Triple Crown hopeful Barbaro loses... Seriously injured during race

http://www.preakness.com/ ^

[HairOfTheDog]

Post Position	Silks	Horse Name	Trainer	Jockey	Morning Line
1	(NA)	LIKE NOW (Picture NA)	Kiaran McLaughlin	Garrett Gomez	19-1
2		PLATINUM COUPLE	Joseph Lostritto	Jose Espinoza	28-1
3		HEMINGWAY'S KEY	Nick Zito	Jeremy Rose	30-1
4		GREELEY'S LEGACY	George Weaver	Richard Migliore	38-1
5		BROTHER DEREK	Dan Hendricks	Alex Solis	7-2
6		BARBARO	Michael Matz	Edgar Prado	1-2
7		SWEETNORTHERNSAINT	Michael Trombetta	Kent Desormeaux	6-1
8		BERNARDINI	Thomas Albertrani	Javier Castellano	17-1
9		DIABOLICAL	Steve Klesaris	Ramon Dominguez	24-1

[marajade]

No need to get into personal stuff. But maybe you all need each other tonite?

[RobFromGa]

Yeah, look at Michael Jackson.

[ecurbh]

Roy and Gretchen Jackson, owners of race-favorite Barbaro, offer condolences to jockey Edgar Prado after their horse broke his right rear leg at the start of the 131st running of the Preakness Stakes, Saturday, May 20, 2006, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Jockey Edgar Prado leans over next to Barbaro's saddle after the horse was taken away by an ambulance after it pulled up on the opening stretch during the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore, Maryland May 20, 2006. Bernardini won while Barbaro, who won the Kentucky Derby, did not finish the race. REUTERS/Jim Young

Barbaro is controlled by jockey Edgar Prado after it pulled up on the opening stretch during the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore, Maryland May 20, 2006. Bernardini won while Barbaro, who won the Kentucky Derby, did not finish the race. REUTERS/Jim Young

[Lemondropkid31]

LOL! Hahaha.

Its not cheating. Its a gueling test. All the horses can't run in all the races anyway. If we made them do that, we would have horses breaking down all the time, or getting sick from it, or something else.

[OldFriend]

You are suggesting that all the horses be forced to run all three races?

Winning the Preakness brings the prize money whether that horse ran in Kentucky or not.

Horses will enter Belmont and someone will win and the prize money will be collected.

Where Do you get the word CHEATING?????????

[marajade]

Will you ping me when you get definitive word about the horse please.

[HairOfTheDog]

I would think technology would allow for DNA matching to get rid of the fraud element. I'm just saying it is stupid to have a stupid archaic "rule" that destroys 100% of the stud value of an otherwise very valuable horse.

No one horse is crucial to the bloodline. There are LOTS of good studs. So far, they've deemed the purity of the natural breeding process more valuable than the ability to store and use the semen from a particular horse in perpetuity, even after death. If we all had an eternal supply of Secretariat semen, who would choose other lesser semen? What would happen to the gene pool then?

[Lemondropkid31]

"also a purist element, that only through breeding them naturally to we ensure that we don't create an unintended weakness in the animal's ability to breed naturally.

Instead we breed a horse like A.P. Indy who is the sire of the winner, and he is a ridgeling. Too much inbreeding going on, too.

[Wolfstar]

How did you come to know so much about horses, Wolf?

I don't know all that much. Like many young girls, I grew up loving horses, well all animals, really. I used to ride in summer camp, and then all through my young adulthood. When I was young, I saw horseracing through a romantic lens. I kicked around quite a bit in my early 20's, because I didn't know what to do with my life back then. I worked for about a year at The Jockey Club offices when they were in New York, then took a job exercising yearlings on a stud farm in Ocala, Fl. That only lasted a short time -- only until that crop of yearlings was sold -- but it was a very happy time for me.

I quite literally started following horse racing as a child. The races from Acqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga were shown on TV on Saturday afternoons back then, and I would hang on every word. I guess over the past 40 years or so I must have seen thousands of races. I've mentioned my involvement with the sport in the 1980's. But also as mentioned earlier on the thread, somewhere along the line, the romantic lens fell away and I couldn't take the harder side of the sport anymore.

