{"id":11041,"date":"2018-05-16T18:19:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T00:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/?p=11041"},"modified":"2023-05-29T00:35:22","modified_gmt":"2023-05-29T00:35:22","slug":"ten-years-on-barbaro-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/ten-years-on-barbaro-remembered\/","title":{"rendered":"Twelve Years On. Barbaro Remembered. The Triple Crown Winner That Should Have Been."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Saturday May 6th 2006. It was the\u00a0day I saw the Kentucky\u00a0Derby won by the\u00a0horse\u00a0who\u00a0was going to become the first Triple Crown winner in 29 years.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

In 2002, 2003 and 2004 I had traveled from my home in California to New York, albeit with\u00a0optimistic\u00a0hope rather than any great\u00a0confidence, to see three Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners attempt to make history in the Belmont Stakes. First it was the trailblazing, virtually black, west coast front runner War Emblem, in 2002. Then came the big red, rangy New York tough guy Funny Cide in 2003.\u00a0 And in 2004, the loveable, compact, chunky chestnut from Philadelphia, Smarty Jones. Each bravely failed in their attempt to win the Belmont, and the elusive Triple Crown.<\/p>\r\n

On the day after the 2006 Kentucky Derby, it was with a very different feeling that I quickly booked my flight\u00a0to New York. Even though the Preakness had not yet been run, I felt it was going to be a mere formality for the Derby winner Barbaro. As many felt the same way, the Belmont would most likely be a sell out. I\u00a0wanted a good seat in the house to see history made.<\/p>\r\n

The unbeaten, stunningly handsome, bright bay beauty Barbaro completely laughed at\u00a0his Derby competition, as he trounced the field\u00a0by a\u00a0facile\u00a06 1\/2 lengths. It was immediately clear that this was a creature\u00a0who\u00a0was on a very different level to the three previous gallant\u00a0Triple Crown contenders I had flown across the country to cheer on. Barbaro\u00a0was clearly a cut above those gallant horses. As a son of Dynaformer he was likely to run all day,\u00a0and his\u00a0running style and physique told me that the mile and a half of the Belmont Stakes would be a positive, not a negative. This fella\u00a0had Triple Crown Winner stamped all over him.<\/p>\r\n

\"barbarog-763806.jpeg\"Everybody knows what happened in the Preakness. I can still sadly, see it now. Twelve years on I still vividly\u00a0remember the knot in my stomach that suddenly arrived along\u00a0with a\u00a0dark sense of foreboding, as\u00a0Barbaro burst\u00a0through\u00a0the gate before the field was ready.<\/p>\r\n

After pulling his mount up, jockey Edgar Prado seemed anxious as he looked down and behind him, as he and Barbaro regrouped and circled behind the gate again\u00a0for the vet’s inspection. Barbaro was given the all clear, by a vet\u00a0<\/span>who, with a potential Triple Crown at stake and the Preakness field waiting, was surely under an intense amount of pressure to let the odds on favorite\u00a0run<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Barbaro\u00a0was reloaded. As he probably would not have been, if it had been <\/span>a normal\u00a0<\/span>race at most other tracks, on most other days. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

And so it ended.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"Barbaro-headshot\" Trained by\u00a0 the master horseman and ex-Olympic Equestrian champion Michael Matz, Barbaro was a sound horse in great physical shape.\u00a0The nature of Barbaro’s injury suggested that it was very possibly initiated\u00a0when he became\u00a0fractious in the gate and broke out of that stall\u00a0– always a\u00a0physically straining, stressful,\u00a0combustive situation, especially on a horse’s hind end.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

For me, Barbaro was in the American Pharoah league. I do not say that lightly and I would not say that about any other horse from the past twenty\u00a0years, apart from perhaps Shared Belief, who we probably never did see the best of.\u00a0 But all sentimentality aside, I honestly believe Barbaro would have beaten Bernardini in that Preakness. And I also believe he would have gone on to New York and won the Belmont by open lengths to win\u00a0the Triple Crown. There is little doubt in my mind about it.<\/p>\r\n

Twelve years on, the sad memory of that Preakness is still with me. But that memory will fade.\u00a0And\u00a0the magnificent memory of the majestic, spectacular, breathtaking\u00a0Barbaro, running away with the Kentucky Derby, will remain.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

— Carl Wilson<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

\"Barbaro<\/p>\r\n

RIP Barbaro<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

April 29, 2003<\/em> \u2013 January 29, 2007<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Watch Barbaro win the 2006 Kentucky Derby Here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\r\n

\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Barbaro1\"Saturday May 6th 2006. It was the day I saw the Kentucky Derby won by the horse who was going to become the first Triple Crown winner in 29 years. The unbeaten, stunningly handsome, bright bay beauty Barbaro completely laughed at his Derby competition, as he trounced the field by a facile 6 1\/2 lengths. It was immediately clear that this was a creature who was on a very different level to the three previous gallant Triple Crown contenders I had flown across the country from California to Belmont Park to cheer on. And Barbaro’s running style and physique told me that the mile and a half of the Belmont Stakes would be a positive, not a negative. This fella had Triple Crown Winner stamped all over him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legends","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoroughbredpeople.com\/blogUS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}