The racing world lost a true hero Monday morning. Though Barbaro was a Kentucky Derby winner and undefeated in all of the starts he was able to finish, he could not overcome the injury he sustained last May in the Preakness Stakes, where he broke down shortly after the start of the race.
He didn't win an Eclipse Award, but I've named him my own Hero of the Year. And this blog is dedicated to his life and acheivements.
The strapping bay colt was born on April 23, 2003 on the Kentucky farm called Sanborn Chase Farm. The son of a stakes-winning mare named La Ville Rouge and the famous stallion Dynaformer, Barbaro was one of the most promising horses when it came time to break him in and begin his training for a career in racing.
The benevolent Barbaro scored his first victory on first asking as a two-year-old, smashing the field by eight and one-half lengths. In his second start in his entire career, he stepped up to stakes company. With another rousing win underneath his belt, his owners (Roy and Gretchen Jackson) turned down offers of over $5 million for the colt. For the early races in his career, the colt was raced on turf races (which are run on grass surfaces) because that was the trend with many of Dynaformer's offspring - they were all turf runners. However, the colt's first race on the dirt was his second start as a three-year-old in the Holy Bull Stakes at Florida's own Gulfstream Park. He took that race as easily as he took to the turf in the beginning of his career, and he pushed the label on himself as one of the early favorites for the Kentucky Derby.
With five career starts and five career wins under his belt, Barbaro took a five week layoff before jumping into the Kentucky Derby, which was the longest layoff since Needles won the Kentucky Derby in 1956. But when the mighty Barbaro showed up for the Kentucky Derby, he showed up stronger, faster, better than he had been in Florida. But this was the Kentucky Derby - the richest race for three-year-olds in the country! Barbaro faced stiff competition from every angle. There was Stevie Wonderboy, the Eclipse Award two-year-old from the previous year who was still proving that he was capable of the title; Brother Derek, who was riding a five race winning streak, including a win over Stevie Wonderboy in the Santa Anita Derby; Lawyer Ron, the winner of the Blue Grass Stakes. The field was perhaps one of the classier fields that has ever been sent to the starting gates for the Kentucky Derby.
But there was only one winner - Barbaro. In front of the second largest crowd recorded at the Kentucky Derby, he took the lead going around the far turn, powering home in an effortless fashion to take the first jewel of the Triple Crown and thus making a place in many fans' hearts for himself. Immediately, there were people saying he would be the next horse to win the Triple Crown, to join the elite ranks of Seattle Slew or Secretariat and end the longest draught of Triple Crown champions. But two weeks later, the world was not watching him win the second leg of the Triple Crown.
It was watching in tears as this heroic horse fought for his life.
After breaking through the starting gates, Barbaro was reloaded. When the gates finally opened, it would be the beginning of a nearly eight month journey that would end in the gallant colt being euthanized. Several of the jockeys in the race remember hearing the loud popping sound of Barbaro's leg breaking, and his jockey, Edgar Prado, quickly pulled him up just as the colt was trying to get into the race. The Kentucky Derby winner was rushed to the New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was operated on by Dean Richardson, D.V.M, the next day. The surgery, which took over five hours, was to insert approximately 27 screws into the horse's broken leg, along with a titanium plate and a bone graft.
For awhile it looked like everything would be okay, that once again Barbaro would come out on top of it. But after several battles erupted (such as acute laminitis where about 80 percent of the colt's hoof had to be removed and abcesses formed from on his other hind hoof). The original injury was healed nicely, but the other injuries that came with recovery proved to finally be too much for the gallant colt.
But throughout the entire injury crisis, fans of Barbaro have poured their thoughts and well-wishes to the colt's owners, some sending Get Well Soon cards, others simply crying as they watched in anticipation for the colt to recover. But that would never come - not fully.
On Monday, January 29, 2007, the world learned that the colt was no longer living. Barbaro was euthanized that morning after developing yet another setback. When it became obvious to his owners that he would not be able to life without pain anymore, they decided it was time to take the heroic horse's pain away for good.
But in a demonstration of determination and inspiration, this crisis has not just touched the fans into action. The entire Thoroughbred racing industry has been taking action to help prevent further injury to the horses that run on the tracks.
“When a horse gets hurt it’s more than humbling, it hurts very deeply for a long time,” Gretchen Jackson said, who owned Barbaro along with her husband Roy and was reportedly bringing him grass that was freshly cut until his death. “I don’t think Roy and I will ever get over that moment or anything as far as forgetting about it, but as far as taking the energy we would have had from winning that race or winning the Triple Crown and to use it to be supportive of horses and fellow horsemen, that’s what we’re hoping that we can do, and certainly we feel that Barbaro is the leader, he’s the one who has drawn attention to it, so we hope that we can follow him and be supportive.”
Since the tragedy at the Preakness, racetracks have been installing surfaces for all-weather climates, which will make it easier for the horses to run on with less injuries. It has become mandatory in California, and many other racetracks are joining on the bandwagon.
“I guess over time, I’ve become convinced that a great more positive has come even though he got injured than if he had won the Triple Crown,” Roy Jackson had said in this past December. “It’s almost like for some reason, this was supposed to play out this way for the betterment of horses and racing and for what it’s done for people. "
Gretchen was also quoted as saying, "At least he’s out of his damn stall now, and running around with Secretariat I hope."
