Retired Trainer Peter Howe Dies at 83

[Wandering Eyes]

Retired trainer Peter Howe, one of just four people to train an American champion over jumps and on the flat, and the father of Colonial Downs Vice President of Racing Jill Byrne, died Thursday night in Charlottesville, Va. He was 83.

Howe was born in Hartford, Conn., and became an accomplished rider of show horses – competing at Madison Square Garden, the Washington International Horse Show and other top venues – before transitioning to racehorses.

Training mainly for Marion du Pont Scott's Montpelier Stable – based at Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course or private training facilities in Virginia and Camden, S.C. depending on the season – Howe conditioned a small but quality stable of flat and steeplechase horses.

Soothsayer won an Eclipse Award as champion steeplechaser in 1972, and in 1976, Howe trained Montpelier's Proud Delta to the older filly/mare divisional championship.

Soothsayer and Proud Delta put Howe in rare company – with Jonathan Sheppard, Sidney Watters Jr. and Jim Ryan – as the only trainers to prepare American champions on the flat and over jumps.

Howe, whose father Walter was an American diplomat and the U.S. Ambassador to Chile under President Dwight Eisenhower, lived at Red Horse Farm near the Montpelier property in Barboursville, Va. Survivors include Byrne (whose previous racing jobs included positions with the Breeders' Cup, Churchill Downs and others), son Jeffrey Howe and his wife Christy, daughter Debby Howe and grandchildren Devon Byrne, William Vanderlinde and Emma and Owen Howe.

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