Sunny Jim saw how meticulous he was and put him in charge of this promising colt named Gallant Fox. Old Man Fitz was putting together a winning team alright: He even called the great Earl Sande, Jockey of Man 0’ War, out of retirement to ride Gallant Fox.

Gallant Fox and Sande beat all comers, First at Maryland's Pimlico Race course in The Preakness Stakes, next in Louisville in The Kentucky Derby, and last, at The Belmont Stakes in Long Island, New York. The Belmont Stakes is the final leg of the Triple Crown. The race is a grueling mile-and-a-half contest that is the downfall of all The great horses that are poised to sweep the Triple Crown title. With the Triple Crown Championship his, Gallant Fox secured the splendid reputation of The Fitzsimmons Racing Stable, but there would be other great horses in the coming years, and Bart Sweeney was always part of the winning team.

In 1935, Omaha, son of Gallant Fox, took the Triple Crown races and became the second Triple Crown Winner in The Fitsimmons Stable. Mind you, even till this day in 2004, as I write this, there have been Only 11 Triple Crown Winners! They had another famous stakes winner around that time, named Granville. He was 1936 Horse of The Year. Other greats trained by The Fitzsimmons Team were Bold Ruler (Brother of Nashua and Father Of Secretariat), Johnstown, Fighting Fox (brother of Gallant Fox), Dark Secret, Apache, even a young Seabiscuit.

By the mid 1940s, my own father, also named Bart, was a regular down at the barns at Aqueduct and Jamaica Racetrack (now long gone). At eight years old, my father could groom any horse in the stable and tell you where a horse was sore by watching its walking gait - he was a natural. His father had magic hands when it came to handling horses and he was passing that on to his son. The Sweeney team was meticulous and exacting with each horse, treating them as individuals. Horseshoeing - to most - is an important trade and a necessary part of keeping a stable winning., To my grandfather it was a science as important as veterinary work. After a horse was shod, they would watch him very carefully. If the animal wasn’t walking the way he thought he should, or standing uncomfortably, he would make the harried farrier pull the shoes and do it all over again. Unwavering attention to detail is a Sweeney trademark till this day.

In 1955, it looked like The Fitzsimmons Stable would sweep the Triple Crown once again with the great horse, Nashua. My father, Bart, was now a teenager and spent much of his time around the awesome horse, traveling from racetrack to racetrack in the horse van with his father - keeping the colt company and making sure he didn’t hurt himself. In that year’s Kentucky Derby, Nashua lost a heartbreaker to the California phenom, Swaps. Redemption!: For the Preakness and The Belmont Stakes, jockey Eddie Arcaro, “The Master” as he was known, rode Nashua to smashing victories. But because of his loss to Swaps in ‘The Derby,” Nashua would never be a Triple Crown Winner. Nashua did avenge that loss later that year by soundly beating Swaps by 6 lengths in one of the greatest, one-on-one match races in history at Chicago’s Washington Park. Nashua was named 1955 horse of the year.