Now I just tune in for the Triple Crown races every year more out of habit than anything else.

[My Favorite Headache]

Here's a statement from Dr. Larry Bramlage, the attending veterinarian: "He's been X-rayed and he has fractures above and below the ankle. His career is over. This is it for him as a racehorse. We're trying to save him as a stallion. He didn't get to expend his energy, so he's still full of energy. You would like to settle the horse down and get him ready for surgery. There's some major hurdles here. He has to be stabilized. We're looking at a long surgery that will take hours."

[carton253]

Well.. that's part of the Triple Crown. It is three races over five weeks... you have to run in all of them to win. That means you can't just come into the Belmont and race. No Kentucky Derby...no Belmont.

If your animal can't go in all three...then don't race them...

[Lemondropkid31]

Ok, I will let you know. I will probably put it on this thread, whatever and whenever I find out.

[OldFriend]

Thanks so much for the update. We can only hope for the best.

[carton253]

I think I got the word cheating from the dictionary. Part of the Triple Crown is the schedule. Three races in five weeks... That schedule is part of the race. Why shouldn't all horses have to race in all three. There is a big difference between the horse running in all three...and the one that comes in during the Belmont. That horse has an advantage.

[onyx]

Posted by onyx to HairOfTheDog
On News/Activism 05/20/2006 5:03:54 PM CDT · 107 of 445


My heart is always in my hand watching the races. I love these magnificent creatures so much, it pains me to see any harm come to any of them.

---

Post Reply | Private Reply | To 104 | View Replies


Posted by onyx to beyond the sea; Hildy
On News/Activism 05/20/2006 5:01:26 PM CDT · 103 of 445



Here's praying for a safe, clean race for all the horses and riders.


- - - - - - - -

Just to make it clear to everybody, those posts of mine were BEFORE the race.



Thank you for your comments, prisoner6.
Hey there, Old Friend!

[RobFromGa]

If we all had an eternal supply of Secretariat semen, who would choose other lesser semen? What would happen to the gene pool then?

I would assume if the breeders know what they are doing, the offspring of the Secretariat semen should be improved versions of "Dad" and so thereby surpass the Secretariat semen. I suspect they want to allow nature to play it's normal role in the creation of the superhorse.

It would be almost like Dr. Frankestein otherwise. So, I am satisfied that this rule does make some sense.

[OldFriend]

Any horse can win any race at any time. The TRIPLE CROWN can only go to the horse who wins all three races.

[AnAmericanMother]

I think that's one of the key points (not overbreeding to one stallion).

AI is allowed in Labrador Retrievers, and that removes the practical limit on the number of bitches a dog can breed in a given year. When a dog wins, say, the AFC/NFC or the Grand, EVERYbody wants him in their breeding program. You wind up breeding animals with this dog all over the pedigree in multiple lines. In redneck terms, "His family tree don't fork."

Five years later, the problems crop up, and then everybody is worried . . . I have seen ads in Hunting Retriever News with the bullet point "No [famous dog's name here] in pedigree."

Allowing live cover only keeps a Triple Crown winner from being in EVERY pedigree and doubled and tripled up. And then of course there are the fraud issues and the risk of perpetuating a line that can't breed naturally.

[Lemondropkid31]

No one would even bother running their horses in that case. YOu would get a field for the Derby, but then nothing for the Preakness or Belmont.

[My Favorite Headache]

"It's a serious fracture. This will require pretty major surgery," Bramlage said. "Keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer. His career is over. This is very life-threatening. He's being taken to UPenn now for surgery. yeah - and then staying calm for the time it takes to heal and not reinjuring himself.

Bramlage said a human would have to spend six weeks in bed with a comparable fracture, and "with a horse that's impossible."

"He's been X-rayed and he has fractures above and below the ankle. His career is over. This is it for him as a racehorse. We're trying to save him as a stallion. He didn't get to expend his energy, so he's still full of energy. You would like to settle the horse down and get him ready for surgery. There's some major hurdles here. He has to be stabilized. We're looking at a long surgery that will take hours."