It is indeed a very interesting take.
I thought Barbero had the look. Everyone calls him 'strapping,' and I suppose that's adequate. He had a look though. A look of athleticism that, I felt, was extraordinary even among thoroughbreds.
How do you account for the breakdowns? My take is the competitiveness. That author only hints at illicit drugs, and I'd like to know more. But my judgment is the extent to which they're pushed. It's a bigger, more monetarily meaningful game than its ever been. The stakes make the climate, and I think, to some degree at least, account for the injuries.
If you read what the trainers say, they're not raced near as often or as hard as they used to be...
Zito recalled the days when horses ran every couple of weeks. "Today, there's no way you can do that," he said. "A lot has to do with the structure of the modern horse. In the last seven years, I've seen the breed changing."
How do you account for the breakdowns?
Just as breeding has produced extremely muscular chickens that can't fly because they are too muscular, thoroughbred horse breeding may also be reaching the point where some thoroughbreds can't run at their maximum effort because they are too muscular.
In that "strapping" biological machine, the bone is the weakest link.
While you may, through breeding and training, produce a more muscular and powerful horse, the bones in the lower legs are still only bones and the more muscular and powerful the horse, the more stress that is put on those bones.
Imagine putting your car's tires on a "muscular" drag racer. They would fail within a second or two.
Drag racers can perform only because their tires have been greatly enlarged to survive the increased forces. You can't do that with horse bones.
Barbaro's very "strapping athleticism" may have doomed him as his muscles were capable of generating much greater forces than thoroughbred cannon bones can safely withstand.
A horse such as Barbaro may be the "glass ceiling" of thoroughbred breeding.