Jockey Powers and gelding Billy Kelly elected to racing HOF

Published May. 6, 2015 12:14 p.m. ET

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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) Jockey Vincent Powers and gelding Billy Kelly have been elected to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame.

Powers and Billy Kelly were selected by the museum's Historic Review Committee and will be inducted Aug. 7 with contemporary selections Chris Antley, King Leatherbury, Lava Man and Xtra Heat.

Born in 1891 in Westfield, New York, Powers was North America's champion flat jockey in 1908 (324 wins) and 1909 (173 wins), champion steeplechase rider in 1917 (15 wins) and champion steeplechase trainer in 1927 (19 wins). He remains the only rider in North American history to top the national standings as both a flat and steeplechase jockey.

A bay gelding by Dick Welles out of the Free Knight mare Glena, Billy Kelly was purchased as a 2-year-old in 1918 for $25,000 by J. K. L. Ross and trained for the majority of his career by H. Guy Bedwell. He finished with a record of 39-14-7, including 19 stakes wins.