QUOTE
Jan. 30, 2007, 2:18AM
Derby winner Barbaro put down after struggle
By DAVID BARRON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
In his final hours of life, Barbaro exacted one last measure of emotion and devotion from thousands of horse racing fans and animal lovers yearning for his recovery from the catastrophic leg injuries he suffered almost nine months ago.
"Certainly, grief is the price we all pay for love," said Gretchen Jackson, owner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner.
Monday morning, love's bill came due.
Barbaro was euthanized about 9:30 a.m. CST at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., when it became apparent he almost certainly would not recover from complications associated with his recovery from surgery to repair three bones shattered in his right hind leg at the start of the 2006 Preakness Stakes.
"Our statement, our belief, our goal from the beginning was to do what was right for the horse," said Dr. Dean Richardson, the hospital's chief of surgery. "I really didn't think it was appropriate to continue with his treatment, because the probable outcome was just so poor, and he would have to go through basically an unimaginable amount of discomfort."
The end came quickly, interrupting an almost unimaginably miraculous recovery from injuries so severe that seasoned horsemen didn't think Barbaro would make it off the track alive after stumbling a few hundred yards out of the gate at the Preakness.
Surgeons successfully implanted more than two dozen pins to repair Barbaro's shattered right hind leg last year. But the final culprits of his demise were laminitis — the painful, debilitating illness that attacks the connective tissue of a horse's hooves — in three feet and a deep abscess in the animal's right rear hoof as Barbaro struggled to shift his weight and remain upright.
In the end, said Richardson, "That left him without a good leg to stand on, and that wasn't going to work out in the long run."
Other champions put down
Barbaro is not the first Triple Crown champion or the first racehorse of note to succumb to a catastrophic injury. Ruffian was put down after breaking down during a 1975 match race against Foolish Pleasure, Go for Wand suffered a fatal ankle injury at the 1990 Breeders' Cup Distaff, and 1993 Preakness winner Prairie Bayou was destroyed after breaking down in the Belmont Stakes.
Barbaro's ordeal stands out, however, because of the horse's promise as a potential Triple Crown winner, based on his performance in last year's Kentucky Derby, and the lengths to which Richardson and the colt's owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, went to keep him alive.
"The entire nation became a fan of Barbaro — not the racehorse but the survivor," said Gary Stevens, the retired Hall of Fame jockey who called the 2006 Preakness for NBC. "To me, his Derby win is secondary to the fight he put up to survive for the past eight months."
Six hours of surgery
Barbaro endured six hours of surgery on May 21, 2006, the day after the Preakness, and a bout of laminitis in his left hind leg in mid-July that resulted in surgery to remove 80 percent of the hoof. He never left the hospital 30 miles from Philadelphia, but there were more optimistic reports than pessimistic ones for much of his stay.
"People ask why bother to do this if we end up putting him down nine months later," Richardson said. "One thing I can tell you is that Barbaro had many, many good days."
Those who adore animals are eager to believe they reflect admirable human traits — courage, intelligence, honesty, loyalty. Stevens, who rode three Kentucky Derby champions and more than 5,000 winners in his career, said Barbaro exhibited the best of those traits immediately after the injury and in the weeks to come.
"When a lot of horses get hurt, the adrenaline kicks in, and they damage themselves even more," he said. "This horse showed the intelligence to listen to his rider and to allow the veterinarians to give him the care he needed. It was as if he knew everyone was trying to help him. You don't see that intelligence in every racehorse."
Conditions took a final turn, however, with the development of the abscess in Barbaro's right hind foot, which Richardson said was unrelated to the surgical fusion of his ankle joint.
Over the weekend, surgeons performed one last-ditch measure, drilling holes in the right rear cannon bone, one of the bones that had been broken in the Preakness, and adding an external brace to take the weight off Barbaro's ailing hoof.
"Probably the thing that pushed us over the top was last night, for the first night ever, he really struggled with what he was doing," Richardson said. "He didn't feel comfortable enough to lie down and wasn't comfortable standing up. ... The bottom line is that he was a completely different horse."
'Peaceful' end
After Richardson consulted with the Jacksons on Monday morning, the horse was administered an additional round of tranquilizers, followed by an overdose of anesthetic. The end, Richardson said, "could not have been more peaceful."
At a Monday afternoon news conference, Gretchen Jackson asked listeners to say a prayer for the animal, and added, "I hope that we can turn our love into an energy that supports horses throughout the world."
Recalling Barbaro's Derby win and the exciting run-up to the Preakness, she added: "It was a brilliant time. It was the best of times for us. It was great. We have so many good memories. It was a real high.
"We were lucky to have experienced it, lucky to have a horse like him."
