Barbaro

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The story of Barbaro's life begins here

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Achievements that made Barbaro so remarkable

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Own Barbaro: A Nation's Horse on DVD. Documents Barbaro's career and will to survive. Watch Barbaro win race after race, including the 132nd Kentucky Derby. Get Barbaro books and DVDs HERE

Bred in Kentucky, Barbaro was foaled on April 29, 2003 at Sanborn Chase farm for owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson, who live in West Grove, Pennsylvania, and race horses in the name of Lael Stable. Barbaro was later named so after a foxhound in a family heirloom painting (who in turn was named for the Italian Renaissance scholar). His sire is Dynaformer, his dam is La Ville Rouge.

"We have always liked Dynaformer as a sire of racehorses," Roy Jackson explained, "and we use Headley Bell as our adviser. We sit down and go over our ideas, and I think part of Headley's thought in this mating was to get a stallion who would add some size to the foal."

Dynaformer and La Ville Rouge both share similar qualities. A first-class racehorse, Dynaformer excelled on both dirt and turf, with his most important victories coming in the Jersey Derby and the Discovery Handicap. Likewise, La Ville Rouge was versatile, placing in graded stakes on both turf and the main track.

Everyone at Sanborn Chase liked the leggy young colt and called him "La Ville" after his dam. Barbaro lived at the farm from birth, through weaning, until he left for John Stevens's training center in Ocala, Florida, to be broken to a saddle in the fall of 2004. He was one of about 20 foals from that crop.

Kieth Richie who worked at Sanborn recalled "He was so mild-mannered, I could roll him over on his back and scratch his belly or pick out his feet." "He was big, but he wasn't lanky. He was real brawny. And he had the nicest temperament."

There's no shortage of heart in Barbaro's team. In 1989, Michael Matz survived a plane crash and rescued three young children who were traveling alone to see their grandmother.

In 1996, Matz, a three-time Olympian in equestrian show jumping and member of a silver medal-winning team, was selected to carry the U.S. flag in the Closing Ceremonies of the Atlanta Games.

Matz went from rider to trainer eight years ago. The longer spacing between Barbaro's races raised a few eyebrows, especially in the face of Derby history where no horse had won off such a layoff in 50 years. Matz believes he overused his primary jumper in qualifying competitions for the Olympics in 1976. "And when I finally get to ride in the Olympics, I had no horse left," he recalled. "And I said from that day, whatever I do, whatever competition I go in, I want to make sure I can be competitive in it, not just to say you went there."

Assistant trainer Peter Brette, an Englishman, has been Barbaro's exercise rider from the beginning. In fact, Matz originally asked him to jockey for Barbaro, but Brette declined.

Barbaro won his career debut by eight and 1/2 lengths at Delaware Park (each length of a horse from head to tail is about 8 feet), and then dominated the Laurel Futurity by eight lengths seven weeks later. Jose Caraballo was on the mount for Barbaro's first two races.

Edgar Prado, who in 2004 became the 19th jockey in Thoroughbred racing history to win 5,000 races, would jockey for Barbaro for the first time in the Grade 3 Tropical Park Derby. The nation's first graded stakes of the new year, the 1 1/8-mile race, held at Calder Race Course in Florida, drew a full field of 12 3-year-olds for New Year's Day 2006.

As the 2-5 favorite, Barbaro put away Mr. Silver in the upper stretch of the firm turf, then cruised to victory by 3 3/4 lengths while completing the nine-furlong (each furlong an eighth of a mile) distance in 1:46 3/5. It would be Barbaro's third consecutive win on turf.

"We got a perfect trip," Prado Said. "But regardless of that, I could have been anywhere in the race I wanted to be and still would have won. That's how good this horse is. I watched his first two races and I was impressed. Now, after riding him, I'm even more impressed."

"He's obviously a very talented horse," Michael Matz said. "Whether he carries the class he shows on turf over to the dirt, we just don't know yet, but his mother and half-brother (Holy Ground) ran well on the dirt. So, we'll talk it over with the Jacksons to see whether we try him on dirt next."

Barbaro's first dirt attempt would be on a sloppy track in Gulfstream Park's $150,000 Grade III Holy Bull Stakes (Grade I is the highest class).

