Sir Barton’s Accomplishment Was Real Quiet at That Time

There’s something of a parallel between Real Quiet and Sir Barton. Real Quiet lost his first six races and now has won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.

Sir Barton also lost his first six starts, all of them as a 2-year-old, and didn’t run again until the Kentucky Derby. He won the 1919 Derby on a Saturday, the Preakness the following Wednesday and completed the sweep in the Belmont about a month later. Between the Preakness and the Belmont, Sir Barton also won the Withers Stakes.

Sir Barton became the first Triple Crown winner ex post facto. There was no catchy label for the three races until Charles Hatton, the distinguished writer for the Daily Racing Form, started using Triple Crown in the 1930s.

The 1919 Derby was supposed to be a two-horse battle between Billy Kelly and Eternal. Early that year, John K.L. “Jack” Ross, the Canadian war hero who owned Billy Kelly, made a $50,000 side bet in a New York restaurant that his horse would outfinish Eternal. The man on the other side of the wager was Arnold Rothstein, who would be busy on another front later in the year, trying to bribe the Chicago White Sox and rig the World Series.

As it turned out, neither Billy Kelly nor Eternal won the Derby, but Ross still made it to the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs when Sir Barton, making his first start of the year, beat his runner-up stablemate by five lengths. A wet track was the undoing of favored Eternal, and he finished 10th. Sir Barton, off at 13-10, would have been 50-1 or more if he hadn’t been coupled in the betting with Billy Kelly.

Because he was a maiden, Sir Barton carried only 112 1/2 pounds in the Derby, 9 1/2 pounds less than Eternal. In the Preakness, they were at equal weights--126 pounds apiece--and although Eternal caught a fast track at Pimlico, he finished second, beaten by four lengths.

Only three horses showed up for the Belmont and Sir Barton won by five lengths, setting an American record of 2:17 2/5 for 1 3/8 miles, the distance of the stake then.

Sir Barton was trained by Harvey Guy Bedwell and ridden by John Loftus. The horse and the two horsemen are all members of the Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

For $10,000, a goodly sum at the time, Ross bought Sir Barton from his breeder, John E. Madden, after the colt’s first four losses. Sir Barton had soft hooves, and after the Belmont he ran in a race in which he lost all four shoes and finished second. He was a disappointment at stud and died in 1937 after spending most of his retirement years at a ranch in Wyoming.

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TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS

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TODAY SIR BARTON 1919 Thursday Gallant Fox 1930 Friday Omaha 1935 Saturday War Admiral 1937 Sunday Whirlaway 1941 Monday Count Fleet 1943 Tuesday Assault 1946 June 3 Citation 1948 June 4 Secretariat 1973 June 5 Seattle Slew 1977 June 6 Affirmed

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1919: THE BREAKDOWN

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Date Race Distance (Time, Margin, odds, Purse) May 10 Derby 1 1/2 miles (2:09 4/5, 5 lengths, 13-10, $20,825) May 14 Preakness 1 1/8 miles (1:53, 4 lengths, 7-5, $24,500) June 11 Belmont 1 3/8 miles (2:17 2/5, 5 lengths, 2-5, $11,950)

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THE CHALLENGERS

The top three finishers in the races in 1919:

KENTUCKY DERBY

1. Sir Barton

2. Billy Kelly

3. Under Fire

PREAKNESS

1. Sir Barton

2. Eternal

3. Sweep On

BELMONT

1. Sir Barton

2. Sweep On

3. Natural Bridge

SIR BARTON’S CAREER

(1918-1920)

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Starts 1 2 3 Purses 31 13 6 5 $116,857

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