I don’t understand why you are asking if they regret switching him to dirt when that switch to dirt took them to heights few owners even come close to achieving and in no way contributed to his injury. They maybe regret not scratching him after the break through but since that was not their decision there is no way for them to have changed that decision.
Breaking through the gate had more to do with Barbaro’s injury than the switch from dirt to turf.
@Laurierace and @Palm Beach I am curious to know why breaking through the gate may have contributed to his injury. I haven’t heard that suggested as a cause (although I did not read or follow any of the intense online discussions or groups at the time of the injury and subsequent months thereafter…).
I vaguely remember speculation that when he broke through the gate he injured himself slightly, not visibly, and that that minor injury became magnified horribly when he started the race. It was pure speculation on someone’s part. I am sure he was checked by a vet at the gate and deemed sound to race.
I guess I’m not explaining myself well.
Just wondering if they ever regret/wonder what Barbaro’s life and accomplishments would have been if he’d stayed turf. If he’d stayed turf, right, no Derby but if he’d stayed turf, he might still be with us. Heck, if he’d skipped the Preakness he might still be with us. Right, nothing on turf in the US matches the accomplishment of winning the Derby if you race stateside.
He’s not my horse and not my aspirations or goals but I might sometimes wonder if I could have traded winning the Derby for having him still running around today… I might wonder.
PB, I’m well aware of the conjecture that knocking his ankle on the gate influenced his subsequent breakdown. IMO, hard to actually prove but I personally feel that did have something to do with it.
Nobody wants a turf horse. They don’t even want a great turf horse. They run on turf because they don’t think they can run as well on dirt so it’s better than nothing, although some people will run once or twice on the turf as they are legging them up because it is more forgiving in general but in no way is that the goal. I am absolutely sure they wouldn’t have even led him over to the paddock for the Preakness if they knew this would be the result but no one has the gift of foresight unfortunately.
“What if’s” keep many a grieving horse owner awake many a night.
I cheered Barbaro on, followed him daily at NBC. His framed picture hangs on my wall.
Enough said.
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Hindsight is 20/20, and cruel. In today’s “Memories” feed for my Facebook, there is an old post I’d made of my Arab gelding being oddly off food, lying down, etc., while not fully colicky. By the time I got to the barn, he’d popped up and seemed okay–he looked at me like, “What are you doing here this time of day?” He went back to eating, pooping, etc. like nothing had happened. There were a few other incidents of similar seeming noneventfuless–until April 2015, when all hell broke loose during a week of colic horror. Four emergency vet visits, multiple colic treatments, etc., and nothing worked, even a little bit. We couldn’t even get him on the trailer to go to the hospital–he would NOT load (which was NOT like him, at all). We wound up having to euthanize him at the barn.
It was a nightmare. A complete f**king nightmare. Then I started seeing these “Memories” posts of his subtle colic-like behavior (maybe 2-3 over a 2-3 year period) that he seemed recover from in an hour or so, and I have since realized he had something almost certainly lurking in the background that gave us subtle warnings before everything finally just went to hell.
Maybe if I’d had the vet out during one of those subtle moments, we could have caught Whatever Was Causing the Vague Symptoms (though I know most likely not). Maybe if he just would’ve gotten on the trailer, he could’ve been saved. Maybe if Barbaro had stayed on the turf, his ending would’ve been so very different. Maybe if they’d scratched him from the gate, he’d have been saved. Maybe if he hadn’t broken through the gate, he wouldn’t have broken down.
Maybe if, maybe if, maybe if. It’s enough to drive a person mad. In this respect, grief is cruel.
This is the road they both went down, and this is the ending they both had. Unforeseeable, yet it seems not entirely unpreventable, which is what is the cruelest of all.
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Lauruffian, more where I was going. Haven’t we all had choices we made in our life and sometimes looked back and wondered ‘what if’.
I know history can’t change. I get that having a KD winner is a rare opportunity for most owners/trainers. Was just musing if they ever look back and wonder ‘what if’.
Must have been so heart breaking for you and your horse. So hard when it’s happening… so much easier to look back and see things you think you may have missed but also knowing you made the best choices you could at the time you made them.
Yes, looking back can be so cruel at times 
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I’m not sure if the condylar fracture occurred before the sesamoid with Barbaro, but neither is a common injury in hind legs. Catastrophic breakdowns are frequently preceded by microfractures, and it would be surprising if Barbaro did indeed have microfractures going into the Preakness. It’s much more likely that he did something to himself busting through the starting gate.
And tragically the Jacksons had a filly break down on the turf a couple years ago on BES day.
Yes.
I wanted to mention it, but have been asked not to. The Jackson’s should be the ones to announce it, obviously.
It’s perfect, however.
[QUOTE=VirginiaBred;2917037]
Yes.
I wanted to mention it, but have been asked not to. The Jackson’s should be the ones to announce it, obviously.
It’s perfect, however.[/QUOTE]
I am surprised it has not happened yet…
New Bolton, perhaps? They have been such huge supporters of the center for so long, and the center and Barbaro are so connected in the Public Mind.
Just a guess. 
Hope they announce their decision soon.
a year gone by
It is hard to believe that this time last year we were looking forward to seeing him leave for Ky and then the unthinkable happened…I think about him often and wonder what he would have been…He will live as a legend.
I hope that they find a way to PREVENT laminitis so it never takes another horse…
RIP Barbaro…you were the best
Barbaro died on January 29 of last year. Maybe they are waiting for the anniversary of his death to make the announcement? Just a thought, since the anniversary is coming up soon.
