At Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland on May 20, 2006, a crowd of over 100,000 tingling with Triple Crown title anticipation watched the every move of a big dark brown colt named Barbaro as the Kentucky Derby champion prepped for the 131st running of the Preakness Stakes, second jewel of the Crown.
Barbaro Well Connected with Prado and Matz
Everyone by now knew the story of Barbaro and his talented connections. A Dynaformer son, the sculpted Barbaro was unbeaten in six trips that included the Kentucky Derby.
Barbaro's owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, with thirty years of respectability in Thoroughbred racing, had been looking for that first Derby winner and had found him; Barbaro's rider, Edgar Prado, a skilled, quiet jockey who had won his first Derby in his seventh attempt to pin down the roses, never had won a Preakness; Barbaro's trainer, Michael Matz, a celebrated Olympian Equestrian who had heroically rescued three children from their crashed, burning airliner, had switched to Thoroughbred conditioning as a profession. He also had his first Derby winner on the Preakness track.
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 a Belmont Stakes away from TC immortality.
The Jacksons, engaging and smiling, received the best wishes of friends and family as the Preakness field approached the starting gate.
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 win 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 win with Prado aboard his Derby champ.
Barbaro Breaks Through the Preakness Gate
Prado had moved to the top of jockey ranks with the retirements of the Sport of King's best riders, Gary Stevens, Jerry Bailey, and Pat Day, all Hall of Famers. But beneath him in Preakness starting gate six, Barbaro twitched.
Then, inexplicably, Barbaro bolted 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?
Barbaro Breaks Down in First Strides Out
Easily re-gated, Barbaro was set. Prado's heart pounded.
The break sent the pair flying from the gate. And 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, then pulled the colt up. Their race was over.
Prado held the colt's leg until help arrived, then he approached Matz, who had run full bore from the grandstand, and the two men hugged on the historic Pimlico track, unable to contain tears for Barbaro.
Barbaro Loses Battle for Life
The Preakness field rushed on. Bernardini won the race witnesses don't remember. All eyes remained on Barbaro, and the ambulance that trailed him away from the race track that day.
Eight months later, his horrifically fractured leg 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.
Too fragile and weakened to battle on, Barbaro was euthanized on January 29, 2007 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 crippled Thoroughbred champion.
BarbaraAnne Helberg - Barbara Anne Helberg, Supporter of Better Lives for Animals and Clean, Spirited, Competitive Sports
