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Billy Barton 1918 bay gelding *Huon x Mary le Bus, by St. Savin
Bred in Kentucky by A. L. Ferguson, Billy Barton was not originally slated to become a steeplechaser. He was well enough bred -- by the German-bred *Huon out of Mary le Bus, by St. Savin -- that he was expected to be a successful flat racer. And, in fact, he was. Sent to Cuba, which had some decent racing at Havana’s Oriental Park at the time, he won the Cuba Mile, the Cuba-America Handicap, the Cuban Derby, and the Cuban Grand National Handicap while racing from ages two to four. His total flat-race earnings amounted to $43,040, no small sum for the 1920s. But Billy was always a horse with a mind of his own, and he became an increasingly bad post horse as he aged. Whether this was due to his own “cussedness” (he was inbred to St. Simon, a horse notorious for temperament as well as racing ability) or to the rough handling common among starting crews of the day -- or both -- Billy Barton had gone completely sour by the time he was five and was eventually ruled off by the stewards for refusing to break. With virtually all his best racing done in Cuba and no real form in New York, Maryland, or Kentucky to impress breeders – except with his unruly disposition -- Billy was useless as a stallion prospect. However, Howard Bruce, at that time Master of the Elkridge Foxhounds in Maryland, saw something he liked in the tough horse. Thinking he might make a good hunter, Bruce bought Billy Barton, gelded him, and began schooling him over fences. Apparently, Billy liked this new game, for he soon gained a reputation as a fast and courageous hunter in a part of the country where fine hunters had historically been both plentiful and appreciated. His manners also improved, and Bruce decided to see if Billy would consent to race over the jumps. Steeplechase races are traditionally started by a “walk-up” start to a line rather than in a standing start from a barrier or gate; in races that are usually run over two to four miles, a few lengths gained or lost at the start are usually not of any great moment. The starting crews that Billy had grown to hate were not part of his new type of racing, and the arrangement suited him just fine. Under the handling of the noted amateur rider Albert Oder, Billy Barton took the lead over the first jump of his first steeplechase, the Grand National Point to Point, and won as he pleased. Billy’s next race was the 1926 Maryland Hunt Cup, a race that turned out to be the stuff of legend. As in the Grand National, Billy went to the lead right away and held it easily until the eighteenth fence, when he was challenged by the speedy ‘chaser Burgoright. Billy picked up the pace and was a length in front going into the nineteenth fence but misjudged his jump, struck the fence, and fell. At that point, it looked as if the race was Burgoright’s to lose -- which he did, for he refused the next fence. Put back to the jump, he cleared it on the second try but lost his rider on the other side. That left the lead to the mare Ferngrass, who was just then coming up to the twentieth fence. She cleared it, but not alone; as if from nowhere, another horse appeared and sailed over the fence alongside her. It was Billy Barton, who had been remounted. Despite the tremendous amount of ground he had lost and made up, he still had enough left to take a clear lead before the twenty-first fence, which he increased over the last fence and the final straight to win going away. Even though he had fallen, he had broken the course record by twenty-three seconds. In a final improbable touch, he had also cleared the last three fences with no guidance but his rider’s shifting weight, for when he was pulled up after the race, it was seen that the reins were all to one side of his neck, where they had fallen during his spill. Only a week later, Billy Barton won the Virginia Gold Cup, becoming the first horse not based in Virginia to win the race. He also became the first horse to win these two great timber races in the same year, his week’s labors amounting to running eight miles and clearing forty-five big, unforgiving timber fences. It was a remarkable demonstration of stamina, toughness, and jumping ability that has seldom been approached since. Billy Barton went on to become the finest timber horse of his day. In 1927, he won seven of eight starts including a second edition of the Grand National Point-to-Point, the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup, the Meadow Brook Cup, and the New Jersey Hunt Cup. In the last-named race, he was left badly at the start, yet not only won but cut seventeen seconds from the course record. His only loss was in the Maryland Hunt Cup, in which he fell. By this time it had become apparent that Billy Barton had run out of competition in the Eastern hunt country, and in November 1927 the horse was shipped to trainer Aubrey Hastings in England with the most prized of all steeplechases, the Grand National Steeplechase at Aintree, as his goal. Although he was considered small by the standards of English ‘chasers -- competitors for the Grand National are often in the neighborhood of seventeen hands, a hand taller than Billy Barton -- the horse soon gained admirers both for his speed over the flat and for the manner in which he jumped the big English fences. On the big courses, these fences are generally thick hedges of furze, and ‘chasers trained to them usually cut them very close, sometimes diving right through the top few inches of shrubbery. Billy Barton, however, had been trained to the unforgiving post-and-rail fences used in timber racing, and he leaped his fences cleanly, no matter how big they were. He also had a distinctive style of jumping; leaping with his head held high, he would kick his hind legs out at the peak of his arc like a Lipizzaner performing the capriole. Unfortunately, Billy did not take well to either the ocean voyage or the change in climate and conditions, and he had not fully regained his best form by the time the field lined up for the 1928 Grand National. In fact, racing author C. W. Anderson later stated that Mr. Bruce would have withdrawn the horse had he not been influenced by the fact that many Americans had backed Billy Barton heavily in the future books for the race. The English were not so sanguine about Billy’s chances, and the ten-year-old gelding was sent off for the race at 33-1 despite the fact that he had already won a handicap steeplechase at Newbury in good style. In top condition or not, Billy Barton turned in a legendary performance at Aintree. The huge field of forty-two -- the largest in the race’s history to that point -- got off raggedly, but under the handling of Tommy Cullinan, Billy managed to avoid trouble and headed away with the first flight. The leader was Easter Hero, one of the favorites for the race and deservedly so, for he was leading the field easily until the fence at the Canal Turn. There, he misjudged the fence completely and took off too soon. Instead of either clearing the fence or falling, he landed atop the thick furze hedge, where he hung suspended, thrashing helplessly. The scene turned to absolute chaos as horses swerved to try to avoid the fallen leader and created an impossible tangle. Billy Barton was still with the leading flight at that point, and he had nowhere to go but straight forward -- right at the place where Easter Hero was hung. In one of the greatest single feats in the history of the Grand National, he made an incredible jump that cleared both the fence and the struggling Easter Hero and sailed him into the lead. The Grand National requires two circuits of the grueling Aintree course, and only five horses were left in the race by the time the horses started the second lap. After the famous Becher’s Brook had been cleared for the second time, there were only three -- Billy Barton, 100-1 shot Tipperary Tim, and Great Span. Then Great Span’s saddle slipped, throwing his rider, and the horse swerved into Billy. Billy Barton managed to keep his feet but was visibly tired as he steered away from the interference, and the horses came into the next fence virtually abreast, with Great Span between Billy Barton and Tipperary Tim. Whether it was due to distraction by the loose horse or simple exhaustion from his earlier effort, Billy Barton for once did not take his fence cleanly; he plowed through the uppermost foot of it, pecked heavily on landing, and fell. He was remounted but could not catch Tipperary Tim, who was the only horse to have completed the entire race without a fall. Billy was the only other horse to even finish, and he was greeted by the crowds with an ovation every bit as great as that accorded to the winner. To this day, Billy Barton is the only runner-up in the Grand National to be mentioned in the same breath with some of the race’s great champions. He also received a singular honor in his native land, gracing the cover of Time magazine (via a sketch by artist Paul Brown) in April 1929. Billy Barton tried again in 1929, but again he met ill fortune. He had a good position and was racing well when another horse directly fell in front of him, bringing him down and knocking him completely out of the race. The following year, Billy didn’t even make it to the starting line; he was injured while in training, and the decision was made to send him home. His racing career was over, but he still liked to jump, and after he had recovered from his injury and the voyage, he resumed his career as a hunter for Mr. Bruce. His name remained alive in the steeplechase world at Pimlico, where the Billy Barton Steeplechase was instituted in his honor. Perhaps paying his respects to a great one who had gone before him, Battleship won this race in 1938 prior to becoming the first American horse to take the Grand National. Billy Barton died in 1950 at the age of thirty-two. He remained a strong-willed horse to the end; even in his old age, he was nobody’s pet and could be a tough boy to handle around the barn. But rogue though he was on the flat, there was never a truer or more courageous horse through the field. © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
