sad day in maryland

[chumly]

alot to think about after that race rarely when a horse breaks loose through the gate does he not scratch but what bothered me most was as quickly as they pushed the horse back in. i dont think that had anything to do with the injury but maybe the horse was telling everyone hey i dont feel right today its sad but barbora should not have run the race after what happened

[Bobtheicon]

And the way he was bouncing around while being led to the gates.
He didn;t want to run that race. Its sad.

[ANGELZ]

that was awful i think breaking through the gate definitly did something

[WildKat]

Two things. They said that he was acting really "manic" is I think the word was used. This made me think that maybe he shouldn't have run, if it was way out of the ordinary for his behavior. Also, with this type of behavior, somehting made him break though the gate, that might have been the final decision in making the call on him not wanting to run that day. Was his behavior that abnormal for him? Two, did somehting happen when he did break through the gate? I watched replays and couldn't really tell if he was favoring that leg or not at the start of the race.

[Wabash Wonders]

On the contrary, his actions before the race were very typical of a horse wanting to run. Barbaro acted up before both of his previous races in the paddock, both at the derby and the Florida Derby so him being frisky and acting up some was quite normal for him. Jockey Edgar Prado said that he even tried to buck him off a few times in the post parade indicating he was feeling good and ready to run. He mentioned that Barbaro just touched the front gate and just busted thru it, but this had absolutely no bearing on his injury. He was looked at quickly before being loaded back in just to be sure had not been injured. More than likely just looking to see if he had cut himself or not. If he had, no doubt he would have been scratched. This injury was simply a matter of a 1200 pound horse taking a bad step and breaking an ankle because of it. His actions before the race had absolutely nothing to do with it. Was simply a fluke accident...Lets just hope now that he can recupperate from the surgery today and be able to be put out to stud in the future. The danger is not the operation itself, but the rehabiltation process which can take 6-8 weeks. The problem is when a human breaks a leg or ankle, he lays in bed for 6 weeks and lets it heel. A horse can't do that. He has to be on his feet the whole time and thats what makes it difficult to return from such an injury. I hate to say this, but I think the odds of him surviving all of this are slim, but lets all pray that he does...

[WildKat]

Good call Wabash. I was just stating that I didn't know his pre race behavior and that if it was really different than maybe they should have made a better decision. If that was Barbaro's personality, then by all means let him be...Lets hope for the best!