Barbaro

If Barbaro had been quickly put down after he shattered his leg in full view of a horrified Preakness crowd last May, the Kentucky Derby winner might now be just a sad footnote. If the gifted colt had continued to recover after heroic surgery put him back on four feet and grazing by mid-August, he might already have returned to his home stable in Pennsylvania - destined for a decade or two as a beloved pasture potato. With his death yesterday, though, Barbaro and his fans seem cruelly cheated.

Roy Jackson Barbaro's co-owner "We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain. It was the right decision. It was the right thing to do." Peter Brette Barbaro's exercise rider and assistant trainer "We loved him. He was great. He did everything we ever asked of him. He could have been one of the best. What a fighter he was." Gretchen Jackson Barbaro's co-owner "Certainly, grief is the price we all pay for love." Jerry Bailey Hall of Fame jockey "Despite his victories and his (Kentucky)

The making of a legend has a distinct sound, its own special rhythm. The vet hears it in the thump-thump of a horse's heart. The women in hats and men in jackets hear it in the undulating singsong of the track announcer. The railbird hears it in the beating of the hooves on the dirt track. We learned yesterday there's a rhythm to a horse's life, as well. The spring is a time full of cheers and rose garlands and winning betting slips. And the winter ... well, we don't need to see a calendar to know that winter is upon us. Barbaro's fight to recover from a horrific track injury suffered during the Preakness ended yesterday.

Barbaro archive Coverage of racehorse Barbaro. Go to www.baltimoresun.com/barbaro Roch Around the Clock Roch Kubatko's on Jeremy Guthrie, Karim Garcia and the Mary land Nighthawks. Go to baltimoresun.com/roch David Steele's blog A columnist's fearless weather forecast from Miami. Go to www.baltimoresun.com/steeleblog Ray Frager's media blog Face the Nation at the Super Bowl? Go to www.baltimoresun.com/mediumwell High school directions How to get to area high schools. Go to www.baltimoresun.

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KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- For eight months, Barbaro took fans of horse racing and lovers of horses on a bumpy ride of hope and worry as he struggled to recover from devastating leg injuries suffered in the Preakness. That struggle ended yesterday morning, as the Kentucky Derby champion trained in Maryland was euthanized at the New Bolton Center veterinary hospital. Barbaro's surgeon, Dr. Dean Richardson - brushing away tears and with his voice breaking - said that, in the end, Barbaro's discomfort was just too great, as laminitis developed in his previously unaffected front legs.

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- The moment the news flashed across her computer screen yesterday, Patty Morgera left her job and headed to the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center, where she wiped tears as she scrawled on a poster, "Barbaro, you are my inspiration." Morgera, a business analyst who lives in nearby Downingtown, said she has tracked the colt's progress as she herself fought off breast cancer the past year. "I'm just so sad," said Morgera, 52. "He's an inspiration that no matter what obstacles you are facing, you can always move forward."

The death of a thoroughbred racehorse is never less than heartbreaking. The horses are magnificent athletes, bred to race, with muscular torsos perched on sinewy legs. They instinctively give their all. They deserve good fortune but don't always get it. Barbaro was an example of the breed at its finest - fleet, smart, calm, competitive. He had never lost a race when his right hind leg bones shattered into what one observer called "essentially a bag of crushed ice" early in the Preakness on May 20. It was Barbaro's brilliance that encouraged millions to indulge in the fantasy that he could survive his catastrophic injury - a fantasy that played out for almost 37 weeks, until he was euthanized yesterday morning at the New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa. Like many people, I wanted to believe in the hopeful signs that kept coming - the upbeat daily bulletins about peppermints and flowers, new casts, a horse feeling frisky.

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- Perhaps it isn't surprising that the person showing the most emotion yesterday after the death of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was his surgeon, Dr. Dean Richardson, the man who spent every day of the past eight months tending to his care. While Barbaro's owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, lost their voices to emotion once or twice during a news conference at the New Bolton Center, Richardson seemed overcome by the loss frequently and wiped tears from his eyes. "This is very difficult to get through," said Richardson, who performed the original life-saving surgery on Barbaro after his devastating injury in the Preakness on May 20. Yesterday, he was the one who advised the Jacksons to euthanize the horse.

Barbaro's death illustrated both the great advances and the continuing mysteries that surround the treatment of horrific thoroughbred injuries. "I think the veterinary profession, from owners, to trainers, to doctors, should be proud of the way that horse was treated," said Gregory L. Ferraro, director of the Center for Equine Health at the University of California, Davis. "The day of the injury, there wasn't a vet out there who thought he had much more than a nil chance of surviving. The fact that they came very close to saving him is an example for other vets to follow.