Lonesome Glory, the champion steeplechase horse five times in the 1990s, will be inducted into the National Museum of Racing\’s Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Aug. 8. Trainer Sidney Watters Jr. and jockey Thomas Walsh will be inducted in the same ceremony.
A son of Transworld raced by the late Kay Jeffords, Lonesome Glory won 24 of 44 career starts between 1991 and 1999 and is the leading money-earning horse in steeplechase history, with $1.4 million. He won 19 jump races, 17 in the United States and two in England, from 35 starts over fences, and he was the first steeplechase horse to earn over $1 million.
Three years into his retirement, Lonesome Glory injured himself in a stall accident at trainer Bruce Miller\’s farm. When efforts failed to repair the broken bone in his left hind leg he was humanely destroyed on Feb. 25, 2002, at age 14.
Watters led or shared the lead in training steeplechase winners six times between 1948 and 1971 and claimed the money-won title three times. He was also a successful trainer of flat horses.
Watters, 87, is now retired and lives on his farm in Monkton, Md.
His father and uncle were amateur steeplechase riders in their youth, and Watters followed them into the sport. He rode about 50 winners races between 1935 and 1941 before turning to training for Richard Mellon. After flying some 40 missions as a gunner on a B-24 bomber in the Pacific Theater during World War II, Watters resumed training, again for Mellon.
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In 1954, he began a long association with the stable of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen C. Clark Jr. For the Clarks, he developed the outstanding flat runners Hoist the Flag, the 2-year-old champ in 1970, and the multiple stakes winner Love Sign, as well as two steeplechase champions: Amber Diver, named the champion by both the Daily Racing Form and the TRA in 1963, and Shadow Brook, the first Steeplechase Eclipse Award winner in 1971.
During his 12-year riding career, Walsh recorded 253 victories, fifth on the career list. He was the leading jockey in races-won twice and was the regular rider of champion steeplechasers Barnaby\’s Bluff, Bon Nouvel and Mako. Walsh won the prestigious Grand National Steeplechase a record five consecutive years.
Walsh, 65, lives in Muttontown, N.Y., and operates a stable based at Belmont Park.
It was no accident that Walsh found his way to steeplechase racing. Walsh\’s father operated a riding academy in Great Neck and his uncle, Mickey Walsh, was in the midst of a Hall of Fame training career. During winter vacations, Walsh visited his uncle\’s training center in Southern Pines, N.C., and learned how to school horses. He said he made his debut at the Stoneybrook Hunt Meet (N.C.) in 1956. Walsh decided to quit riding when he was 27, in 1967, and turned to training the next year.
Walsh said he\’s most proud of his five-year streak in the Grand National. “Nobody had ever done it or ever will,” Walsh said. “It\’s like winning five Kentucky Derbies in a row.”
Watters, Walsh and Lonesome Glory are the first Steeplechase Hall of Fame inductees since 1997.
