FREELAND, Md.--Janon Fisher III,90, a champion steeplechase rider and horse trainer, died of heart failure Sept. 9 at his Freeland home.
Born and raised in Baltimore, Mr. Fisher grew up fox hunting and training horses with his father, Janon Fisher Jr. His mother was Margie James Fisher.
He attended Gilman School until the 12th grade.
He joined the Marine Corps in 1952 at the age of 18 and was an aerial photographer stationed at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico.
“He captured the attention of steeplechase fans as the rider of the bay gelding Mountain Dew, trained by his father, Janon Fisher Jr., against rival Jay Trump, ridden by Tommy Smith, in the 1960s,” said his son, Janon Fisher IV.
Fisher rode Mountain Dew for eight seasons.
He won three Maryland Hunt Cups, in 1962, 1965 and 1967 and finished second to rival Jay Trump in 1963, 1964 and 1966.
HIS RECORD also included six Grand National wins in eight starts in the timber race, staged annually in Butler in Baltimore County. He was also a winner in the Howard County Cup.
Sports Illustrated columnist Liz Smith described him as “a young independent who rolls his own cigarettes.”
“If I had a dollar for every time Janon beat me, I could retire,” said friend and fellow rider, Benjamin H. Griswold IV. “He was a quiet but competent man, maybe a little shy, and a wonderful horseman. He was open and honest.”
Mountain Dew was inducted into the Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Fame in 2023.
Aside from his work in horse racing, his family knew him as an adventurous forager of wild mushrooms and greens.
“In the summer, he would fry up some puffballs in butter or stew bitter poke and lamb’s quarters cut out of the field of his farm in Freeland,” his son said.
He also cultivated Jerusalem artichokes for many years.
“His snapping turtle soup drew friends for dinner, but he could never get his children to sample it,” his son added.
“His dry sense of humor could make him inscrutable. He was also a shameless punner,” said his daughter Gabrielle Bredin. “My father’s love of the outdoors, his hard work ethic and mostly his love of animals, especially horses, will live with me forever.”
A funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Sept. 14 at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Saint Thomas Lane in Owings Mills.
Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Michael “Sissy” Gemmill Fisher; two daughters, Gabrielle Bredin, of Lexington, Kentucky, and Amelia Clarkson, of Whitehall; a son, Janon Fisher IV of New York City; three sisters, Amelia “Meena” Fisher, of Hoopers Island, Anne Este Stifel, of Gloucester, Virginia, and Julie Calhoun, of Upperco; and three grandchildren.
