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Jonathan Kiser is smiling.

His buddies Arch Kingsley and Todd Wyatt pulled off a shocker in his race, the Jonathan Kiser Memorial, the opening jump race of this Saratoga season. Kiser used to ride against Kingsley, while working wheelbarrow to wheelbarrow with Wyatt in Tom Voss’ engine room. Kingsley and Kiser tied for champion jockey in 1997. Kiser died, after falling off a rope swing. Kingsley retired after too many concussions. Wyatt went out on his own.

As always, I started agonizing over my column somewhere between the turf works and the Schuylerville. What to write that’s important? Pertinent? Crucial? Meaningful? It wasn’t hard to figure it out. As Joe wrote yesterday, I had a son in December (well, Joe wrote November but never mind that). Miles Alexander Clancy. I haven’t seen him in a week.

Angel Penna, Tom Bush and Tom Bellhouse take the keys to their golfcarts, Penna nearly backs over Kip from Satch Sales as he learns the difference between forward and reverse. Tom Voss wins two races on Sunday and Mimi Voss orders flowers and ferns for their shedrow. Melissa at Rick Violette’s rakes the straw covering off the fledgling grass outside their overflow barn. Rusty Arnold stands outside his new digs on the Oklahoma side, a long way from the far turn of day’s gone past. The Chief’s horses still pull just like they have for the past 50 years. Eleven cases of Diet Mountain Dew await Mark Hennig in his tackroom. Nancy the Paper Lady fights for her cut and rallies her allies to the cause. Little Jose Santos has grown to Big Jose Santos, “I guess I have to be a jump jockey,” he says to his Hall of Fame dad. Brook Ledge, Sallee, Ralph Smith, Ebert . . . they’re the ones making money a day before the 141st Saratoga racemeet.

Steeplechase Times and the National Steeplechase Foundationintroduce a website celebrating the newest members of ThoroughbredRacing’s Hall of Fame – steeplechase horse Ben Nevis II andsteeplechase trainer Janet Elliot.

The site features bios, photos, career highlights, history and otherinformation for fans. In addition, fans can use the Guest Book featureto send messages and post rememberances about the Hall of Famers.Elliot and Ben Nevis II will be officially inducted Friday, Aug. 14 inSaratoga Springs, N.Y. The ceremony is free and open to the public –all are encouraged to atttend.

To see the site, click on this Hall of Fame link. Be sure to sign the guest book and check back for updates.

Steeplechase Times and the National Steeplechase Foundation introduce a website celebrating the newest members of Thoroughbred Racing’s Hall of Fame – steeplechase horse Ben Nevis II and steeplechase trainer Janet Elliot.

The site features bios, photos, career highlights, history and otherinformation for fans. In addition, fans can use the Guest Book featureto send messages and post rememberances about the Hall of Famers.Elliot and Ben Nevis II will be officially inducted Friday, Aug. 14 inSaratoga Springs, N.Y. The ceremony is free and open to the public –all are encouraged to atttend.

To see the site, click on this Hall of Fame link. Be sure to sign the guest book and check back for updates.

Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Slip Away extended his winning streak to six with a stakes score in Sunday’s $50,000 Zeke Ferguson Memorial at Colonial Downs for trainer Tom Voss and jockey Chip Miller.

Noted horseman Kurt Rosenthal died on June 30 at the Gilchrist Hospice Center in Baltimore MD at the age of 75 due to complications from Parkinson’s disease.

They say every horse has a story. And this is Lenski’s. Part of it anyway. The 6-year-old runs in a maiden hurdle race at Colonial Downs Sunday. He’s winless in four career starts. He sold for $190,000 as a weanling, $600,000 as a yearling. He ran at Saratoga for Patrick Biancone. He went almost three … Read more

Padge Whelan, presently fifth in the jockey standings, has announcedhis retirement. The 30-year-old suffered a concussion after a fall fromLair at Fair Hill May 23. Citing at least 16 concussions, Whelandecided to retire and plans to return to Ireland in the next few months.

The Maryland racing community lost one of its more well-known members when trainer Jimmy Murphy passed away Saturday, June 13. He was 82.