As a young man, Guy Bedwell began working as a cowboy and by the early 1900s owned and raced horses in Colorado before moving east.
Winless in six starts at two, Sir Barton had good early speed and as such was entered in the Kentucky Derby to serve as a pace-setting rabbit for stablemate, Billy Kelly and his jockey, Earl Sande.
As planned, jockey Johnny Loftus immediately took the lead and set the pace with Sir Barton but shocked everyone when he never relinquished it and won easily by five lengths over Billy Kelly.
Bedwell had testified before the Maryland State Racing Commission in support of Shilling's application for a jockey's license and as a result he too became a central figure in the controversy.
The April 21, 1921, issue of the New York Times quoted from a letter by August Belmont Jr. to J. K. L. Ross saying "the entries of your stable will not be acceptable to this association if ex-Jockey Carroll Shilling or H. G. Bedwell is in any way connected, directly or indirectly, with the same."
After J. K. L. Ross encountered financial problems and was forced to liquidate his stables, Bedwell trained for various owners including, late in his career, for Elizabeth Arden's Maine Chance Farm.