Barbaro challenged Doctor Dechard through quick fractions of :23, :46 1/5 and 1:10 1/5. Flashy Bull and My Golden Song also remained contentious. Edgar Prado and Barbaro were nearly three lengths in the clear in mid-stretch as the deep-closing Great Point threatened, but Barbaro didn't let anything catch him. The final time was 1:49 1/5 as Barbaro won the 1 1/8-mile event on the main track. (The Holy Bull was previously contested at the shorter 1 1/16 miles, and in 2007 it was shortened to one mile. Barbaro is the only horse to win from as far a post as number ten in a 1 1/8 mile race at Gulfstream.)

Still the question remained if Barbaro could compete on a fast dirt track, as some horses have the ability to take advantage of their competitor's dislike of running on sloppy tracks, like the one the Holy Bull was run on that day.

Trainer Michael Matz opted to pass the Fountain of Youth Stakes and give Barbaro eight weeks off to have a fresh horse for the Grade I Florida Derby, which would be his final prep before the Kentucky Derby.

Edgar Prado immediately put the favored Barbaro in perfect striking position despite breaking from post 10 in a field of 11 3-year-olds. Barbaro stalked the quick pace set by Sharp Humor before challenging for command near the quarter pole and gaining a short advantage entering the stretch. Sharp Humor fought back willingly from the inside before finally being defeated at the finish.

The Kentucky Derby is a once in a lifetime chance for a horse at three year's old to become a part of history. A full field of 20 of one of the most talented groups of Derby contenders joined Barbaro in the 132nd Run for the Roses on May 6, 2006.

Barbaro's workouts at Churchill Downs were remarked on as the most impressive anyone had ever seen. He would be the second favorite bet behind deep-closing Illinois Derby winner Sweetnorthernsaint.

The mile and a quarter race began with a stumble for Barbaro, but he would recover quickly, with Prado getting him into a perfect stalking position behind the swift front runners, Keyed Entry and Sinister Minister. Barbaro's stablemate, Showing Up (trained by Barclay Tagg), was inside and abreast of Barbaro who cruised in fourth.

As the cavalry charged around the final turn, Barbaro began surging to the finish to lead down the stretch and win by a six and a half length margin, without Prado having to encourage him with the whip.

Bluegrass Cat had a good trip for second, while Steppenwolfer closed for third; and in the first Derby dead heat, Jazil closed in for fourth as Brother Derek struggled for better.

Barbaro's impressive win was emphasized by several accomplishments:
*The margin of victory was the largest in 60 years, since Assault won by eight lengths in 1946.
*Barbaro became the first in 50 years, since Needles in 1956, to win the Derby off a five-week layoff.
*He may be the only horse in history to win the exhausting Derby without urging.

Barbaro was one of only six undefeated horses to win the Derby, Smarty Jones had done it last in 2004.

For Edgar Prado, it was his first Derby victory in seven tries. His previous best finish had been a third aboard Peace Rules in 2003. (He also defeated Smarty Jones' Triple Crown run in 2004 on board longshot Birdstone at the Belmont Stakes.) As for Michael Matz, he scored his first Derby victory in his first try.

For the Jackson's that Saturday, Barbaro was not the only big winner they had bred. Across the pond George Washington won the 2000 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket, an English classic race.

Kentucky Derby 132 Video Replay


Prado, Matz, and the Jacksons

Barbaro's impressive win, and admiration of Prado's ability, had earned him speculation that he could become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.

A difficult feat, to win racing's Crown a horse must win each of the three classic races in a span of only five weeks. The Kentucky Derby is run at a challenging mile and a quarter, with the Preakness Stakes at a mile and 3/16, and finally the "Test of Champions", the Belmont Stakes, at a mile and a half.

Barbaro would train at Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland before arriving at Baltimore, Maryland's Pimlico Race Course the day before the Preakness.

A record crowd of 118,402 was on hand for the 131st Preakness Stakes on Saturday, May 20. Brother Derek, who came out of post 18 and lost a shoe in Derby 132, returned for a rematch with Barbaro, while a few other Derby veterans aimed for the Belmont Stakes two weeks later. Barbaro would also be challenged by promising newcomer Bernardini.

In the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby there had been difficulty saddling Barbaro. To keep the horse from hurting himself Michael Matz had Barbaro saddled as he walked around the field at Pimlico. Excited and eager to race, Barbaro continued to buck around before finally being led into the gate.

Anxious silence in anticipation of the race's start was broken with the dreadful sound of Barbaro breaking through the gate prematurely. Track examiners made sure Barbaro had not injured himself in the early move, and Prado carefully felt for any unhealthy movement.

With Barbaro calmly loaded back into the gate, the Preakness was finally off and running. Once again Barbaro tracked the front runners, but long before Bernardini would cross the finish line for the win, Barbaro would never make it to the first turn.

