Charles Peoples (February 3, 1924 – September 17, 1999) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
In the latter part of the 1950s, he started conditioning horses for the operations of Bayard Sharp, a director of Delaware Park Racetrack and a president of The Blood-Horse Inc.[1] Unknown to each other at the time they came together in racing, Sharp had been the teenage stranger who saved a four-year-old Charles Peoples and a small girl from drowning when he pulled them out of the bottom of a pond.
[1][permanent dead link] Based at Sharp Farm in Middletown, Delaware, Peoples started his racing career as a steeplechase rider, but soon turned to horse training and won a number of important races.
Sent to the Kentucky Derby under jockey Chris Rogers, Troilus moved from his tenth starting position into the lead at the half-mile mark but then stopped badly and finished last.
Peoples also trained Dixieland Band, winner of the 1983 Pennsylvania Derby and the 1984 Massachusetts Handicap.