Every so often, a Thoroughbred racehorse comes along as one who is charismatic, beautiful, and mystically connected. Barbaro was such a champion, ridden by Edgar Prado, trained by Michael Matz, and owned by the engaging couple Roy and Gretchen Jackson.
Anticipation at Pimlico Race Course
In Baltimore, Maryland, at Pimlico Race Course on May 20, 2006, a crowd of over 100,000 tingling with Triple Crown title anticipation watched the every move of a lovely dark brown colt named Barbaro as the Kentucky Derby champion prepped for the 131st running of the Preakness Stakes. The anticipation was for Barbaro to win the Preakness, the second of the three jewels of the American Triple Crown races, and to go to the Belmont Stakes three weeks later to attempt to become the nation’s twelfth ever Triple Crown champion.
By this time, every horse racing fan knew the story of Barbaro and his talented connections. A Dynaformer son, the sculpted Barbaro was unbeaten in six trips to the starting gate, and that record included his victory in the Kentucky Derby two weeks previously.
Barbaro’s owners, with thirty years of respectability in Thoroughbred racing, had been looking for that first Derby winner and had found him. Barbaro’s rider, a skilled, quiet jockey who had won his first Derby in his seventh attempt to pin down the Run for the Roses, never had won the Preakness. Barbaro’s trainer, a celebrated Olympian Equestrian who earlier had reached hero status by rescuing three children from their crashed, burning airliner, had switched to Thoroughbred conditioning as a profession. He had his first Derby winner in Barbaro as he hoped for Preakness glory, as well.
Were the racing gods lined up, finally, to present the nation’s first Triple Crown Champion since Affirmed in 1978? With a Preakness win, Barbaro would be just the Belmont Stakes away from TC immortality.
The Jacksons, pleasant and smiling, received the best wishes of friends and family as the Preakness field approached the starting gate on May 20.
Prado had dedicated the Derby win to his deceased mother, who twice had witnessed a Derby day that included her son, but who had died four months previous to Prado’s first Derby victory aboard Barbaro.
Matz, who had asked Prado to ride Barbaro more than a year after the jockey and trainer had parted company uncomfortably, was greatly anticipating a seventh straight win for his Derby champ with Prado in the saddle.
Barbaro Breaks Through the Gate
Prado had moved to the top of jockey ranks with the retirements of the Sport of Kings’ best riders, Gary Stevens, Jerry Bailey, and Pat Day. All were Hall of Fame jockeys.
Beneath Prado, in starting gate No. 6, Barbaro twitched.
Then, inexplicably, Barbaro bolted forward, breaking through the barrier before the gates swung open to start the race.
A hundred thousand people gasped. Most never had witnessed such an event. What did it mean? What was wrong with Barbaro? How could flesh and blood crash through iron without consequences?
But Barbaro was easily re-gated, seemingly calmed. He was set. Prado’s heart pounded, he said later after the race.
Barbaro Breaks Down
The legitimate break from the gate sent Prado and Barbaro flying from No. 6. But less than a hundred yards up the track, the Triple Crown was lost.
Barbaro’s right rear leg visibly flashed sideways in an awkward strike. Prado glanced down. He’d heard the snap. He pulled up on the colt’s reins, stopping his next stride. For Barbaro, the race was over.
Prado cradled the colt’s leg until help arrived. Then he approached Matz, who had run full bore from the grandstand onto the racing surface, and the two men hugged on the historic Pimlico track, unable to contain tears for Barbaro.
Barbaro Loses His Battle for Life
The Preakness field rushed on. Bernardini won the race witnesses wouldn’t remember. All eyes remained on Barbaro, and the ambulance that trailed him away from the race track.
Eight months later, his horrifically fractured leg partially healed, Barbaro lost his fight against a stalled horse’s worst enemy — laminitis, a painful disease that attacks the connective tissue, or laminae of the hoof. Two of Barbaro’s hooves were infected.
Too fragile and crippled to battle on, Barbaro was euthanized on January 29, 2007.
His end came at the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center, a formidable name many had memorized for the sake of a Thoroughbred champion.
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Credit:
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Champions In Sport 