Sir Barton (April 26, 1916 – October 30, 1937) was a champion American
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...
racehorse
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...
who is the first winner of the
American Triple Crown.
Background
Sir Barton was a chestnut colt bred in 1916, in Kentucky, by
John E. Madden at Hamburg Place Farm near
Lexington. The Englishman named, Vivian A. Gooch, who judged the 1918 National Horse, was co-listed as breeder with Madden; but Gooch had actually served as the agent who purchased Sir Martin, Sir Barton's half-brother, from Madden for Louis Winans. As a favor to Gooch, Madden listed his friend as co-breeder and then Madden purchased Gooch's gifted share of Sir Barton when Madden decided to keep the colt and race him under his own colors.
Sir Barton was sired by the British stallion
Star Shoot
Star Shoot (1898 – November 19, 1919) was a Thoroughbred racehorse that was bred in Ireland, raced in the United Kingdom and was eventually imported to the United States to become a five-time leading sire in the early 1900s. He was a white s ...
out of the
mare
A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four ...
Lady Sterling, by
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
. Sir Barton's paternal grandsire was the 1893
English Triple Crown
The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, often shortened to Triple Crown, is a series of horse races for Thoroughbreds, often restricted to three-year-olds. Winning all three of these Thoroughbred horse races is considered the greatest accomplis ...
winner
Isinglass
Isinglass () is a substance obtained from the dried swim bladders of fish. It is a form of collagen used mainly for the clarification or fining of some beer and wine. It can also be cooked into a paste for specialised gluing purposes.
The E ...
. His half-brother was 1908 juvenile champion
Sir Martin
Sir Martin (1906–1930) was a Thoroughbred racehorse that was foaled in 1906 in Lexington, Kentucky at Hamburg Place, the stud farm of noted turfman and horse trainer John E. Madden.Daily Racing Form January 27, 1920./ref> Sir Martin was a hal ...
.
Sir Barton was known for being an ill-tempered horse, and it was said that the only human he didn't hate was his groom, Toots Thompson.
Racing career
Early career
Trained by former African American jockey
Billy Walker, Sir Barton raced as part of John E. Madden's stable in the first four starts of his two-year-old season, but none of those starts demonstrated the same speed and talent the colt would show in his workouts. In late August 1918, Madden sold the horse for a reported $10,000 to Canadian businessman and volunteer naval commander
J. K. L. Ross
Commander John Kenneth Leveson "Jack" Ross, CBE (31 March 1876 – 25 July 1951) was a Canadian businessman, sportsman, thoroughbred racehorse owner/breeder, and philanthropist. He is best remembered for winning the first United States Triple ...
. After some early success, Ross was growing his stable as part of his effort to commit more fully to racing. He owned farms in
Vercheres, Quebec, where he established a breeding operation for his Canadian horses; and, in 1919, purchased Bolingbrook near
Laurel, Maryland, for training and breeding his American stock.
Ross placed Sir Barton in the hands of trainer
H. Guy Bedwell
Harvey Guy Bedwell (June 22, 1876 – December 31, 1951) was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse trainer and owner who was the first trainer to win the U.S. Triple Crown.
Born in Roseburg, Oregon he was known by his middle name. As a ...
. The colt made two more starts that year, finishing second in his last start, the 1918
Belmont Futurity
The Futurity Stakes, commonly referred to as the Belmont Futurity, is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in mid-September or October at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, United States. Open to two-year-old horses, it is raced on turf ...
. He contracted
blood poisoning after a stablemate kicked him, opening a significant cut on his left hind leg. Bedwell personally nursed him through the illness, which sidelined Sir Barton for the rest of the year.
1919: Triple Crown sweep
At three, Sir Barton won his season debut as a maiden in the
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...
, ridden by jockey
Johnny Loftus
John Patrick Loftus (October 13, 1895 – March 23, 1976) was an American thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey.pacemaker
An artificial cardiac pacemaker (or artificial pacemaker, so as not to be confused with the natural cardiac pacemaker) or pacemaker is a medical device that generates electrical impulses delivered by electrodes to the chambers of the heart eith ...
