Derby hero Barbaro put down
Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was put down today after losing his long battle to regain fitness following the injuries he suffered in the Preakness Stakes.
The Michael Matz-trained colt was pulled up at Pimlico last May after breaking three bones around his ankle in the early stages of the extended nine-furlong contest, which was won by Sheikh Mohammed’s Bernardini.
He underwent numerous operations over the months that followed and hopes rose at various stages that he could be saved, although he met with a serious setback in July when he was diagnosed with laminitis, a potentially fatal hoof condition.
Co-owner Gretchen Jackson told www.bloodhorse.com: “He had been good up to the beginning of this month and then everything went.
“Dean (Richardson, chief surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school) wanted to think about the options, you know you can always go on. But it’s when to get out that’s hard and it was agreed upon to let him go.”
Barbaro, a son of Dynaformer, won four of his five career starts and over £1m (€1.5m) in prize money, with his scintillating success at Churchill Downs seeing him slam Bluegrass Cat by six and a half lengths.
He was sent off as odds-on favourite to claim the second leg of the American Triple Crown only for the shattering injury to intervene.
