Horseracing fans--Preakness Stakes on Saturday

It's the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown. I wish Barbaro all the luck and will root for him, but won't hold my breath on him winning. The race is 1 3/16. His jock, Prado, is 0-7 in the Preakness; however, every horse going into the Preakness undefeated has won.

TV Coverage:

9-10 Breakafast At Pimlico ESPN2
10-11 Breakfast at Pimlico ESPN2
11-12 Breakfast At Pimlico ESPN2
12-2 Today at the Preakness ESPN
2-5 Live coverage of Preakness Undercard races ESPN
5-6:30 Preakness Broadcast NBC


http://thoroughbredtimes.com/todaysnews/ne...=63869&subsec=2


The field, in post-position order, with (sire), jockey, weight, trainer, and morning-line odds:

1. Like Now (Jules), Garrett Gomez, 126, Kiaran McLaughlin, 12-1

2. Platinum Couple (Tale of the Cat), Jose Espinoza, 126, Joe Lostritto, 50-1

3. Hemingway's Key (Notebook), Jeremy Rose, 126, Nick Zito, 30-1

4. Greeley's Legacy (Mr. Greeley), Richard Migliore, 126, George Weaver, 20-1

5. Brother Derek (Benchmark), Alex Solis, 126, Dan Hendricks, 3-1

6. Barbaro (Dynaformer), Edgar Prado, 126, Michael Matz, 1-to-1

7. Sweetnorthernsaint (Sweetsouthernsaint), Kent Desormeaux, 126, Mike Trombetta, 4-1

8. Bernardini (A.P. Indy), Javier Castellano, 126, Tom Albertrani, 8-1

9. Diabolical (Artax), Ramon Dominguez, 126, Steve Klesaris, 30-1.

Go Barbaro!!!!!!!!

Gah! That is so heartbreaking. Poor Barbaro, I hope he is ok.

Oh Barbaro. What a shame. I was looking for a Triiple Crown. Damn! Hope the colt is all right.

Joe

According to racetrack vet, Barbaro has 2 fractures - one above and one below the ankle. Surgery will be required to fix, but they need to assess if any damage was done to blood supply (which would be life-trheatening). Vet asked tv audience to 'pray for Barbaro'

What a tragic turn of events. I am so stunned by the turn of events. Please pray for the horse and his connections. I bawled when i saw it happen. It was a bad dream I wanted to wake up from.....

Barbaro

They have transported him to the equine center at the Univ. of Pa. I pray to GOD they can save him. He's in a hell of a mess with a fracture above his ankle and multiple small fractured areas below (not just one fracture). Once they fix it (please GOD), they have to keep him from immediately re-injuring it after surgery like Ruffian did, which resulted in her being put down. I just can't believe this has happened. These horses give so much of themselves for us. Everyone say a prayer. Johar, I was crying right there with you. I have a book I am writing that I have to submit to the publisher by Aug. 1st. I was so upset, I couldn't write tonite-not one word.

Heartbreaking news. We hope & pray that Barbaro will come through this.

Barbaro

He has a broken long pastern bone, sesamoid bone and canon bone along with a dislocated fetlock. But the vet who is operating on him said that while it is just about as bad as it gets, he didn't break the skin. I hope this means his blood supply is still intact. Again, I can't believe this has happened. They are operating today on him.

That facility has a water-bath recovery room, where the horse can thrash but not hurt himself. Probably a direct result of what happened to Ruffian--that way the horse can panic if he needs to, but without the risk of impact. So hopefully, Barbaro will stay calm.

Although to what purpose, I'm not sure. It bothers me that he wasn't unsound going into it and that on all the replays (I've watched it multiple times in slo-mo on TVG) he never does anything that should have put excessive strain on the leg. There was no significant contact when Sweetnorthernsaint lugged in (in an aside to SNS's jockey, you are never going to win a long race on that colt if you keep getting into suicidal speed duels) and he was jogged out after he broke out early and was sound--Prado would NOT have let them reload and break if he'd felt anything off. And I absolutely don't believe Michael Matz would have sent Barbaro out if he were unsound. (Aside again: hooray for Prado and his heroic effort to pull Barbaro up. That colt wanted to keep running. Reminds me of what happened to Charismatic, who could have won the Triple Crown when he broke a bone in the Belmont--his jockey, I want to say it was McCarron but I might be wrong, pulled him up and likely saved his life.) That suggests something inherently wrong. He is inbred to Nashua and through that to Pharos and Phalaris, and increasingly those horses are very big, muscley, and have ankles made of glass. Would he REALLY be a good breeding prospect anyway now? I wonder if this is going to change any upsurge of interest in Dynaformer that was likely after the Derby, too.

And btw--that was a great race for Bernardini. He had a serious kick in the end. But I wouldn't put any money on him in the Belmont. That was a big race he just ran and I'll bet he gets picked off in the stretch. I really think those big wins in the Preakness killed off any hopes Smarty Jones or Funny Cide had in the Belmont.

Barbaro-Good News

I agree with much of what you said JulietV. I think that the way they have been breeding them has created problems of unsoundness to some degree. But I don't think it was anything other than plain bad luck on the dirt. I think some of the new synthetic surfaces that are out there are less risky for horses but they are expensive to put in. Thank GOD Prado was able to stop him as soon as he did. The vets at Pimlico did a great job too stabilizing the fractures with an air cast. Plus, he has the temperment of a true champion, GOD bless him.

The good news is he has about 23 screws and some plates in his leg, and a cast. So they were able to put him together again. His blood supply to his leg seems to be o.k. for now. He bounced back right after the surgery, was walking without apparent pain or difficulty and was eating hay to top it off. Now the long haul comes and they have to make sure he doesn't get an infection or re-injure it. If he does, that's the ballgame. It's always riskier for infection when they have to open up a leg to put in hardware in the human world. I would assume the same is true for animals. But he is in the best place he can be right now and they will do the very best they can to keep him going.

Barbaro has reportedly shown interest in some of the mares at the hospital. A true stallion on the mend (and with the heart of a champion to boot!)

The late Chris Antley was the jockey of Charismatic, who broke own on the finish line of the Belmont Stakes. Charismatic is now at stud in Japan.

Good news! The surgery was a success!

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=sports&id=4191860

Here's an article with quite a bit of detail about what the veterinarians did during Barbaro's surgery and what the long term prognosis may be.
http://tcm.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=33671
The horse has a long way to go before he'll be okay, if he ever is and can be stand at stud.

So Far, so Good

So far, so good! He is hanging in there and the blood suppy to his foot is good according to the vet. He is putting normal weight on the injured leg (if he couldn't it might have caused laminitis in his good leg on the opposite side) and he is able to stand up and lay down and then get up again on his own. He is nickering at the mares, eating and sleeping. If he doesn't get an infection and his bones fuse he is gonna make it. Talk about athletes-Babaro may be one for the ages.

I hope everything continues to go well for Barbaro. It would be very tragic to have to put him down. Hopefully he will be fine and able to live the rest of his life on a nice farm somewhere. But his racing career is definately over. Barbaro had so much potential in racing, but now unfortunately he will never be able to live up to it.