Update 853: Another comfortable day for Barbaro. Alex just spoke to Peter Brette, who had heard from Michael who had visited Barbaro earlier this afternoon.
VB, I am always here, always checking in, always lighting candles. Please do not feel abandoned. I don’t post everyday, but I am very grateful for your updates. I love this Barbaro boy and am so glad that the story has been good thus far and cross my fingers that it remains that way. He is is an inspiration!
More candles are lit!
VB:
Yours is a lonely vigil, but one of the best of intentions and goodness of spirit. You toil at this task so that the rest of us can, moment by moment, feel each emotion with you.
You are our standard bearer. You have been our constant light into the darkness of the downturns, and the glory of hope.
Blessings be upon you!
Many thanks to you, my friend.
ViriginiaBred,
Another rarely poster, but everyday reader. And lighter of candles.
Thank you both for your updates and your stories of your days at Fair Hill.
VB you are the day light of my day. It does not start without checking on our boy. This story is close my heart now, not only for the love of the "race"horse but I too have been invloved for over 3 years trying to keep a horse alive and well with “feet” issues when everyone around me said to put him down, he too perservered and has won his battle! So can Barbaro…I have faith…
Keep up the good work. Please do not ever feel abandoned, we are here…
Wednesday Morning~
Thanks, Tim/Alex:
Update 856: Another comfortable night last night for Barbaro (tuesday night). I saw Michael Matz as I was heading to the track on my second set. He had heard from Dr. Richardson. It is a very foggy, and somewhat humid, morning this morning. The track is sealed after all the rain we had yesterday. A quiet day for me this morning, only three - four to ride.
update 7:50 am, wednesday, october 18
Update 854: A nice article from the Thoroughbredtimes: Jacksons still wonder about Barbaro versus Bernardini which notes the rivalry that never was. The following are excerpts:
The second jewel of the Triple Crown could have been quite a battle between the two talented colts, and would have likely determined the Eclipse Award for the three-year-old division.
“It would have been great; I would have loved to have seen that,” Jackson said. "It would have been interesting, and who knows? Obviously, both camps feel like they have the best horse.
“I think Barbaro had a tough race in the Kentucky Derby … and the fact that he won by 6 1/2 lengths and the fact that he galloped out ahead like 15 lengths–he put on a performance. That was one race, and all of the races Bernardini has compiled, gosh, it’s amazing what he’s done.”
and
Jackson said she and her husband have not thought about winning an Eclipse Award so much as just wishing Barbaro had the opportunity to compete against Bernardini, and hoping he is able to continue to overcome a dire set of circumstances.
Thanks, Alex:
Update 858: ESPN (Jeannine Edwards) was at Fair Hill this morning, with Michael Matz’s crew. They are doing an in-depth piece on Barbaro that will air right before the BC on “Outside The Lines”. They will also be intervewing others connected to Barbaro. Very cool. I saw a couple of Matz’s riders at breakfast and was asking about the shoot. Michelle (Matz) apparently did some broadcasting of her own last week, covering the Maryland Million for Fox. I have Michelle on “special assignment” for this site, she speaks fluent spanish.
Thank you VB for your tireless efforts!!! I still check in on our Bobby every day. Couldn’t keep up without you! 
Please keep us up on updates. I love hearing how Bobby is doing everyday. It is one of my ritual things I do as soon as I get to work. I check email, aol, then COTH for a Bobby update.
Thanks
Bobbi
His Crowning Success
His crowning success
Barbaro didn’t win a Triple Crown, but he might have achieved something greater
By GARY WEST
Star-Telegram Staff Writer /www.dfw.com
Roy Jackson hasn’t tried to assign blame for what happened. Why waste the time, he said, when Barbaro’s injury was the result of a random and catastrophic lightning bolt? Nor has Jackson dwelt on the what-might-have-beens.
Yes, Barbaro might have swept the Triple Crown; his image could have adorned Wheaties boxes, magazine covers and stamps. He could be going into the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships having already clinched Horse of the Year, and soon the world’s leading breeders would be tossing out their multimillion-dollar megabids for his future stallion services.
But why think about such things, Jackson said, since he’s convinced it all worked out for the good, maybe for the best?
“So many positives have come out of all this,” said Jackson, who owns Barbaro in partnership with his wife, Gretchen. “If Barbaro had gone on to win the Triple Crown, would there have been more positives? I don’t know, but I don’t think so.”
On May 20, before an expectant throng at Pimlico in Baltimore, Md., and with an eager nation watching on television to see the next superhorse, Barbaro shattered his right hind leg in the early stages of the Preakness Stakes, the second event in the Triple Crown. He had won the Kentucky Derby by 6 1/2 lengths, the largest winning margin in 60 years, and in doing so, he had run the final quarter-mile in 24.34 seconds, the fastest stretch run in the Derby since Secretariat in 1973.
He had entered the Preakness with an unblemished record. Dirt or turf, sloppy track or fast track, nothing bothered him; Barbaro won all his races, often spectacularly. And since then, he has been no less spectacular – in fighting for his own recovery and by inspiring others.
Some severely injured horses will give up, explained Dean Richardson, Chief of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, where Barbaro has been in the intensive care unit of the George D. Widener Hospital since the Preakness. Some horses will surrender to their injuries. But Barbaro never did, never came close.
Even when his condition was most dire, Barbaro would playfully push around people who entered his 12-by-13-foot stall, and he would eagerly go for the hand-picked grass or the carrots his owners brought him daily, Jackson said.
In late June, Barbaro’s right hind leg, held together by more than 20 screws, seemed to be healing. He was in his third cast. Each change required a general anesthetic, and afterward Barbaro was taken by monorail to a recovery pool, where he wouldn’t re-injure himself if he awakened disoriented.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell visited Barbaro. Flowers, cards and well-wishing poured in. In his weekly update, Richardson described Barbaro as a “lively, bright happy horse.”
But then in July, in his left hind leg, he developed laminitis, a devastating and painful foot condition that’s often fatal. Laminitis is basically the failure of the laminae tissue to connect the hoof to the pedal bone. Barbaro lost 80 percent of the hoof.
In a teleconference, Richardson said the laminitis was “as bad as it gets.” He described Barbaro’s prognosis as “poor” and his condition as “very guarded.” The horse’s chances for survival, Jackson said, were about 10 percent.
When Barbaro quite suddenly developed laminitis, Richardson met with the Jacksons and Michael Matz, the horse’s trainer, to discuss whether to proceed or “put him down,” meaning euthanize him.
They all passionately desired whatever was best for the horse. With equal passion, they wanted to see him walk out of the hospital someday. But were those two desires suddenly in conflict, and could anybody distinguish the one from the other?
Such were the questions they considered, Jackson said, at that somber meeting in July. Richardson was confident they could manage, or mollify, Barbaro’s pain.
But it was Barbaro’s attitude, his will to survive, that inspired them all to continue with treatment and with efforts to save him, Matz said. If Barbaro was still fighting, they would.
It was never about saving him to be a stallion, never about money. It was only about saving life, about saving what Richardson described as a “magnificent” creature.
“If you look at this horse,” Richardson said in July, “it’d be hard to put him down.”
Some horses have survived multiple fractures as severe as Barbaro’s. And horses have survived laminitis. But Larry Bramlage, a Kentucky-based equine surgeon and the former president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, said he knows of no horse that has survived both.
Because Barbaro had broken through the starting gate before the Preakness and had to be reloaded, Bramlage had his binoculars focused on the horse even before the race began. Barbaro probably first injured himself, Bramlage said, about 100 yards into the race, when he moved closer to the inside.
“But he’s so big and so tough and so determined,” Bramlage said, “the jockey [Edgar Prado] couldn’t get him pulled up.” As Barbaro continued to try to run, he broke his leg further until finally he was struggling, still struggling, to run on three legs.
Ironically, the same determination that may have exacerbated his injuries may contribute to his surviving them.
“It’s remarkable that we’ve gotten to this point,” Jackson said, as if putting all the surgery, bone grafts, infections, cast changes, medication and frightening vicissitudes momentarily behind him to focus instead on the horse’s stunning resoluteness. “He exhibited such determination on the racetrack. And his determination and intelligence might help him to get through this.”
This past Monday, veterinarians again changed the cast on Barbaro’s right leg. Richardson said he was pleased “with the continued progression of healing and the overall condition of the leg.”
The left hind foot, which essentially must be regrown, continues to improve. Richardson said there’s “good growth, but there will need to be much more.” And that will require several months. He remains in the intensive care unit but is able to graze daily.
The goal and hope, Jackson said, is to allow Barbaro to be a healthy normal horse again, so that he can survive without pain or discomfort. If he’s ever able to be a stallion, “that would just be a bonus,” he said.
And if not, well, he’s already accomplished much, even without racing. Because of Barbaro, Jackson said, people are more sensitive to equine safety, more aware of the need for research into laminitis and other conditions. And because of Barbaro, thousands and thousands of people who never followed the sport suddenly found themselves investing their emotions in a racehorse’s wellbeing.
The Kennett Florist in Kennett Square, Pa., is headquarters for Fans of Barbaro, a loosely organized group of more than 300 or so folks who every day take Barbaro and the New Bolton staff something – donuts, carrots, breakfast, apples, flowers, various kindnesses.
From all over the country, people telephone or e-mail to ask about Barbaro, said Alie Berstler, who runs the florist and serves as sort of an ad hoc director of the fan club that started with people sending flowers. Many of the members aren’t necessarily racing fans, just concerned Barbaro fans.
But why have so many people persisted in following a racehorse that will never race again and may or may not become a sire? How has Barbaro’s appeal transcended the sport and his injuries to the point that he continues to affect people profoundly?
“They see in him what they want to see in themselves,” Berstler said and then, for emphasis, added, “He’s a fighter.”
Thanks, Tim/Alex:
Update 860: No update tonight, which is not unusual. I did think this comment from Brandi was amusing (timestamp: 4:45 pm):
Last week, while on a cruise in the Caribbean, I was making my way to the ship’s computer area to check on Barbaro when I happened to pick up the ship’s single page “newspaper”. There, to my pleasant surprise, was the news of Barbaro’s cast change and the update from New Bolton Center. I was thrilled to see that his story continues to make headlines and capture the hearts of an international audience - even onboard a ship!
[QUOTE=VirginiaBred;1938723]
His crowning success
Barbaro didn’t win a Triple Crown, but he might have achieved something greater
By GARY WEST
Star-Telegram Staff Writer /www.dfw.com
Roy Jackson hasn’t tried to assign blame for what happened. Why waste the time, he said, when Barbaro’s injury was the result of a random and catastrophic lightning bolt? Nor has Jackson dwelt on the what-might-have-beens.
Yes, Barbaro might have swept the Triple Crown; his image could have adorned Wheaties boxes, magazine covers and stamps. He could be going into the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships having already clinched Horse of the Year, and soon the world’s leading breeders would be tossing out their multimillion-dollar megabids for his future stallion services.
But why think about such things, Jackson said, since he’s convinced it all worked out for the good, maybe for the best?
“So many positives have come out of all this,” said Jackson, who owns Barbaro in partnership with his wife, Gretchen. “If Barbaro had gone on to win the Triple Crown, would there have been more positives? I don’t know, but I don’t think so.”
On May 20, before an expectant throng at Pimlico in Baltimore, Md., and with an eager nation watching on television to see the next superhorse, Barbaro shattered his right hind leg in the early stages of the Preakness Stakes, the second event in the Triple Crown. He had won the Kentucky Derby by 6 1/2 lengths, the largest winning margin in 60 years, and in doing so, he had run the final quarter-mile in 24.34 seconds, the fastest stretch run in the Derby since Secretariat in 1973.
He had entered the Preakness with an unblemished record. Dirt or turf, sloppy track or fast track, nothing bothered him; Barbaro won all his races, often spectacularly. And since then, he has been no less spectacular – in fighting for his own recovery and by inspiring others.
Some severely injured horses will give up, explained Dean Richardson, Chief of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, where Barbaro has been in the intensive care unit of the George D. Widener Hospital since the Preakness. Some horses will surrender to their injuries. But Barbaro never did, never came close.
Even when his condition was most dire, Barbaro would playfully push around people who entered his 12-by-13-foot stall, and he would eagerly go for the hand-picked grass or the carrots his owners brought him daily, Jackson said.
In late June, Barbaro’s right hind leg, held together by more than 20 screws, seemed to be healing. He was in his third cast. Each change required a general anesthetic, and afterward Barbaro was taken by monorail to a recovery pool, where he wouldn’t re-injure himself if he awakened disoriented.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell visited Barbaro. Flowers, cards and well-wishing poured in. In his weekly update, Richardson described Barbaro as a “lively, bright happy horse.”
