[tommygunn]

Sad news today.. Rest in Peace Barbaro.

Barbaro euthanized

By Paul Moran
Newsday Staff Writer

January 29, 2007, 12:26 PM EST

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, whose valiant battle for survival after shattering his right-hind leg in the early stages of the May 20 Preakness brought international attention unprecedented emotional support, was euthanized early today at the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center, where he had been hospitalized for more than eight months.

Owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson made the painful decision after consulting with Dr. Dean Richardson, chief of surgery at the New Bolton facility who had directed Barbaro's treatment throughout his hospitalization.

A deterioration of the originally injured leg required surgery on Saturday during which pins were inserted through the bone and connected to an external device. That setback, complicated by a left-hind hoof afflicted by severe laminitis, indications that the front hooves were beginning to become laminitic and Barbaro's inability to lay down for 48 hours following the last surgery led to the final decision "There was not one foot that was not affected," Gretchen Jackson told the Thoroughbred Times.

[The Horrible Esthete]

So the inevitable has finally occurred 8 months and god-knows-how-much pain & suffering later.....

The injury was indeed a shame, but everyone, especially the horse, would have been far better off if this had been done 8 months ago.

This is what happens when we let bleeding hearts influence decisions that should be made based solely upon the best interest of the affected creature.

[Coneycat]

Hardly bleeding hearts, Horrible Esthete. The decision to try to save his life was almost certainly based more on the fact he was a stallion, and could have commanded a hefty stud fee, than any other.

Mind you, since as far as I know the Jockey Club will only register foals conceived via live cover--which involves the stud horse having the ability to support his weight on his back legs--it's unlikely he ever would have made a breeding animal anyway.

I'm a horse person myself, but racing and big-money showing scares me to death. Because the financial incentives always end up taking precedence. (My own mare is worth practically nothing, and I like her that way.)

[The Horrible Esthete]

Hardly bleeding hearts, Horrible Esthete. The decision to try to save his life was almost certainly based more on the fact he was a stallion, and could have commanded a hefty stud fee, than any other.

You may be right about that, Coney, but:

...as far as I know the Jockey Club will only register foals conceived via live cover--which involves the stud horse having the ability to support his weight on his back legs--it's unlikely he ever would have made a breeding animal anyway.

I thought that this was the general concensus in the days following the Preakness, and owners were leaning towards euthanization, until the "international attention" and the "unprecedented emotional support" of the masses steered owners towards a decision to try to save Barbaro.

[Coneycat]

The articles I saw pretty late in the game talked about stud prospects, even after he developed laminitis.

Regardless, the masses didn't make the decision to try and save him. And since all most people know about horses is that you shoot them if they break a leg (it's more complicated than that) I doubt most people would have had much to say if they'd euthanized him immediately.

It still would have been viewed by many as an indictment of horse racing, but it's not the first or last time a horse has been killed or crippled racing, and I can't imagine it wouldn't have blown over. This is all on the owners. (My vet in the States wouldn't even recoomend I euthanize my old cat when his kidneys failed, so I withhold judgement on the climate in which the vet was practicing.)

He was a beautiful youngster, that's for sure. It's a shame he didn't live to turn four.

[robert goulet]

I'm sure Barbaro has spent a great deal of time over these last 8 months filling up as many sterile tubes of "Barbaro Juice" as he could muster. Just because he has now been euthanized does not mean that his offspring can't be bred.

Although bloodlines usually play a vital role in the quality of a horse, world-champion and Derby winning horses aren't assured of giving birth to equally talented foal (baby horses). Secretariat, possibly the greatest and most-beloved horse of all time has gone down in history as producing less than spectacular offspring.

[Coneycat]

Interestingly, Secretariat is known as a great "broodmare sire"--his get weren't all that special on the track, but his daughters have apparently been good producers. Not as good as their grandsire, but really--how could they be?

I'm sure Barbaro has spent a great deal of time over these last 8 months filling up as many sterile tubes of "Barbaro Juice" as he could muster. Just because he has now been euthanized does not mean that his offspring can't be bred.

Yeah, it does. First of all, to collect semen from a stallion, he has to be able to jump the breeding dummy. I've seen stallions collected, and it's just as active a process as breeding via live cover (actual contact between stallion and mare) it's just that with the dummy and AI there's no chance of the either horse getting kicked.

Secondly, even if they were able to collect him, they still wouldn't be able to breed thoroughbred race horses from him, because racing thoroughbreds have to be registered with the Jockey Club, and as noted above the Jockey Club (unlike every other registry I can think of) does not permit AI. They only accept live cover, and while I am sure there have been cases of breeders lying a little, there's no way you could convince the Jockey Club that your 2008 foal is the offspring of a stud who's been dead since early 2007 and was crippled before then. So no--no Barbaro offspring on the thoroughbred track, although if they had the presence of mind to collect him before his accident, he could be bred to quarter horses, Appaloosas, or Paints. Since he'd have been DNA-typed (another JC rule) you could prove parentage of those babies. I don't know that the short-track racers would be very interested, though I guess I could see someone wanting a Barbaro baby for sentiment.