By Bill Finley
Cathy Sheppard, the widow of Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard, was found dead Monday in a hotel room in Dania Beach, Florida. Her passing was confirmed by the Broward County (Fla) Sherriff's Offices (BSO).
She was 69.
The Sheppards were married in 1990 and Jonathan Sheppard passed away on Aug. 29, 2023.
According to a spokesperson for the BSO, “deputies in Dania Beach responded to an unresponsive person at a hotel in the 100 block of Southwest 18th Avenue. Upon arrival they located a deceased adult female. BSO's Homicide and Crime Scene units responded to investigate. The Broward County Medical Examiner's Office will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death.”
The address released by the BSO is the address of the Dania Beach Hotel.
Until a full investigation is concluded, several questions remain unanswered. Maria Montgomery Riggs, Cathy Sheppard's sister, said that Cathy lived in Fort Lauderdale. She said the authorities have not told her what the cause of death was.
“This doesn't make any sense to me,” Riggs said. “What was she doing in a hotel in Dania Beach?”
According to a post on Cathy Sheppard's Facebook page from 2011, she rode her first race at Delaware Park when she was 16. Her father, she wrote, was a trainer and she was raised on a horse farm in Delaware. In 1985, she switched to steeplechase racing.
Her life and career changed when she met Sheppard and was hired to gallop Storm Cat, who was a Grade I winner at two in 1985.
“He was very tough to stay on in the beginning of his two year old year,” she wrote. “I was fairly athletic and just talked to him all the time. I became very friendly with (owner) Mr. (William T.) Young and after Storm Cat was retired, I followed him to Lexington to study bloodstock.”
She wrote that she talked Young out of selling Storm Cat.
“When I married Jonathan in 1990, I started looking into animal rights,” she wrote. “I do not enjoy racing like I used to. I'm seeing too much cruelty these days. I dearly love all animals, and most people.”
According to Equibase records, Sheppard last rode in 1992.
She is survived by Joseph Herman, a son from a previous marriage.
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