Barbaro

When a great horse goes down, everyone seems to come together, funneling toward a greater good and higher purpose. We rush to fix this beautiful and broken sport with our megaphones, our picket signs and our finger-pointing. So it was no surprise that when Eight Belles was put down, just moments after crossing the Kentucky Derby finish line, the list of culprits couldn't grow fast enough. Overbreeding, track surfaces, drugs. But most curious of all was the finger pointed at another racehorse, one that died 41 years ago. How could this be?

Once again, horse racing will have to wait for a new hero. The erstwhile Sport of Kings will not have its first Triple Crown since 1978. Not this year. The shocking news that I'll Have Anotherhad to be scratched from Saturday's Belmont Stakes is another huge blow to an industry desperately trying to become relevant for a new generation of sports fans. The fact that the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner had to withdraw just a day before making his bid to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed added some drama to the disappointment.

To Michael Matz, Barbaro's legacy includes a recurring image. It is of the horse with all four feet off the ground. It is as if Barbaro is flying. It has been five years since Barbaro shattered a hind leg at the Preakness, beginning a poignant struggle to save the life of the runaway 2006 Kentucky Derby winner. He eventually suffered from laminitis and was euthanized the following January. At Churchill Downs, where the horse's ashes are buried, there is a bronze statue of Barbaro suspended by a rail so the horse is off the ground — just the way Matz sees him in full sprint in his mind's eye. But the trainer and others believe Barbaro's legacy is more extensive — and more complicated — than the 1,500-pound statue celebrating his breathtaking speed.

Michael Matz and his assistants are tired of the question - most trainers and riders are by this point in the week before the country's most talked-about horse race - and give mostly a perfunctory answer. "He's just a really nice horse," exercise rider Peter Brette said of Union Rags, one of the favorites to win the 138th Kentucky Derby on Saturday. "He's a nice, classy horse. " He's also the most scrutinized colt in a field that has fascinated even longtime observers of the sport.

Alex Brown knows just where he was in 1977, when he learned of Elvis' demise. And in 1997, when he heard that Princess Diana had died. And on Jan. 29, 2007 — five years ago today — when he got the news that, after a game fight for life, a champion racehorse named Barbaro had passed away. "You never forget, when an icon goes. The enormity of the occasion is seared in your memory," said Brown, author of the book, Greatness & Goodness: Barbaro and his Legacy . In hindsight, he said, perhaps no other thoroughbred so captured the country's heart as the undefeated 3-year-old who shattered his leg in 20 places during the 2006 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, and spent the next seven months battling for survival at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center.

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro had another good week in his recovery process, according to Dr. Dean Richardson, chief of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square. "Barbaro is wearing the new cast satisfactorily," said Richardson, who changed Barbaro's right hind leg cast last week. "We continue to monitor him closely, and depending on how he progresses, we may change it again within the next two weeks." Barbaro is recovering from the broken hind leg injury he suffered in the Preakness on May 20 and from laminitis in his left hind foot.

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro's left hind foot continues to make steady progress, but he still has a long way to go, according to his surgeon, Dr. Dean Richardson at the University of Pennsylvania's George D. Widener Hospital, where Barbaro remains in stable condition. "The left hind hoof on Barbaro has grown about 18 millimeters in the heel area," said Richardson, describing the progress being made in the foot that lost 100 percent of its hoof wall when laminitis, a severe inflammation, developed from overuse six weeks after the Derby champion broke his leg in the May 20th Preakness.

While Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro continues to improve, Dr. Dean Richardson said he will continue to be cautious in his predictions. The thoroughbred is taking a slow and steady course to recovery, Richardson said in a release from the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., where Barbaro has been in the intensive care unit since breaking his right hind leg in the May 20 Preakness. "We are pleased with his progress," Richardson said. "He is wearing the cast on his right hind limb well; we continue to monitor it closely, and we expect to change the cast and radiograph the leg within the next seven to 10 days."

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was expected to have the cast on his right rear leg changed late yesterday to give his doctors an opportunity to take new X-rays. No further details were given and the next update is expected sometime today. "Changing the cast gives us the opportunity to take new radiographs and evaluate the progress of the fracture healing and joint fusions," said Dr. Dean Richardson, chief of surgery at the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals. Richardson said yesterday afternoon that Barbaro's left hind hoof, which has been compromised by a severe case of laminitis, an inflamation that cost the horse 80 percent of the hoof wall, also continues to show improvement.