He didn't win an Eclipse Award, but I've named him my own Hero of the Year. And this blog is dedicated to his life and acheivements.
The strapping bay colt was born on April 23, 2003 on the Kentucky farm called Sanborn Chase Farm. The son of a stakes-winning mare named La Ville Rouge and the famous stallion Dynaformer, Barbaro was one of the most promising horses when it came time to break him in and begin his training for a career in racing.
The benevolent Barbaro scored his first victory on first asking as a two-year-old, smashing the field by eight and one-half lengths. In his second start in his entire career, he stepped up to stakes company. With another rousing win underneath his belt, his owners (Roy and Gretchen Jackson) turned down offers of over $5 million for the colt. For the early races in his career, the colt was raced on turf races (which are run on grass surfaces) because that was the trend with many of Dynaformer's offspring - they were all turf runners. However, the colt's first race on the dirt was his second start as a three-year-old in the Holy Bull Stakes at Florida's own Gulfstream Park. He took that race as easily as he took to the turf in the beginning of his career, and he pushed the label on himself as one of the early favorites for the Kentucky Derby.
With five career starts and five career wins under his belt, Barbaro took a five week layoff before jumping into the Kentucky Derby, which was the longest layoff since Needles won the Kentucky Derby in 1956. But when the mighty Barbaro showed up for the Kentucky Derby, he showed up stronger, faster, better than he had been in Florida. But this was the Kentucky Derby - the richest race for three-year-olds in the country! Barbaro faced stiff competition from every angle. There was Stevie Wonderboy, the Eclipse Award two-year-old from the previous year who was still proving that he was capable of the title; Brother Derek, who was riding a five race winning streak, including a win over Stevie Wonderboy in the Santa Anita Derby; Lawyer Ron, the winner of the Blue Grass Stakes. The field was perhaps one of the classier fields that has ever been sent to the starting gates for the Kentucky Derby.
But there was only one winner - Barbaro. In front of the second largest crowd recorded at the Kentucky Derby, he took the lead going around the far turn, powering home in an effortless fashion to take the first jewel of the Triple Crown and thus making a place in many fans' hearts for himself. Immediately, there were people saying he would be the next horse to win the Triple Crown, to join the elite ranks of Seattle Slew or Secretariat and end the longest draught of Triple Crown champions. But two weeks later, the world was not watching him win the second leg of the Triple Crown.
It was watching in tears as this heroic horse fought for his life.
After breaking through the starting gates, Barbaro was reloaded. When the gates finally opened, it would be the beginning of a nearly eight month journey that would end in the gallant colt being euthanized. Several of the jockeys in the race remember hearing the loud popping sound of Barbaro's leg breaking, and his jockey, Edgar Prado, quickly pulled him up just as the colt was trying to get into the race. The Kentucky Derby winner was rushed to the New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was operated on by Dean Richardson, D.V.M, the next day. The surgery, which took over five hours, was to insert approximately 27 screws into the horse's broken leg, along with a titanium plate and a bone graft.
For awhile it looked like everything would be okay, that once again Barbaro would come out on top of it. But after several battles erupted (such as acute laminitis where about 80 percent of the colt's hoof had to be removed and abcesses formed from on his other hind hoof). The original injury was healed nicely, but the other injuries that came with recovery proved to finally be too much for the gallant colt.
But throughout the entire injury crisis, fans of Barbaro have poured their thoughts and well-wishes to the colt's owners, some sending Get Well Soon cards, others simply crying as they watched in anticipation for the colt to recover. But that would never come - not fully.
On Monday, January 29, 2007, the world learned that the colt was no longer living. Barbaro was euthanized that morning after developing yet another setback. When it became obvious to his owners that he would not be able to life without pain anymore, they decided it was time to take the heroic horse's pain away for good.
But in a demonstration of determination and inspiration, this crisis has not just touched the fans into action. The entire Thoroughbred racing industry has been taking action to help prevent further injury to the horses that run on the tracks.
“When a horse gets hurt it’s more than humbling, it hurts very deeply for a long time,” Gretchen Jackson said, who owned Barbaro along with her husband Roy and was reportedly bringing him grass that was freshly cut until his death. “I don’t think Roy and I will ever get over that moment or anything as far as forgetting about it, but as far as taking the energy we would have had from winning that race or winning the Triple Crown and to use it to be supportive of horses and fellow horsemen, that’s what we’re hoping that we can do, and certainly we feel that Barbaro is the leader, he’s the one who has drawn attention to it, so we hope that we can follow him and be supportive.”
Since the tragedy at the Preakness, racetracks have been installing surfaces for all-weather climates, which will make it easier for the horses to run on with less injuries. It has become mandatory in California, and many other racetracks are joining on the bandwagon.
“I guess over time, I’ve become convinced that a great more positive has come even though he got injured than if he had won the Triple Crown,” Roy Jackson had said in this past December. “It’s almost like for some reason, this was supposed to play out this way for the betterment of horses and racing and for what it’s done for people. "
Gretchen was also quoted as saying, "At least he’s out of his damn stall now, and running around with Secretariat I hope."
But now, there may be a new hope in the form of Barbaro's little brother (pictured below) an unnamed colt that shares the same pedigree as the Kentucky Derby winner. Also, Barbaro's stall has been filled by his younger half brother, Man in Havana.
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