The crowd gasped in shock when Prado quickly pulled Barbaro up out of the race, ending the quest for the Crown in the opening stretch. As Prado dismounted to comfort Barbaro and wait for help, racing fans everywhere were heartbroken when they saw the colt gingerly raising his injured right hind leg off the ground.

The green blanket meant to hide the euthanizing of a critically injured horse from the crowd was brought out, but the decision to make every effort to save Barbaro's life would assure it would not end at Pimlico. Calm and cooperative, Barbaro was eased into a horse ambulance to be taken to New Bolton Center for Large Animals. As Bernardini's jockey Javier Castellano raised the winning trophy the crowd cheered, not only for him, but for Barbaro as he passed the grandstands for the last time.

Prado was distressed and unable to comment until later. "During the race, he took a bad step and I can't really tell you what happened," Prado said. "I heard a noise about 100 yards into the race and pulled him right up."

With the bones in his ankle broken in more than 20 pieces, Barbaro would never race again.

Barbaro had fractured his pastern bone and broken his fetlock (ankle) joint in the unpredictable racing injury. He underwent several hours of surgery the day after the Preakness at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square.

Veterinary surgeon Dr. Dean Richardson (pictured) explained that a procedure to fuse the fetlock was successful. A device called a locking compression plate, or LCP, was employed to stabilize the injured area, with 27 screws used on the 16-hole plate. A cast was then fitted on the leg, enclosing the hoof and running up to just below the hock. Soon after, a special shoe would be fitted to Barbaro's uninjured left hind in effort to prevent any extra weight Barbaro had to put on it from causing painful laminits.

The Jackson's expressed their desire that Barbaro be able to live a life without pain. Although Barbaro could be used as a Thorougbred stud if he could stand, that was not the Jackson's reason for saving Barbaro's life; they had also recently saved one of their geldings which cannot produce offspring.

Although Barbaro would have made an exciting Triple Crown winner, overcoming his injury to the extent that he did was an even greater victory, no doubt inspiring efforts to save the lives of other injured horses. We'll always remember Barbaro's will to live, and the words of his partner, Edgar Prado, "He knew he was hurt and he knew what he wanted -- he wanted to survive."

2006 Kentucky Derby champ Barbaro's life ends peacefully

January 29, 2007
Dr. Dean Richardson explained the events leading up to the decision to humanely euthanize Barbaro after the colt had finally lost his last two good legs to laminitis.

"He's a horse that, for months, has been an exceptionally quiet, calm, and relaxed horse. He would sleep... He would lie down and get up. Last night was the first night ever that he was clearly distressed by his condition. We intensified all his pain medications pretty dramatically last night, trying to get him to go down, and he did not. We put him in another sling. Again, I want to emphasize that we stated--and we meant what we said--if we couldn't control his discomfort, we wouldn't go on, and that was why the decision (to euthanize him) was made."

Barbaro's original injuries to his right hind, which occurred in the 2006 Preakness Stakes, had completely healed, according to Richardson. The colt's recent problems were from the painful laminitis the horse developed in his left hind leg. Laminitis is a common problem for horses, particularly when one leg is injured and another leg has to bear the extra stresses.

The laminitis in Barbaro's left hind foot caused him to become "very lame," Richardson said, and Barbaro's right hind leg was forced to bear a "tremendous amount" of weight. "He developed laminitis in both front feet, the reason being he had no hind feet (to support him). He was uncomfortable behind, and then he started overloading his front feet."

A customized external fixation device was placed in his right hind leg in a final attempt to save Barbaro's life. Barbaro's life ends - continued on Gohorsepower.com

RidingWithBarbaro.org
The Barbaro Memorial Fund to benefit horse health and safety research.

The Fund to Fight Laminitis
Laminitis, a debilitating and painful disease of the hoof, is a silent killer that hundreds of horses are diagnosed with every day.

Racing runs through the Thoroughbred's blood. Athleticism and competitiveness are the heritage of its pedigree, but the physiological inheritance of a horse can make them vulnerable to unpredictable and sometimes life-threatening injuries.

An adult horse weighs about 1,000 pounds, and carries that weight on legs no wider than a human shin. Horses are designed to bear their weight on all four legs, they cannot live without all of them. If one leg is injured, another will have to bear more weight, which can set the stage for a painful hoof condition called laminits, (which any horse can also experience without another injury already present).

