Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard, whose accomplishments spanned training Eclipse Award champion flat horses to steeplechasers who joined him in the Hall, died Sunday, Aug. 27, at his home in Hollywood, Fla., of complications from late-stage Lyme Disease. He was 82. British-born Sheppard had retired from training early in 2021. He finished as the National Steeplechase Association’s all-time leading trainer by wins with 1,242 in a career that began in 1966, and his horses earned almost $25 million on the jumps circuit, also a record. He was the steeplechase sport’s leading trainer by yearly wins a record 26 times, and he led the earnings table a record 29 times. His first training title was in 1972, a spare six years after his first win, and his final championships, by wins and earnings, were in 2020, the pandemic-shortened season that concluded his training career. Overall, over fences and on the flat, Sheppard had 3,426 victories from 20,997 starts and earnings of $88.7 million, according to Equibase records. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990. The president of the National Steeplechase Association from 2004 to 2006, he also received steeplechasing’s highest honor, the F. Ambrose Clark Award, in 2013 for his contributions to the sport. Sheppard was raised around horses in Ashwell, England - his father was a senior official of The Jockey Club in England - and became an accomplished jockey in point-to-point races. He traveled to the U.S. in the early 1960s to ride before transitioning to training, where he was a versatile success. In all, he trained 11 individual Eclipse Award champions who collected a total of 15 plaques. Flatterer, among the best American steeplechase horses of all time, accounted for four consecutive titles between 1983 and 1986 for Sheppard, who co-bred the gelding with owner William Pape. Flatterer won 13 stakes, and also finished second in the French and English champion hurdle races in overseas forays. Flatterer was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994, becoming the second of Sheppard's trainees to join him there. The first was 1985 inductee Cafe Prince, a two-time Eclipse champion who won the American Grand National and other major events for George Strawbridge Jr.'s Augustin Stable, a longtime patron of Sheppard. Two Sheppard-trained Augustin horses earned divisional titles on the flat. Forever Together was the champion turf female in 2008 after winning the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. The following year, Informed Decision won the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint to secure that divisional trophy. Sheppard, who was based at his Ashwell Farm in Pennsylvania, also trained steeplechase champions Athenian Idol, Divine Fortune, Highland Bud, Jimmy Lorenzo, Martie's Anger, Mixed Up, and Winston C. Sheppard's other Grade 1 winners on the flat included a notable horse who missed a championship by only a few inches. Storm Cat won the Grade 1 Young America Stakes but just failed to hold off eventual champion Tasso in the 1985 Breeders' Cup Juvenile, finishing second by a nose. Storm Cat went on to become a leading sire for owner-breeder William T. Young. The trainer’s other top-level winners on the flat included First Approach, Trevita, and With Anticipation. One measure of Sheppard’s success was his record at one of the most difficult places in the world to win a horse race, Saratoga Race Course. Sheppard won at least one race at Saratoga for an unprecedented 47 straight years, through 2015. The New York Racing Association renamed one of its two Grade 1 steeplechase races, the former New York Turf Writers Cup, at Saratoga for him in 2021. Sheppard also was a trainer of horsemen. One of his first assistant trainers, Janet Elliot, became the first woman to win a steeplechase training title, in 1991, and the first female trainer inducted into the Hall of Fame, in 2009. Another former assistant, Graham Motion, saddled Animal Kingdom to victories in the Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup. Leslie Young, who worked for Sheppard before and after college, was steeplechasing’s champion trainer in 2022 with 37 victories, and former Sheppard assistant Keri Brion was the leading jumps trainer by 2022 earnings, with more than $1.1 million in purses. " 'Thank you' simply isn’t enough," Brion wrote on Tuesday morning. "Rest in peace to a true legend. I will carry on your methods to the very best of my ability. I’m so grateful for all you taught me." In addition to his wife of 33 years, retired jockey Cathy Montgomery Sheppard, Jonathan Sheppard is survived by three children from previous marriages. Funeral services will be private, and a celebration of his life will be scheduled at a later date. In his memory, donations to injured-jockey and racehorse-retirement charities are suggested.