Trainer handled champion horses

Sidney Watters Jr., 90, a Hall of Fame trainer who handled the champion thoroughbred horses Hoist the Flag and Slew o’ Gold, died Feb. 14 from pneumonia and complications of Alzheimer’s disease at a hospice in Towson, Md.

Hoist the Flag was an undefeated 2-year-old who became an early favorite for the 1971 Kentucky Derby until a broken leg ended his racing career.

Slew o’ Gold, an offspring of Seattle Slew, won the 1983 Jockey Club Gold Cup, Woodward Stakes and Wood Memorial Stakes.

Watters, the son of a trainer, was raised on his family’s horse farm in Baltimore County, Md.

He won his first race as a steeplechase jockey at Saratoga Race Track in New York at 16 and was named Saratoga’s leading trainer at 70.

As a rider, he won almost 50 races from 1935 to 1941, before his career was interrupted by World War II.

Serving in the Army Air Forces, he flew 40 missions in the Pacific theater as a B-24 gunner.

Returning from the war, he trained steeplechasers and thoroughbreds for Richard K. Mellon, heir to the Pittsburgh-based Mellon financial dynasty.

Watters was the leading steeplechase trainer five times between 1948 and 1971.

He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2005.