The month since the release of Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown has been a bit of a whirlwind, which puts me woefully behind on updating here on the Sir Barton Project. In 2016, on the occasion of Sir Barton’s 100th birthday, Lori Hoyt of the Boondocks Flower Shop and Gifts in Douglas, Wyoming was kind enough to create a bouquet of flowers for Sir Barton’s grave. This year, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Sir Barton’s Triple Crown triumph, I decided to place flowers on Sir Barton’s grave again, but, because of this milestone, I thought we needed to go bigger!

I created a GoFundMe and, thanks to the generous donations of several people including Jody Lamp & Melody Dobson, the wonderful filmmakers behind Born to Rein (which I hope you will go and see if it plays near you!), we were able to raise enough money for a very special arrangement for Sir Barton’s birthday. Lori and her daughter Kaylann created this beautiful crown-shaped display for Sir Barton’s grave. They placed it on his grave in Washington Park in Douglas on Sir Barton’s birthday, April 26th.

The crown is made of red roses to honor his victory in the Kentucky Derby, black-eyed Susans to honor his victory in the Preakness Stakes, and white carnations to honor his victory in the Belmont Stakes. It was a beautiful arrangement and I hope others were able to see it and think of the speed and stamina and heart of the horse that pioneered racing’s most elite accomplishment.

Thank you to everyone who donated to this GoFundMe to make this small gesture of recognition for Sir Barton happen. Thank you to Lori and Kaylann for working on this beautiful arrangement. Thank you to YOU for being here!