"Lou Raffetto, the president and chief executive officer of the Maryland Jockey Club, which runs Pimlico, on Tuesday said a review of stewards' patrol films and corresponding still photos has led him to theorize that inadvertent contact between Brother Derek's right front leg and Barbaro's right rear leg contributed to Barbaro taking an awkward step and suffering the fracture.
"It happens just before the sixteenth pole," Raffetto said. "Barbaro drifts out just as Brother Derek is closing the margin. Brother Derek extends his right front and it appears to hit Barbaro's right hind. Barbaro's head comes up.
"It's not 100 percent conclusive. But it looks like it was an unfortunate accident. It was nobody's fault."
Well, I had thunderboomers all day yesterday, off and on. Every time I thought they were gone and I fired the ole puter back up - BOOM - out of nowhere. Had to get off again.
Yeah, I wondered what everybody would think of that little "tidbit." I'm going to have to go by *their word* on it, since I don't have the tape to slow down and rewind and so forth.
Right off hand, it's hard for me to picture Brother Derek's *right* front leg hitting Barbaro's *right* hind leg. He'd have to have been right up B's you-know-what, it would seem. But I suppose if it were extended, as they said, and the left was back and B's right was extended back, that must be how it could have happened.
I felt all along that something had happened in a "micro" way before the first major snap. This could have been the tiny "micro" nick, if they think they saw it and claim that Barbaro responded to it slightly.
I hate to put that onto someone else - Bro Derek (lol, I just "got that" - Bro Derek, like Bo Derek) or his jockey. I wonder what they think about the statement or if they could see it by extensive review. It's neither here nor there, but it would make me feel a "teensy tinsy" bit better to think it wasn't some out-of-left-field inherent weakness of B's bone structure that contributed to the massive fracture.