A ticket to the first leg of the first Triple Crown will sell Wednesday on eBay, with a chance to beat the all-time record for a horse racing ticket.
The ticket to the 1919 Kentucky Derby, which saw Sir Barton win in front of a then-record crowd of 50,000 fans, had reached a high bid of $30,058 as of Wednesday at 10:30 a.m ET, less than 10 hours ahead of the auction close.
That price is higher than Sir Barton’s ownership received for the win that day ($20,800), albeit not factoring for inflation.
"It's exceedingly rare and arguably the most significant Kentucky Derby ticket a collector could own," PSA's chief ticket authenticator Matt Fuller said. "The PSA pop on this is only two, and I was lucky enough to see both of them come in."
Sir Barton was a co-favorite to win the race, but he had not posted a single win in his six career starts. He did a big advantage, however — the horse weighed 4 1/2 pounds less than any other horse in the field.
The record price paid for a horse racing ticket was $45,600 for a full 1937 Kentucky Derby ticket, the first of three wins by War Admiral.
The record paid for a Sir Barton piece of memorabilia is for the Derby trophy presented to the horse’s owner, J.K.L. Ross, which sold for $71,700 in 2015 at Heritage.
Sir Barton swept the Triple Crown races in a span of 32 days, leading wire-to-wire in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.
The three races — the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes — were formalized as a group of races in 1875, but the name Triple Crown wasn’t attached to the races until 1930 when Gallant Fox won it all, and Sir Barton wasn’t officially recognized as the first winner until 1950.
In 1920, Sir Barton famously took on Man O'War in the "Horse of the Year" race at Kenilworth Park in Windsor, Ontario. In Man O'War's final start, the horse beat the Triple Crown winner, making his career record 21-1.