Link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headli...ts/4509625.html
Derby winner Barbaro put down after struggle
By DAVID BARRON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
In his final hours of life, Barbaro exacted one last measure of emotion and devotion from thousands of horse racing fans and animal lovers yearning for his recovery from the catastrophic leg injuries he suffered almost nine months ago.
"Certainly, grief is the price we all pay for love," said Gretchen Jackson, owner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner.
Monday morning, love's bill came due.
Barbaro was euthanized about 9:30 a.m. CST at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., when it became apparent he almost certainly would not recover from complications associated with his recovery from surgery to repair three bones shattered in his right hind leg at the start of the 2006 Preakness Stakes.
"Our statement, our belief, our goal from the beginning was to do what was right for the horse," said Dr. Dean Richardson, the hospital's chief of surgery. "I really didn't think it was appropriate to continue with his treatment, because the probable outcome was just so poor, and he would have to go through basically an unimaginable amount of discomfort."
The end came quickly, interrupting an almost unimaginably miraculous recovery from injuries so severe that seasoned horsemen didn't think Barbaro would make it off the track alive after stumbling a few hundred yards out of the gate at the Preakness.
Surgeons successfully implanted more than two dozen pins to repair Barbaro's shattered right hind leg last year. But the final culprits of his demise were laminitis — the painful, debilitating illness that attacks the connective tissue of a horse's hooves — in three feet and a deep abscess in the animal's right rear hoof as Barbaro struggled to shift his weight and remain upright.
In the end, said Richardson, "That left him without a good leg to stand on, and that wasn't going to work out in the long run."
Other champions put down
Barbaro is not the first Triple Crown champion or the first racehorse of note to succumb to a catastrophic injury. Ruffian was put down after breaking down during a 1975 match race against Foolish Pleasure, Go for Wand suffered a fatal ankle injury at the 1990 Breeders' Cup Distaff, and 1993 Preakness winner Prairie Bayou was destroyed after breaking down in the Belmont Stakes.
Barbaro's ordeal stands out, however, because of the horse's promise as a potential Triple Crown winner, based on his performance in last year's Kentucky Derby, and the lengths to which Richardson and the colt's owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, went to keep him alive.
"The entire nation became a fan of Barbaro — not the racehorse but the survivor," said Gary Stevens, the retired Hall of Fame jockey who called the 2006 Preakness for NBC. "To me, his Derby win is secondary to the fight he put up to survive for the past eight months."
Six hours of surgery
Barbaro endured six hours of surgery on May 21, 2006, the day after the Preakness, and a bout of laminitis in his left hind leg in mid-July that resulted in surgery to remove 80 percent of the hoof. He never left the hospital 30 miles from Philadelphia, but there were more optimistic reports than pessimistic ones for much of his stay.
"People ask why bother to do this if we end up putting him down nine months later," Richardson said. "One thing I can tell you is that Barbaro had many, many good days."
Those who adore animals are eager to believe they reflect admirable human traits — courage, intelligence, honesty, loyalty. Stevens, who rode three Kentucky Derby champions and more than 5,000 winners in his career, said Barbaro exhibited the best of those traits immediately after the injury and in the weeks to come.
"When a lot of horses get hurt, the adrenaline kicks in, and they damage themselves even more," he said. "This horse showed the intelligence to listen to his rider and to allow the veterinarians to give him the care he needed. It was as if he knew everyone was trying to help him. You don't see that intelligence in every racehorse."
Conditions took a final turn, however, with the development of the abscess in Barbaro's right hind foot, which Richardson said was unrelated to the surgical fusion of his ankle joint.
Over the weekend, surgeons performed one last-ditch measure, drilling holes in the right rear cannon bone, one of the bones that had been broken in the Preakness, and adding an external brace to take the weight off Barbaro's ailing hoof.
"Probably the thing that pushed us over the top was last night, for the first night ever, he really struggled with what he was doing," Richardson said. "He didn't feel comfortable enough to lie down and wasn't comfortable standing up. ... The bottom line is that he was a completely different horse."
'Peaceful' end
After Richardson consulted with the Jacksons on Monday morning, the horse was administered an additional round of tranquilizers, followed by an overdose of anesthetic. The end, Richardson said, "could not have been more peaceful."
At a Monday afternoon news conference, Gretchen Jackson asked listeners to say a prayer for the animal, and added, "I hope that we can turn our love into an energy that supports horses throughout the world."
Recalling Barbaro's Derby win and the exciting run-up to the Preakness, she added: "It was a brilliant time. It was the best of times for us. It was great. We have so many good memories. It was a real high.
"We were lucky to have experienced it, lucky to have a horse like him."
Link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headli...ts/4509625.html
