TWIT is sad to report that Barbaro has died. The Kentucky Derby winner was euthanized yesterday after complications from his gruesome breakdown at last year's Preakness, ending an eight-month ordeal that made him even more of a hero than he was as a champion on the track.
We all grimace as we remember the moment at the start of the Preakness when Barbara shattered his right hind leg. He underwent a five-hour operation that fused two joints, after which the surgeons said his survival would be a coin toss. But Barbaro's recovery seemed to go well. The bones that had shattered in the Preakness were healed and the only major concern was in Barbaro's left rear leg, where 80 percent of the hoof had been removed in July when he developed laminitis. But the laminitis in both hooves and an abscess in the right rear hoof, proved too much for the gallant colt. Barbaro was given a heavy dose of a tranquilizer and an overdose of an anesthetic and put down at 10:30 a.m.. The owners and doctors knew it was the right thing to do. They could clearly tell Barbaro was suffering and in pain, and they did what they had to do.
Barbaro was a hero - not just because he won the Derby, but because he was a fighter and survivor, and because he didn't give up. The world could use a few more Barbaros.
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