Sir Barton

This article is about the American racehorse. For the first Prime Minister of Australia, see Edmund Barton.

Sir Barton
Sir Barton & jockey Johnny Loftus, 1919
Sire	Star Shoot
Grandsire	Isinglass
Dam	Lady Sterling
Damsire	Hanover
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1916
Country	Canada
Colour	Chestnut
Breeder	John E. Madden
Owner	J. K. L. Ross
Trainer	H. Guy Bedwell
Record	31: 13–6–5
Earnings	$116,857
Major wins
Potomac Handicap (1919) Withers Stakes (1919) Saratoga Handicap (1920) Merchants and Citizens Handicap (1920) Triple Crown race wins: Kentucky Derby (1919) Preakness Stakes (1919) Belmont Stakes (1919)
Awards
1st U.S. Triple Crown Champion (1919) Unofficial United States Champion 3-Yr-Old Colt (1919) Unofficial United States Horse of the Year (1919)
Honours
U.S. Racing Hall of Fame (1957) Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (1976) #49 – Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century Sir Barton Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack Sir Barton Way in Lexington, Kentucky

Sir Barton (April 26, 1916 – October 30, 1937) was a chestnut Thoroughbred race horse who became the first winner of what would come to be known as the American Triple Crown in 1919.

He was sired by the British stallion Star Shoot out of the mare Lady Sterling, by Hanover. Sir Barton's paternal grandsire was the 1893 English Triple Crown champion, Isinglass. His half-brother was 1908 juvenile champion Sir Martin.

Sir Barton was bred in Kentucky by John E. Madden at Hamburg Place Farm near Lexington. Vivian A. Gooch is co-listed as breeder with Madden; Gooch had served as the agent who purchased Sir Martin from Madden for Louis Winans. As a favor to Gooch, Madden listed him as co-breeder and then purchased Gooch's share of Sir Barton when he decided to keep the colt and race him under his own colors.

Racing career

Early career

Trained by former African American jockey William 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. 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. The colt made two more starts that year, finishing second in his last start, the 1918 Belmont Futurity. 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.

Triple Crown

At three, Sir Barton made his season debut as a maiden in the Kentucky Derby, ridden by jockey Johnny Loftus. Legend holds that he was supposed to be the rabbit (pacemaker) 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. The next day, Sir Barton was shipped to Baltimore to run in the Preakness Stakes. 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 in New York on May 24th and shortly thereafter completed the first Triple Crown in U.S. history by winning the Belmont Stakes 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.

Three-Year-Old Season

After his win in the Belmont, Sir Barton's next start was the Dwyer Stakes, where he faced Purchase, another highly rated three year old trained and owned by Sam Hildreth. On a muddy track, Sir Barton finished second, Purchase catching the Triple Crown winner in the race's final furlong. After the Dwyer, a bruised hoof necessitated a layoff for Sir Barton, who did not return to the races until mid-September. The remainder of his 1919 season saw him give stellar performances in races like the Maryland Handicap while also turning in a couple of puzzling losses, including the Autumn Handicap. He finished the year with $88,250, finishing just ahead of Man o' War in money won that year.

1920: four-year-old season

As a four-year-old, Sir Barton won five of the 12 races he entered during the 1920 season. In one of these races, the Saratoga Handicap, he beat Exterminator. While carrying 133 pounds, Sir Barton set a world record for 1+3⁄16 miles on dirt in winning the August 28, 1920 edition of the Merchants and Citizens Handicap. His match race on October 12 that year against Man o' War at Kenilworth Park in Windsor, Ontario, 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

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 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. He also sired Fort Thomas Handicap winner Nellie Custis. 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, first at Front Royal, Virginia and then, later that year, in Fort Robinson, Nebraska. Thoroughbred breeder and rancher J.R. Hylton received Sir Barton from the Remount Service and brought him to his ranch outside of Douglas, Wyoming.

Sir Barton died of colic on October 30, 1937 and was buried on Hylton's ranch in the foothills of the Laramie Mountains. Later his remains were moved to Washington Park in Douglas, Wyoming, 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 in 1957. In the Blood-Horse magazine 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, a "virtual Kentucky Derby" was held wherein the field included the 13 Triple Crown winners. Sir Barton finished last.

Breeding

Pedigree of Sir Barton

Sire Star Shoot	Isinglass	Isonomy	Sterling
			Isola Bella
		Deadlock	Wenlock
			Malpractice
	Astrology	Hermit	Newminster
			Seclusion
		Stella	Brother To Strafford
			Toxophilite Mare
Dam Lady Sterling	Hanover	Hindoo	Virgil
			Florence
		Bourbon Belle	Bonnie Scotland
			Ella D.
	Aquila	Sterling	Oxford
			Whisper
		Eagle	Phoenix
			Au Revoir

• Sir Barton was inbred 3 × 4 to Sterling, meaning that thi stallion appears in both the third and fourth generations of his pedigree.