Barry Irwin, now the head of Team Valor International, was entering his teenage years in Southern California when Swaps burst onto the scene in 1955.

“He just really excited me and caught my imagination,” Irwin recalled.

Irwin was hardly alone. Swaps’ popularity became so enormous that Union 76 gas stations began distributing posters of him. “I kept pushing my father to get gas there so I could get more pictures,” Irwin said.

The New York portion of the Road to the 2024 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve kicks off its 3-year-old stakes program with Saturday’s running of the $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct.