Some of this is repetitive but there’s a couple new items in it. It’s from www.philly.com:
Trainer Michael Matz won’t ever forget how he last saw his horse at Pimlico Race Course. He expressed genuine wonder at how he saw his horse last night: Barbaro walking to his stall on four legs, then eating some hay.
“I felt a lot more relief when I saw him walk in the stall than I did when I loaded him in the ambulance [in Baltimore] to come up here,” Matz said.
Dean Richardson, chief of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania’s school of veterinary medicine at the New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, performed yesterday’s five-hour, 10-minute surgery on Barbaro’s right hind leg. Richardson made it clear that the Kentucky Derby winner’s chances for survival still are not better than 50-50.
“No one’s going to want to hear this,” Richardson said. “He’s still a coin toss, even after everything went well.”
But Richardson also said: “He practically jogged back to his stall.”
Barbaro suffered the devastating injuries Saturday in the first furlong of the Preakness Stakes. “Most horses who receive this severe an injury are typically put down on the racetrack,” Richardson had said before the surgery. “It’s about as bad as it could be.”
Barbaro had three fractures in his right hind leg, above and below the ankle. He also dislocated the ankle joint, doctors said. The pastern bone was in “probably 20-plus pieces,” Richardson said afterward.
“Oh, my God,” a Penn veterinary student said from the back of the room.
A metal plate was put in, 23 screws were inserted, and the ankle joint was fused, meaning it will not be a joint anymore if the fusion is successful. The process will take weeks.
“It is very unusual to have these three catastrophic injuries all piled into one,” Richardson said before the surgery at the Chester County facility. “I’ve never tackled one exactly like this.”
Barbaro, who will be at the facility for at least several weeks and possibly much longer, did pass another hurdle: Richardson found that the blood supply in the colt’s leg remained good.
The blood was “almost oozing through the skin,” Richardson said, but the skin had not broken.
As with other horses going into surgery at the New Bolton Center for Large Animals early yesterday afternoon, Barbaro was moved on a sling from intensive care, via a monorail, to the surgery table.
After the surgery, with the colt still in the sling, the monorail took him to a pool - “a fairly unique system,” Richardson said.
The facility’s pool recovery system allows horses to awaken from general anesthesia in a raft of sorts in the pool, still in the sling.
Richardson said he could tell he was dealing with an athlete. The horse tried to get out of the sling after being lifted from the pool, which was warmed to 97 degrees.
Speaking to about 75 members of the media at a 9:15 p.m. news conference, Matz said he had just spoken with owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson, who expressed their appreciation.
Richardson did not rule out Barbaro’s having a future as a stallion, which certainly is an issue. The Kentucky Derby winner has an impressive pedigree and a proven ability to win on different surfaces at varied distances. His value could have been more than $30 million.
But Richardson explained all the complications that could still set in, such as infection or problems with the opposite foot.
“It is the first step, but not the last step by any means,” the surgeon said, also talking about having to “manage his comfort.”
Jockey Edgar Prado, who was credited by doctors for his quick action in pulling up the horse, said after the race that “he took a bad step and I can’t really tell you what happened.”
The jockey said he heard a noise and began pulling him up. Barbaro wobbled for an additional 100 yards on three legs, with the right rear hind leg up in the air, the ankle hanging at an unnatural angle.
Richardson estimated the medical costs would run into the tens of thousands of dollars. The Jacksons, who live just down the road from the front entrance to the clinic, have been major donors to New Bolton.
Gretchen Jackson is on the board of overseers of Penn’s school of veterinary medicine. The Scott Equine Sports Medicine Clinic was dedicated June 29, 2002. It is named for Almira and Hardie Scott, Roy Jackson’s mother and stepfather.
New Bolton, in the midst of a $60 million expansion and refurbishment, considers its seven-day-a-week, 24-hour critical care service the first of its kind in the nation. There are four hospital wards for 150 horses, with an isolation facility for infectious cases and a climate-controlled neonatal intensive care unit for sick foals.
Barbara Dallap, the critical-care specialist who first examined Barbaro on Saturday night when he was rushed from Pimlico, also described the colt’s first hours at the facility: “He’s been extremely… brave and well-behaved… . He’s been comfortable all night.”
The outpouring of public emotion was immediate. A number of well-wishers were allowed to stop in with gifts of support.
John Farrell said he drove from Lancaster with his 31/2-year-old son, Hank, and 2-year-old daughter, Jane Elizabeth.
“They wanted to bring Barbaro some apples and carrots,” Farrell said. “Make him feel a little better.”