) for his highly regarded stablemate, the gelding
Billy Kelly, but that assumption is only partially true; in reality, Sir Barton was regarded at having a better chance of winning the Kentucky Derby than Billy Kelly owing to both his weight allowance as a maiden as well as the fitness he had demonstrated in the preparations for the Derby. Sir Barton led the field of 12 horses from start to finish, winning the race by five
lengths
Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Intern ...
. The next day, Sir Barton was shipped to
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
to run in the
Preakness Stakes
The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () on ...
. In the Preakness, he again led all the way, winning wire-to-wire and beating Eternal by four lengths. He then won the
Withers Stakes
The Withers Stakes is a Graded stakes race, Grade III American Thoroughbred horse race for three years old horses over the distance of miles on the dirt scheduled annually in February at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York (state), New York. T ...
in New York on May 24th and shortly thereafter completed the first Triple Crown in U.S. history by winning the
Belmont Stakes
The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nicknamed Th ...
on June 11, 1919, setting an American record for the mile and three-eighths race, the distance for the Belmont at the time. Sir Barton's four wins were accomplished in a space of just 32 days. He has been retroactively honored as the 1919
Horse of the Year.
1919: Later Three-Year-Old Season
After his win in the Belmont, Sir Barton's next start was the
Dwyer Stakes, where he faced
Purchase
Purchasing is the process a business or organization uses to acquire goods or services to accomplish its goals. Although there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly between ...
, another highly rated three-year-old trained and owned by
Sam Hildreth
Samuel Clay Hildreth (May 16, 1866 – September 24, 1929) was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame trainer and owner.Havre de Grace Racetrack
The Havre de Grace Racetrack was an American horse racing track on Post Road in Havre de Grace, Harford County, Maryland. Nicknamed "The Graw," it operated from August 24, 1912, to 1950. For a time, it was owned by the Harford Agricultural and B ...
, defeating stablemate
Milkmaid and five other runners. In the Saratoga Handicap, he beat
Exterminator
Exterminator may refer to:
*A practitioner in pest control
Competition
*Exterminator (horse) (1915–1945), racehorse, the winner of the 1918 Kentucky Derby
*X-Terminator, a competitor in '' Robot Wars''
Fiction
* Exterminator!, a 1973 short s ...
. While carrying 133 pounds, Sir Barton set a
world record
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...
for miles on dirt in winning the August 28, 1920 edition of the
Merchants and Citizens Handicap
The Merchants and Citizens Handicap is a discontinued American Thoroughbred horse race which was first run in 1900 at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. Open to horses aged three and older, it was contested on dirt. The inaugural ...
. His match race on October 12 that year against
Man o' War at
Kenilworth Park in
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...
, Canada is most remembered. Sir Barton, who suffered from hoof problems throughout his career, was unsuited for Kenilworth's hard surface, and was beaten by seven lengths.
Retirement and Stud career
In early 1921, controversy over H.G. Bedwell's support of disgraced jockey
Cal Shilling forced Ross to fire Bedwell and to hire
Henry McDaniel, a future U. S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee known for training
Exterminator
Exterminator may refer to:
*A practitioner in pest control
Competition
*Exterminator (horse) (1915–1945), racehorse, the winner of the 1918 Kentucky Derby
*X-Terminator, a competitor in '' Robot Wars''
Fiction
* Exterminator!, a 1973 short s ...
as a three-year-old. McDaniel attempted to prepare Sir Barton to race as a five-year-old, but worried that continued training would cause the Triple Crown winner to break down. Ross retired Sir Barton to stud that year and in August 1921 sold the champion to Montfort and B.B. Jones, who brought the chestnut son of Star Shoot to their
Audley Farm in
Berryville, Virginia, where he remained until 1932. In December 2008, a statue of Sir Barton was unveiled in front of Audley Farm's stallion barn. The statue, by American sculptor Jan Woods, was a gift from Erich von Baumbach, Jr., whose family has had an association with the farm for thirty years.
Despite a lackluster stud career, Sir Barton sired the 1928
Kentucky Oaks winner and 1928 Champion Three Year Old Filly,
Easter Stockings
Easter Stockings (foaled 1925) was an American Thoroughbred Eclipse Award, Champion Horse racing, racehorse. Bred by brothers Montfort and B. B. Jones, who made a fortune in the oil business in Oklahoma, she was foaled at their Audley Farm in Ber ...