But then in July, in his left hind leg, he developed laminitis, a devastating and painful foot condition that’s often fatal. Laminitis is basically the failure of the laminae tissue to connect the hoof to the pedal bone. Barbaro lost 80 percent of the hoof.
In a teleconference, Richardson said the laminitis was “as bad as it gets.” He described Barbaro’s prognosis as “poor” and his condition as “very guarded.” The horse’s chances for survival, Jackson said, were about 10 percent.
When Barbaro quite suddenly developed laminitis, Richardson met with the Jacksons and Michael Matz, the horse’s trainer, to discuss whether to proceed or “put him down,” meaning euthanize him.
They all passionately desired whatever was best for the horse. With equal passion, they wanted to see him walk out of the hospital someday. But were those two desires suddenly in conflict, and could anybody distinguish the one from the other?
Such were the questions they considered, Jackson said, at that somber meeting in July. Richardson was confident they could manage, or mollify, Barbaro’s pain.
But it was Barbaro’s attitude, his will to survive, that inspired them all to continue with treatment and with efforts to save him, Matz said. If Barbaro was still fighting, they would.
It was never about saving him to be a stallion, never about money. It was only about saving life, about saving what Richardson described as a “magnificent” creature.
“If you look at this horse,” Richardson said in July, “it’d be hard to put him down.”
Some horses have survived multiple fractures as severe as Barbaro’s. And horses have survived laminitis. But Larry Bramlage, a Kentucky-based equine surgeon and the former president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, said he knows of no horse that has survived both.
Because Barbaro had broken through the starting gate before the Preakness and had to be reloaded, Bramlage had his binoculars focused on the horse even before the race began. Barbaro probably first injured himself, Bramlage said, about 100 yards into the race, when he moved closer to the inside.
“But he’s so big and so tough and so determined,” Bramlage said, “the jockey [Edgar Prado] couldn’t get him pulled up.” As Barbaro continued to try to run, he broke his leg further until finally he was struggling, still struggling, to run on three legs.
Ironically, the same determination that may have exacerbated his injuries may contribute to his surviving them.
“It’s remarkable that we’ve gotten to this point,” Jackson said, as if putting all the surgery, bone grafts, infections, cast changes, medication and frightening vicissitudes momentarily behind him to focus instead on the horse’s stunning resoluteness. “He exhibited such determination on the racetrack. And his determination and intelligence might help him to get through this.”
This past Monday, veterinarians again changed the cast on Barbaro’s right leg. Richardson said he was pleased “with the continued progression of healing and the overall condition of the leg.”
The left hind foot, which essentially must be regrown, continues to improve. Richardson said there’s “good growth, but there will need to be much more.” And that will require several months. He remains in the intensive care unit but is able to graze daily.
The goal and hope, Jackson said, is to allow Barbaro to be a healthy normal horse again, so that he can survive without pain or discomfort. If he’s ever able to be a stallion, “that would just be a bonus,” he said.
And if not, well, he’s already accomplished much, even without racing. Because of Barbaro, Jackson said, people are more sensitive to equine safety, more aware of the need for research into laminitis and other conditions. And because of Barbaro, thousands and thousands of people who never followed the sport suddenly found themselves investing their emotions in a racehorse’s wellbeing.
The Kennett Florist in Kennett Square, Pa., is headquarters for Fans of Barbaro, a loosely organized group of more than 300 or so folks who every day take Barbaro and the New Bolton staff something – donuts, carrots, breakfast, apples, flowers, various kindnesses.
From all over the country, people telephone or e-mail to ask about Barbaro, said Alie Berstler, who runs the florist and serves as sort of an ad hoc director of the fan club that started with people sending flowers. Many of the members aren’t necessarily racing fans, just concerned Barbaro fans.
But why have so many people persisted in following a racehorse that will never race again and may or may not become a sire? How has Barbaro’s appeal transcended the sport and his injuries to the point that he continues to affect people profoundly?
“They see in him what they want to see in themselves,” Berstler said and then, for emphasis, added, “He’s a fighter.”[/QUOTE]
Great article - thanks for sharing VB.
