"It's a sad situation"

BARBARO NEVER finished behind a horse in any race where he actually made the finish line. Sadly, it will be the race the colt never finished that will be the final public memory.

When word began to filter out late yesterday morning that Barbaro had been euthanized at 10:30 a.m., it evoked so many feelings in so many people for so many reasons that you could not even imagine what it must have been like for those closest to the horse.

Dr. Dean Richardson and his team invested so much in Barbaro's care that anybody who spoke with him knew it. Those who didn't speak with him could see it yesterday. This was a man who had tried everything to save the horse. In the end, he just couldn't.

"Things happened very quickly in the last couple of days," Richardson said during an emotional late-afternoon news conference at the New Bolton Center in Kennett Square. "Two things pushed us over the top. [Sunday] night, really for the first time ever, he didn't feel comfortable enough to lie down. He wasn't comfortable standing up . . . He was a completely different horse. Our goal from the beginning was to do what was right for the horse.

"This morning, after discussing all the complications [and speaking with owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson], I really didn't think it was appropriate to continue with his treatment because the probable outcome was just so poor and he would have to go through basically an unmanageable amount of discomfort.

"The biggest thing that happened in the last 24 hours was that he developed a fairly severe laminitis in both front legs so that essentially left him with not a good leg to stand on."

In the last days, Barbaro, Richardson said, "was just a different horse. You could see he was upset. It was more than we wanted to put him through."

After winning the Kentucky Derby by the largest margin in 60 years, that elusive Triple Crown seemed there for Barbaro's taking. Then, 2 weeks later, barely 200 yards into the Preakness at Pimlico, it was over, as the colt's right hind leg was left dangling, a harsh reminder that, in racing, nothing, not even a safe trip around the track, is guaranteed.

Barbaro won his first six races - three on grass, three on dirt. He was a late bloomer, but by May he was the one. Everybody with eyesight during Derby Week at Churchill Downs knew it. Then, Barbaro ran away from the Derby field in the stretch like the race had just started and he was searching for competition in some far off racing universe.

Owned by the Jacksons of Chester County and trained by Michael Matz of Chester County, Barbaro was the third straight horse with Philadelphia connections to become a Triple Crown star. Unlike Smarty Jones and Afleet Alex, however, Barbaro did not get through racing's marquee series.

And everybody is left to wonder about what might have been. Nobody will ever know how good this horse really was.

That is sad. The finality of it is sadder.

"It's a sad situation because we had some bright periods," Roy Jackson said. "It looked like we might make it through the thing. Too much weight on the legs like that. Dean had said from the start it was going to be a long, long road. It was better not to go further and let him suffer."

Jackson was trying to hold his emotions in when talking about it. When asked how his wife was doing, he said, "I think the one it's been the hardest on is Dean Richardson. He was really upset by the whole thing. I think he probably feels like he failed or something. He's really taking it hard, like everybody . . .

"I don't think any of them there [at New Bolton] should feel that way at all because they did a monumental job of trying to get through this whole thing."

Richardson said that, knowing what he knows now about a horse with Barbaro's injuries, he thinks he "would have a better chance of saving his life." And that is certain to be one of Barbaro's legacies.

Richardson emphasized that "Barbaro had many, many good days" while at New Bolton.

After Barbaro was injured on May 20 in Baltimore, the colt was taken by horse ambulance up I-95 to New Bolton. People hung banners from the overpasses. They got out of their cars and waved. There was a connection.

After Richardson performed the initial surgery on Barbaro on May 21, New Bolton was inundated with cards, e-mails, phone calls. It was like Barbaro went from the Jacksons' horse to everybody's horse.

When the news about Barbaro's recovery was so positive and continued that way for 6 weeks, most of the people relaxed, assuming the colt was going to get better. The horse people never relaxed. They knew better.

When it started to turn in July after the colt got laminitis in his left hind foot, Richardson and his team fought it hard. They tried everything. The colt survived that, but it was a bit of a mirage.

Richardson had to cut away 80 percent of the hoof. For the colt to have any chance at a normal life, that hoof would have to grow back evenly. It did not.

Early this month, a cast was placed on that hoof in an attempt to promote more even growth. A week later, the cast was removed because the colt was showing discomfort.

Complications piled upon complications. They were out of options. Barbaro was in pain and the Jacksons always had said they wanted the colt to live a pain-free life. When that could not be guaranteed, the hardest decision was made.

Barbaro could have been kept alive in intensive care indefinitely. They wanted to give the colt a chance at a normal life outdoors by balancing the feet and promoting tissue growth in the left hind foot. Thus, they tried some procedures this month. It was something, Richardson said, that they were going to have to try at some point.

That left hind foot, Richardson said, "was unsound."

Which is why they tried a cast on Jan. 3. That caused discomfort, which probably caused Barbaro to shift his weight back to the right rear leg. That leg just developed an abscess, so they tried a last-ditch surgical procedure Saturday.

"One thing just led to another," Richardson said

"I'm very comfortable we made the right decision," Richardson said. "As your typical egotistical surgeon, I would love to just prove what I could do on a daily basis. But you have to do what's best for the patient."

So it was done.

In his final moments, Barbaro was in a sling. He ate his grass in the morning. He was given a very heavy dose of a tranquilizer and then given an overdose of an anesthetic.

"It could not have been any more peaceful," Richardson said.

"I'd like now for all of us to say a prayer for Barbaro and for all those that have loved him so much," Gretchen Jackson said. "Certainly, grief is the price we all pay for love and I'm sure there are a lot of grieving people."

Top-class horses are regularly buried, often on a horse farm.

"We haven't really reached a conclusion [on that]," Roy Jackson said. "We've thought about it a little back with the laminitis thing. I really don't know exactly where would be the best place. We've got to think that out."*