. He also sired Fort Thomas Handicap winner
Nellie Custis
Nelly (born 1974) is an American rapper, singer, actor and entrepreneur.
Nelly or Nellie may also refer to:
Places
* Nellie, Ohio, an American village
* Nellie, Assam, a town in Nagaon district
* Nelly Island, Antarctica
* Nelly Island, Bermud ...
. After Montfort Jones' death in 1927, B.B. Jones slowly exited the Thoroughbred racing industry; in 1932, Sir Barton became part of the
U.S. Army Remount Service
A part of the Quartermaster Corps, the U.S. Army Remount Service provided horses (and later mules and dogs) as remounts to U.S. Army units. Evolving from both the Remount Service of the Quartermaster Corps and a general horse-breeding program unde ...
, first at
Front Royal, Virginia and then, later that year, in
Fort Robinson, Nebraska
Fort Robinson is a former U.S. Army fort and now a major feature of Fort Robinson State Park, a public recreation and historic preservation area located west of Crawford on U.S. Route 20 in the Pine Ridge region of northwest Nebraska.
The f ...
. Thoroughbred breeder and rancher J.R. Hylton received Sir Barton from the Remount Service and brought him to his ranch outside of
Douglas, Wyoming
Douglas is a city in Converse County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 6,120 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Converse County and the home of the Wyoming State Fair.
History
Douglas was platted in 1886 when the Wyoming C ...
.
Sir Barton died of
colic
Colic or cholic () is a form of pain that starts and stops abruptly. It occurs due to muscular contractions of a hollow tube ( small and large intestine, gall bladder, ureter, etc.) in an attempt to relieve an obstruction by forcing content out ...
on October 30, 1937 and was buried on Hylton's ranch in the foothills of the
Laramie Mountains
The Laramie Mountains are a range of moderately high peaks on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S states of Wyoming and Colorado. The range is the northernmost extension of the line of the ranges along the eastern side of the Rocki ...
. Later his remains were moved to Washington Park in
Douglas, Wyoming
Douglas is a city in Converse County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 6,120 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Converse County and the home of the Wyoming State Fair.
History
Douglas was platted in 1886 when the Wyoming C ...
, where a memorial was erected to honor America's first Triple Crown winner. Gordon Turner raised money for and orchestrated the move.
Honors and awards
Sir Barton was officially recognized as the first Triple Crown winner in 1950 when the title was formally proclaimed by the Thoroughbred Racing Associations and retroactively awarded to horses who had completed the feat in prior years.
Sir Barton and Star Shoot both have streets named in their honor in Lexington, Kentucky, in the Hamburg Pavilion shopping center area. Sir Barton Way runs from Winchester Road to Man O' War Boulevard; Star Shoot Parkway runs from the shopping center across Sir Barton Way to Liberty Road.
Sir Barton was inducted into the
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American Thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers. In 1955, the museum moved to its current location on Union Av ...
in 1957.
In the
Blood-Horse magazine
''BloodHorse'' is a multimedia news organization covering Thoroughbred racing and breeding that started with a newsletter first published in 1916 as a monthly bulletin put out by the Thoroughbred Horse Association. ranking of the
top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, he is no. 49.
In 2019, the 100th anniversary of Sir Barton's Triple Crown win, the book ''Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown'' was published by the University Press of Kentucky. The book covers Sir Barton's life and career in detail.
In 2020, as part of a fundraiser for emergency relief efforts due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, a "virtual Kentucky Derby" was held wherein the field included the 13 Triple Crown winners. Sir Barton finished last.
Breeding
*Sir Barton was
inbred 3 × 4 to Sterling, meaning that this stallion appears in both the third and fourth generations of his pedigree.
References
{{Belmont Stakes Winners
1916 racehorse births
1937 racehorse deaths
Racehorses bred in Kentucky
Racehorses trained in the United States
Horse racing track record setters
United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductees
Kentucky Derby winners
Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing winners
American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
Horse monuments
Belmont Stakes winners
Preakness Stakes winners
American Champion racehorses
Thoroughbred family 9-g