Gretchen Jackson said yesterday that she and her husband, Roy, have yet to make a decision about the future resting place for late Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro. "We just haven't, for some reason, come up with where we want him to be," said Gretchen Jackson, who declined to say where Barbaro's ashes are now. Shortly after Barbaro was euthanized Jan. 29 after an 8 1/2 -month battle to recover from multiple breaks in his right rear leg suffered during the Preakness and the ensuing complication of laminitis in his left foot, both the Kentucky Derby Museum and the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington offered grave sites at their facilities.

Alex Brown knows just where he was in 1977, when he learned of Elvis' demise. And in 1997, when he heard that Princess Diana had died. And on Jan. 29, 2007 — five years ago Sunday — when he got the news that, after a game fight for life, a champion racehorse named Barbaro had passed away. "You never forget, when an icon goes. The enormity of the occasion is seared in your memory," said Brown, author of the book, Greatness & Goodness: Barbaro and his Legacy . In hindsight, he said, perhaps no other thoroughbred so captured the country's heart as the undefeated 3-year-old who shattered his leg in 20 places during the 2006 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, and spent the next seven months battling for survival at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center.

It's been five years since the spectacular turf superstar Barbaro shattered his right hind leg in the 2006 Preakness Stakes as horrified racegoers and the world looked on in disbelief. Alex Brown, an exercise rider, assistant trainer, author and New York Times correspondent for the racing column The Rail, has chronicled the all-too-brief life of the horse who most certainly would have thundered his way into Triple Crown and racing history. His recently published "Greatness and Goodness: Barbaro and his Legacy" is a 235-page, lavishly illustrated book.

To Michael Matz, Barbaro's legacy includes a recurring image. It is of the horse with all four feet off the ground. It is as if Barbaro is flying. It has been five years since Barbaro shattered a hind leg at the Preakness, beginning a poignant struggle to save the life of the runaway 2006 Kentucky Derby winner. He eventually suffered from laminitis and was euthanized the following January. At Churchill Downs, where the horse's ashes are buried, there is a bronze statue of Barbaro suspended by a rail so the horse is off the ground — just the way Matz sees him in full sprint in his mind's eye. But the trainer and others believe Barbaro's legacy is more extensive — and more complicated — than the 1,500-pound statue celebrating his breathtaking speed.

A full brother of ill-fated 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro finished second in a race at Gulfstream Park in his second start of the year. Lentenor finished a half-length behind winner Doubles Partner in Wednesday's 1 1/8-mile race on the turf course at the Hallandale Beach, Fla., track. The race drew a field of 11 3-year-olds. Like Barbaro, who broke down in the Preakness, the 3-year-old Lentenor is owned by Gretchen and Roy Jackson and trained by Michael Matz . Matz had said that a strong performance in Wednesday's race could put Lentenor in position to run next month in the Florida Derby, a Kentucky Derby prep.

Lentenor, the 2-year-old full brother of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, will make his second career start in today's third race at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y. - From Sun staff and news services

Barbaro's brother finishes 10th in debut horse racing Nicanor's debut wasn't one to remember. Hurting himself on his first stride, the 3-year-old full brother of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro finished 10th of 12 horses in a one-mile maiden race at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., yesterday, hardly an encouraging step toward what his connections hoped would be a journey into this year's Triple Crown races. Under jockey Edgar Prado, who was aboard ill-fated Barbaro three years ago, Nicanor made a move near the half-mile mark but never got close to the lead and eventually slowed to little more than a gallop, beaten by 25 lengths by 30-1 shot Warrior's Reward.

He's a horse - one of our patients - but he's Barbaro, and he won the Derby ... and I need to make sure he makes it through the night. - Jamie DeFazio, Barbaro's nurse CAMDEN, S.C. --In a few days that saw Jane Fonda bashing President Bush and Sen. John Kerry ragging on America, it took a real stud to rivet our attention. Barbaro, the champion racehorse who captured America's heart, finally lost the fight and was euthanized. By the outpouring of condolences and attention, you'd have thought Dale Earnhardt had died.

In what is likely to be the most closely watched maiden race in recent thoroughbred history, Nicanor - the full brother of Barbaro - will get his first start Saturday at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla. The 3-year-old dark bay - who has the same sire, Dynaformer, and dam, La Ville Rouge, as the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner - is in the eighth race, a one-miler on dirt with a field of 12. The timing of Nicanor's debut coincides with two Barbaro milestones....

In what is likely to be the most closely watched maiden race in recent thoroughbred history, Nicanor - the full brother of Barbaro - will get his first start Saturday at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla. The 3-year-old dark bay - who has the same sire, Dynaformer, and dam, La Ville Rouge, as the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner - is in the eighth race, a one-miler on dirt with a field of 12. The timing of Nicanor's debut coincides with two Barbaro milestones....