Like the Anna Nicole Smith saga, Barbaro's tragic story just drags pitifully on. Here it is, nearly 12 months since he raced, over three months since he died, and the opportunists are selling anything with his name on it that they can get their hands on. Do we have another Seabiscuit in our midst - a presence more lucrative as a ghost than alive?
The word from Churchill Downs today is that the track plans to honor the Barbaro team on Derby day. Between the sixth and seventh races, the boozefest in the grandstand will subside for a tear-jerking eulogy. Won't it be swell - celebrating the horse's demise and subsequent glory from his grave as opposed to the promise of another champion?
Even before Derby Week dawns, "Barbaro: A Nation's Horse" will be televised. On Sunday, April 29, this one-hour NBC-television documentary will trot out the same cast of characters for the umpteenth time. Perhaps this time, owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson, trainer Michael Matz and Dr. Dean Richardson can explain why America fell head over heels with Barbaro in the first place.
Horses often die as a result of injuries sustained on the racetrack. But does the empathy for Barbaro carry on because he was a Kentucky Derby winner? Or, is it because tragedy is better at the box office than comedy?
29 Apr 2007 at 10:09 pm | #
I was at the Preakness last year, in a prime position just above the rail about 100 yards from the Barbaro incident.
Here’s what I believe happened:
He broke through the starting gate and was rushed around and re-loaded in 90 seconds. What makes that significant is that NBC was already 2 minutes late and was clearly in a rush to get the race off. Barbaro was not vetted, a strange move since after all it was a Triple Crown race and this was the winner of the Kentucky Derby…
Call me a skeptic but breaking through the gate and breaking down after being rushed back to the gate are all more than a coincidence.
Let him rest in peace, it’s time for racing to move on.