Racehorses run at speeds of around 30-45 miles per hour. As with human athletes, a horse can take a bad step resulting in injury. Because the horse's physiology makes a leg injury so severe, the challenge of alleviating the threat of injury and developing succesfull methods of repair are a major concern for horse owners and industries. In horse racing, synthetic Polytrack is becoming more popular as studies have proven that it helps reduce injuries at the race course.

Articles about Barbaro's treatment:
First Surgery finished
"Things right now are good, but I've been doing this too long to know that day one is not the end of things."
--Dr. Dean Richardson

Barbaro bright and frisky day after surgery
"He is standing on the leg, and with the appropriate amount of weight on it. He also showed appropriate interest in the mares, which means he's acting like a young colt should."
--Dr. Corinne Sweeny

Barbaro gets new shoes
In effort to prevent laminitis, a special shoe was applied to Barbaro's left hind.

"Saturday was a nightmare," Prado would say the following week when reuniting with Barbaro for the first time since the Preakness. "I reacted pretty quickly and I tried to hold him together. The horse did his job by not fighting with me. I stopped thinking about the race and the Triple Crown right away. The only thing I could think of was him. I wanted to pull him up and comfort him as soon as I could. Each second felt like an hour. He's an intelligent horse. He knew he was hurt and he knew what he wanted -- he wanted to survive.

"The hardest part of my life was when I lost my mother (this past January). Saturday was the toughest day of my career."

Jockey visits his partner Barbaro
"I'm still heartbroken, and I will be for a long time, but I definitely feel a lot better after seeing him." -- Edgar Prado

Barbaro's Jockey visits after laminitis strikes
"It is a very bad situation, but he has the will to overcome this."
--Edgar Prado

The owners and adviser liked the resulting Dynaformer colt, Barbaro, well enough that they sent the mare back to the stallion before Barbaro ever started racing. As a result Barbaro has a full brother, born in March 2006, and now called Nicanor, also named after a foxhound in the Jackson's heirloom painting.

"He's very confident and thinks he's special, just like Barbaro did when he was here," said Headley Bell, the bloodstock agent for Roy and Gretchen Jackson. "You're never quite sure where that comes from. He has good size, maybe not quite as leggy as Barbaro, but he's close."

It will be another year before Barbaro's yearling brother trains and races other juveniles, but his half-brother, Man in Havana, began his racing career in fall of 2006. The colt from the same mother, Laville Rouge, is working under the tutelage of Michael Matz at Fair Hill Training Center. (After 2006's fall meets Matz was favoring Chelokee (of Cherokee Run) as his 2007 Derby horse, but Chelokee skipped the Derby. Instead of the Preakness, Chelokee raced the newly named Barbaro Stakes on the Preakness undercard at Pimlico, and won dominantly. (Chelokee won his maiden by almost 14 lengths.)

Man In Havana and his sire, Quiet American, are named after books written by British author Graham Greene, a favorite of Gretchen Jackson's father.

"He's a big horse with a lovely shoulder," Gretchen Jackson said. "Unlike Barbaro, he might take some time to show what he has. But that's true with all of Quiet American's foals."

Barbaro's second brother
La Ville Rouge was bred back to Dynaformer a day before the Kentucky Derby. A foal was born on April 20th, and the yet unnamed colt is Barbaro's second full brother. "It worked once," Gretchen Jackson said. "We'll see." Read more about Barbaro's brothers

A muscular and long-legged Thoroughbred with a great stride, Barbaro's physical strengths were only outmatched by his own strength of character and spirit:

Versatility
Not many horses handle turf and dirt with equal success, but Barbaro proved he could win on anything.

Dependability
Barbaro entered the kentucky Derby having not raced in more than five weeks. No horse with that long a layoff had won the Derby in 50 years.

Invincibility
Barbaro was undefeated when he raced the Kentucky Derby, becoming only the sixth unbeaten horse to survive the derby undefeated.

Winning Spirit
Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby by the widest margin in 60 years, racing to the lead in the home stretch without having to be urged by his jockey.

Boundlessness
While the mile and a quarter race had exhausted his 19 competitors, Barbaro's lead went from 6 and a half lengths to as as many as 20 as he finished his lap around victory lane.

Intelligence
Some horses may panic when injured, causing more harm to themselves. Barbaro remained patient and cooperative from the moment his jockey pulled him out of the Preakness Stakes where an unpredictable accident caused bones in the colt's right hind ankle to fracture in more than 20 pieces.

Strength of Character
Throughout his challenging recovery, Barbaro never gave up on life. He greeted visitors, had a healthy appetite, got his rest, walked, and of course, remained in good spirits, as only Barbaro the Bold and the Brave could.

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