I think the Barbaro story was touching because it was a horse story, as well as a human story. It was about the horse, and also his 'connections' to his people. These pictures grabbed my heart when it happened. The rest of the race didn't matter any more.
It made heros out of jockeys and veterinarians. It would be up to the people in Barbaro's life to fix this, and we really rooted for them. In the movie, they would have won. We wanted them to win, it wasn't that any of them lacked heart. They all had it: The horse, the jockey, the owner, and the veterinarian. And that's why I cared.
