold his horses rather than breed them. No one could have envisioned how great a sire Storm Cat would turn out to be, but my wife and I thought he had great potential at stud and we urged Mr. Young to keep him,” Sheppard said ... Sheppard won the G1 Man o’ War and G1 Sword Dancer twice with With Anticipation ... With Anticipation was second in the 2002 Breeders’ Cup Turf … During Flatterer’s four-year reign as the steeplechase champion, he swept the 1983 American steeplechase Triple Crown (the only horse to ever perform that feat); won four straight Colonial Cups; carried a staggering 170 pounds to victory in course-record time in the 1985 Temple Gwathmey at Belmont Park; and carried a record 176 pounds to victory in the 1986 National Hunt Cup ... Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1990, Sheppard also is steeplechase racing's all-time leading money-winning trainer with more than $18 million in purses earned, more than twice his closest pursuer ... His first winner as a trainer was Haffaday at the Rosetree Hunt Meeting in 1966 ... Sheppard spends much of his time on the road looking after his 100 horses stabled at Delaware Park and Ashwell Stables, his training center in Unionville, Pa ... He also stables at Gulfstream Park in the winter, Saratoga in the summer, and Keeneland in April and October.
Breeders' Cup Record| Starts | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Earnings | | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 | $1,879,200 |
| 1985 | Juvenile | Storm Cat | 2nd | | 1994 | Mile | Alice Springs | 5th | | 1995 | Turf | Alice Springs | 7th | | 2001 | Turf | With Anticipation | 7th | | 2002 | Turf | With Anticipation | 2nd | | 2008 | Filly & Mare Turf | Forever Together | 1st |
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NOTE: Stats include North American and selected international races. Click here to view selected international race list.
Biographies on jockeys, trainers and owners are from the Breeders' Cup World Championships events from 2001 through 2009, and are intended as informational resources. Biographies will be updated if an individual is again a participant in the Breeders' Cup World Championships.
Biographies are available for most horses appearing in the top 100 money earnings list, and/or for those who are frequently making headlines in the news starting with the 2006 Triple Crown season.
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