The first Triple Crown Winner Started Something “We’re All Desperate to Win.”
 
BALTIMORE – It was a hundred years ago that Sir Barton became the first horse to sweep what would become to be known as the Triple Crown.

A small colt, Sir Barton won the Kentucky Derby (G1) in his first start as a 3-year-old, and then the Preakness Stakes (G1), Withers and Belmont Stakes (G1). After being named Horse of the Year in 1919 and racing through November of 1920 – and getting beat in a match race that Fall by Man o’ War – Sir Barton was retired and stood less than 100 miles away from Pimlico Race Course at Audley Farm in Berryville, Va.

Today, Audley Farm remains one of the Mid-Atlantic’s oldest and most historic farms. It also continues producing Thoroughbreds while keeping the memory of racing’s first Triple Crown winner alive.

A statue of Sir Barton was unveiled at Audley in 2008 in front of the stallion barn. And in 2012 Audley was the breeder of Bodemeister, second in the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

It’s that history that “makes you get up every day,” said Audley Equine Manager Jamie McDiarmid.

“He obviously started kind of a crazy history with [the Triple Crown] if you think about it, because we’re all desperate to win it.”

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