The candles are getting low, so everyone please go light a few.
Thursday Morning~
Update 862: Another comfortable night last night for Barbaro (wednesday night). I walked back from the track with Michael Matz, coming back from my second set. Michael had heard from Dr. Richardson. Michael also mentioned Barbaro seems to have gained some weight (about 1100 lbs, I think he is weighed very regularly) and might have actually grown a little during his recovery. He was never actually measured while in training, but Michael thinks he might be about 17 hands now.
This morning it was dark, dark going to the track on my first set, and dark coming back from the track. The clocks need to change, and hopefully soon.
Update 861: Lost in the Fog’s cancer appears to have been more extensive than first thought: Fog’s Cancer Extensive, Necropsy Reveals. The following is an excerpt:
“What absolutely amazed me was how tough this guy was and how well he tolerated everything,” Wilson said. “It just floors me; the extent of this cancer and how he handled it with a minimum of discomfort. He had to have had it for at least several months.”
What a wonderfully gifted, and incredibly tough, racehorse.
The Thoroughbred Racing Association is hosting a simulcast conference in Philadelphia to discuss racing issues, of which racehorse safety is obviously a big concern: Equine safety essential to ensuring fan confidence. The following is an excerpt:
“Barbaro was a wake-up call,” said trainer Michael Dickinson, who invented Tapeta Footings, which Golden Gate Fields will install for use next year. “The industry had taken a blind eye to safety issues but no longer. If it had moved any slower on [safety issues], then it would have moved backwards.”
Turfway President Bob Elliston said that racing benefited from having a ready-made answer to the question, “What is racing doing about safety in the wake of Barbaro and breakdowns at racetracks?”
“We needed to show that we were taking steps to improve the situation,” Elliston said. “If we don’t make an effort, then we risk alienating our fan base, and we need new fans to support the economics of the game: owning horses and betting on them.”
Sorry, I think the fan base is pretty alienated already. Aside from the very big race days (triple crown, breeders’ cup etc.) you see few fans. Belmont Park had five grade one stakes a couple of weeks ago, the crowd was very thin. Go to your local racetrack on a regular race day, if you do it twice they will know you by your first name. Racing has huge problems, and things need to happen very differently I think in order to build a new fan base. OK, off my soap box …
I was talking to Andy Durnin, who is an exercise rider in California, and currently at Hollywood Park. He loves the cushion track they have recently installed. He said there has been nothing but positive feedback from everybody at the track. Horses get a great footing on the surface, no slipping, its very consistent. Their meet will open in a few weeks I think, it will be interesting to see how it fairs during the races.
As far as the fan base goes. there are fans but not at the track how much of betting is done at OTB and not on the track?
VB, thank you for keeping on with the updates.
Every morning I wake with my heart in my throat, worried that there will be information that laminitis has hit again. Things have gone so well for so long, that it seems too good to be true. Last time, New Bolton waited almost a week before announcing the first laminitis and the surgery. So the daily updates are invaluable, since they come from Matz, who has no reason to lie.
As to the fan base, real race fans don’t care one way or the other about betting. It’s the beauty and heart that the horses display that keeps us around. With all the women who love horses, it’s a shame that racing’s image and audience is horseplayers, all male and slightly disreputable. If racing targeted females and made them feel welcome in the stands, even if they didn’t bet, I would sincerely believe that the actual bottoms in the seats might increase surprisingly.
I’m an odd duck, but that’s a big part of the reason I like the track and used to skip class to go to Pimlico on quiet days… Everybody there reminded me of my Gramps, LOL
VB, thank you for the continued updates and info on Barbaro. Even though I don’t post on this thread, I do read it every day. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Update 865: Just spoke to Peter (6:10 pm), and Barbaro had a comfortable day. He had heard from Michael who visited Barbaro this afternoon.
Thanks, Alex.
VB-
We so appreciate your dedication in keeping us updated on this most marvelous horse and the amazing people involved with his recovery! Some pages back, there was a link to a pix of Bobby and Dr. R. when they went out to graze. Bobby’s head was up and majestic, Dr. R’s was somewhat bowed and humble. Two most amazing men!! I have that posted on my wall at work and look at it each day and say my prayers for this wonderful horse and those who love him.
Thanks for all you do.
Shay
