Barbaro was Sports' Best Friend

By Jared Trexler

From draped in roses after a multi-million dollar victory to showered with roses at his bed side in Kennett Square, Barbaro's true "life" began and ended with love.

That's why I'll never understand the bitter connotations behind the phrase, "You treated her/him like a dog." My own miniature collie, Maggie, was buried just over one month ago after a life filled with eating, sleeping, Frisbee sessions and adoration.

If only our lives could be filled with so much joy, and so little hurt.

Barbaro made a name for himself on a brisk Saturday in early May, as big wigs and gambling experts flooded into Louisville, Kentucky for the annual champagne toast known as the, "Run for the Roses."

The Philadelphia horse started fast, but unlike other area sports stars and professional teams, he ended faster. While winning the Kentucky Derby is quite an accomplishment, dominating a race by 6 1/2 lengths to capture a sixth victory in six starts is Sea Biscuit territory.

Enter MGM.

Yet the storybook never reached Chapter 2. Two weeks later, on an in-town track near the Baltimore Harbor, surrounded by a tent party that would make Phi Beta Flip Cup salivate, the horse with so much to gain lost it all.

Barbaro fractured his right hind leg in three places barely out of the starting block, ending his career and putting his life in jeopardy.

An emergency procedure led by chief surgeon Dr. Dean Richardson began an eight-month struggle for the area's new sports star. A plate and screws were inserted in the hind leg at the New Bolton Center at Kennett Square, and so began America's love affair with an ailing animal.

There is a reason the sympathy meter scales off the charts for dogs and cats, fish and horses. They are best friends, always there to listen without finding the need to prove you wrong.

And so Barbaro sat in the hay at the luxury complex with top-flight physicians and team owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson there around the clock. Yet, the story wasn't necessarily the team of Med school prodigies or wealthy owners, but the area fans who came to Kennett Square to offer their support.

Many didn't even watch Barbaro's emphatic win in Louisville. Others would have been hard pressed to offer insight into the sport of horse racing at all.

Yet, here they were. With cards and cakes, signs and sympathy. Flowers flooding the outside of Barbaro's "hospital room." All from people who strongly felt they were part of the family.

"Animals are sacred creatures," one woman told me some eight months ago. "We feel a strong affinity to them, no matter who they are or where they are from."

The story took on a nationwide slant because of WHO Barbaro was -- a talented thoroughbred with the genes for racing. And because of WHERE he was from -- a populous sports area with fans dying to embrace a winner.

Even if it was just a horse.

After many turns for the better and worse, Barbaro finally lost the battle for his life on Monday.

"We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain," co-owner Roy Jackson said. "It was the right decision, it was the right thing to do. We said all along if there was a situation where it would become more difficult for him then it would be time."

The situation occurred over the weekend when a series of complications, including laminitis in his left rear hoof and a recent abscess in the right rear hoof, started taking their toll.

After a Monday morning consultation, the grave decision to end Barbaro's life was made. In the aftermath, Jackson's first words were to US -- Barbaro's fans.

"I would say thank you for everything, and all your thoughts and prayers over the last eight months or so," Jackson said.

Barbaro lasted longer than the odds suggested at the beginning, leaving behind a legacy as a fighter more so than as a winner.

Sounds like typical Philadelphia. And that's why he'll be forever missed.