Tuesday, May 30, 2006
ELKTON, Md. (AP) -- Barbaro's stall has a new occupant -- the half brother of the Kentucky Derby winner, a frisky colt named Man In Havana.
The weekend arrival could not alleviate the emptiness felt by Barbaro's handlers, who have come to realize their injured horse will never again frolic in the plush fields of the Fair Hill Training Center.
Before shattering several bones in his right hind leg in the Preakness May 20, Barbaro loved munching on buttercups and playing in his paddock at Fair Hill. For exercise, the dark bay colt would run through tree-lined paths under Peter Brette, assistant trainer to Michael Matz.
Now, the only way Brette can see Barbaro is at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center, where the 3-year-old is recovering from surgery on his broken leg.
No one has been aboard Barbaro more often than Brette, who may never get over the anguish of watching his favorite horse break down and limp to the side of the track at Pimlico Race Course.
"I've been in racing for 24 years, and last Sunday morning was probably the first time I didn't want to get out of bed. That sums it up," Brette said Monday, shortly after completing his morning chores at Fair Hill.
Even if Barbaro recovers, his days of bursting into a gallop are over, which means there is no reason for him to return to Fair Hill
"I just hope he survives this ordeal," Matz said. "Hopefully he'll get to stand as a stallion, and there are some awful nice barns in Kentucky."
That serves as some consolation to Brette, whose morning routine used to include taking Barbaro out for a leisurely ride or a brisk workout.
"The only thing we can look forward to now is he's going to pull through and is going to be fine and have babies," Brette said. "He was very special, and then he was gone, far too quickly. He was probably the soundest horse in the barn, and for that to happen is nothing short of cruel."
For those who knew Barbaro, it's still hard to digest.
The office of Kathleen Anderson, owner of Equine Veterinary Care and Barbaro's chief physician, is on the far side of Matz's barn at Fair Hill. In the waiting room are four sports pages: one from the day after Barbaro ran to a 6 1/2-length victory in the Derby, the other three proclaiming the horse's greatness on the eve of the Preakness.
Displaying any account of what happened on that fateful Saturday in Baltimore would serve no purpose, certainly not in this setting.
Anderson did all the blood work on Barbaro and scanned hundreds of X-rays of the horse. She had no reason to believe that Barbaro would do anything but roar to victory at Pimlico.
"I will go on record as saying this horse was 100 percent going into the Preakness," she said. "This was an accident, and a very unfortunate one."
Barbaro's 12-by-12 stall was the first one on the left when Anderson walked from her clinic into the barn. It saddened her to see the empty stall for a week after the Preakness, just as it surprised her to see a new resident Sunday.
"When I first came in, I asked, 'Who is that?' You couldn't put an average horse in there; it had to be someone special," Anderson said. "When I found out it was Barbaro's baby brother, I thought that was fine. Keep it in the family."
But Man In Havana is no Barbaro.
"One of the things that made it the saddest, aside from his actual welfare, is that it changed the future of what we had to look forward to this year ... This is very final. He is never coming back," Anderson said.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.