Sir Barton: Four-Year-Old Season

  The year after effortlessly winning the Triple Crown(the three races weren't actually called that until the 1930s), Sir Barton returned to the racetrack, running his first four-year-old race at the Havre de Grace track. He placed fourth behind Billy Kelly. Then he returned victorious in the next handicap race. Next, in the Marathon Handicap, Barton was forced wide and ended up placing third behind Wildair.

 He then went on to win the Rennert Handicap at Pimlico by one length, despite the fact that he carried 132 pounds. After that, Barton, carrying 129 pounds, defeated Exterminator, an older champion. Then he easily won the Dominion Handicap. He then ran mile and three-sixteenths in 1:55 3/5, setting a new American. Barton was irrefutably a champion when racing against older horses, but a younger horse was beginning to take his place as champion: Man o' War.

 Man o' War was defeating any horse at any track, and almost everybody was afraid to race their horses against him. It was beginning to get hard to find him competition. Then a plan was preposed: Man o' War and Sir Barton, the two great horses of the time, would match race in the Kenilworth Gold Cup in Canada.

Sir Barton running in one of his races(photo credit).

 Man o' War, who was carrying six less pounds than Barton, easily beat Barton by seven lengths, breaking the track record at the same time. After that, things began to look down for poor Barton. He lost the Laurels Stakes, ran third behind Mad Hatter and Billy Kelly in Pimlico's Fall Serial #2, and finished second behind Billy Kelly in Pimlico's Fall Serial #3. He was retired to stud at Audley Farm, Virginia after that.

 Then, in 1933, he was mysteriously sold U.S. Remount Station in Front Royal, Virginia. He later ended up in Robinson, Nebraska, as a stud horse with the meager fee of $10. J.R. Hylton, owner of a few racehorses, bought the old horse and cared for him until he passed away on October 30, 1937. He was buried near his paddock, with a simple sandstone block as a headstone. Later, in 1968, he was moved to Washington Park in Douglas, where he still lies today, a generic fiberglass horse statue marking the site.

Sir Barton: Three-Year-old Season

 In 1919, John Ross entered Sir Barton in the Kentucky Derby, not expecting him to win. In fact, he planned that Barton would actually lose so that the favored Billy Kelly would win. Barton's primary purpose was to take an early lead, tiring out fast Eternal and Under Fire so that Billy Kelly could take the lead and win.

 However, the plan backfired. Billy Kelly failed to catch Sir Barton on the homestretch, and placed second, five lengths behind his stablemate. Eternal had finished tenth.

 Then came the Preakness, only four days after the Derby. Sir Barton easily won by by four lengths, defeating both Eternal and Dunboyne, the previous year's Futurity Stakes winner.

 After that, Barton once more defeated Eternal, this time in the Withers Stakes on May 24.

Sir Barton after winning a race(click here for photo credit)

 Next, he won the Belmont Stakes, effortlessly defeating the American time for a mile and three-sixteenths(the Belmont Stakes was only that long back then) with his time of 2:17 2/5. At the time, the three races(the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes) were not known as the Triple Crown. They were officially given that title in the 1930s. Even so, Sir Barton is still considered the first Triple Crown winner.

 Sir Barton lost for the first time since his streak began in the Dwyer Stakes. Purchase, the first winner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, defeated him. Billy Kelly, however, was becoming a top sprinter, and defeated Barton five times that season, including in the six furlong sprint at Havre de Grace. Barton avenged his defeat in the Potomac Handicap, despite his 132 pound burden.

 He then finished second to The Porter, and third in the Havre de Grace Handicap, with Cudgel and Exterminator in front of him. In the Maryland Handicap, he beat the older Mad Hatter by two lengths. Mad Hatter then came back and defeated Barton in the next race, the Pimlico Autumn Handicap.

 Barton made a come-back when he won the other two races in the Pimlico fall serial, defeating bother The Porter and Billy Kelly. With the three-year-old record of eight wins and thirteen starts, Barton received Horse of the Year honors

Sir Barton: Two-Year-Old Season

 During the spring of 1916, Sir Barton, a chestnut colt with a blaze on his face, was born on John Madden's Hamburg Place in Lexington, Kentucky. His sire was Star Shoot,  son of the English Triple Crown winner Isinglass, and his dam, Lady Sterling, daughter of a stallion known as Hanover.

 Sir Barton's two-year-old season was unsuccessful. After not placing in the Tremont Stakes, the Flash Stakes, the U.S Hotel Stakes, and the Sanford Memorial Stakes, he was sold to Canadian Naval Commander John Ross for $10,000. Although Ross, who had recently inherited $12 million dollars from James Ross, his father, was new to thoroughbred racing, he owned several successful horses, including 1918's top two-year-old, Billy Kelly.

 Sir Barton's trainer then became Harvey Bedwell, a cowpuncher from Oregon who had worked with horses since he was thirteen.

 Sir Barton had an unpleasant disposition, disliking everybody except for his groom, Toots Thompson. Many people speculate that the reason for his bad temper was his hoof problems. Sir Barton's hooves were soft and shelly, and it pained him every time he ran, especially when his shoes fell off during a race, which they often did. Because of this, Bedwell inserted piano felt between Barton's shoe and hoof.

 Furthermore, Barton hated workouts. He only pushed himself when other horses ran with him, so Bedwell was forced to tire several horses just to give Barton a workout.

"To get him fit you have to half kill him with work - and a lot of other horses as well," said Bedwell. Ross's son describes the horse as "an irascible, exasperating creature." Barton's temperent certainly didn't make him well liked.

 Barton, ridden by Earl Sande for the first time, did not place in Hope Stakes. It was only to be expected. His next race, however, had a surprising outcome: he finished second behind Dunboyne. Nobody had expected Barton to even place. Even so, the accomplishment was simply dismissed as a stroke of luck, and no expected Barton to accomplish what would in his three-year-old season.