Kennett Square, Pa. – Veterinarians announced Sunday night that they had successfully fused the shattered right leg of Barbaro, offering reason for optimism after a tumultuous 24 hours during which the racehorse went from Triple Crown contender to struggling for his life.
More than five hours of unprecedented surgery at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center left doctors cautiously optimistic that Barbaro, who suffered his injury about 50 strides into Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, would survive to live a career at stud that should be worth millions of dollars.
The news came as a huge relief to those who had stood vigil outside the hospital and to Barbaro’s fan base, which had grown exponentially since the colt’s dominant victory at the Kentucky Derby on May 6. They joined the gathered throng of news reporters, cameramen and photographers in passing the slow hours awaiting any word of progress.
At last, at 8:50 p.m., Dr. Dean Richardson, the center’s chief of surgery, announced that Barbaro had come through the surgery and was standing in his stall in the intensive-care unit.
In a procedure he described beforehand as life-threatening, Richardson worked with six other doctors to fuse the fractured cannon bone, sesamoid and long pastern in Barbaro’s right rear leg as well as a dislocated fetlock. The surgery required a metal rod and 23 screws to help stabilize a long pastern bone that had shattered into more than 20 pieces.
“We hopefully fused the fetlock successfully so he will be able to live and have a career as a stallion,” Richardson said in a briefing room packed with more than 100 media representatives. “He’s still a coin toss, even after things went well.”
Owned by former minor-league baseball-team owner Roy Jackson and his wife, Gretchen, Barbaro entered Saturday as a prohibitive favorite to win not only the Preakness Stakes but also next month’s Belmont Stakes, which would have made him the first winner of horse racing’s coveted Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978.
Instead, fewer than 50 strides out of the starting gate, Barbaro broke three bones in his right rear ankle and was pulled up in agony by his jockey, Edgar Prado.
The injury sent a seismic shock throughout the racing world, virtually silencing a record crowd of 118,402 at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course.
Richardson said one of the critical factors in whether the operation would be a success was the blood flow through the arteries in the ankle, and while he found a good supply, he said the area was “badly damaged enough that you could see blood oozing through the skin.”
After the operation, an anesthetized Barbaro was lowered into a pool of water, buoyed by an inflatable raft, to guard against any agitation that might have occurred when he awoke. Later, he was taken to a 14-by-14-foot stall in the hospital’s intensive-care unit, standing on his own.
“At the moment, he is extremely comfortable,” said Richardson, who said Barbaro still must avoid infection and other dangers during his recovery.
Barbaro’s trainer, Michael Matz, exhaled along with the rest of the racing world.
“From the last time I saw him until today is a big relief,” Matz said. “The team did an excellent job. When he walked into his stall, he started eating hay.”
Throughout the day, the New Bolton Center became the grounds of a hopeful vigil as bands of news reporters, cameramen and photographers passed the slow hours waiting for any word. Fans dropped by early in the day and posted notes on the entrance gates to the hospital that read, “Thank you, Barbaro,” and “Good luck, Barbaro.”
Flower bouquets with get-well cards filled the waiting room. A bunch of raw carrots brought in sat on a table.
Some fans drove in and sat in their cars, unsure what else to do.
“It’s very, very sad,” said Judy Eill of Media, Pa., sitting in the passenger seat of her idling car as tears streamed down her face and her husband paced the parking lot. “It’s a mess. We made a card: ‘Thinking of you at this difficult time’ for the horse and Michael.”
Exactly when and how the injury occurred remains a mystery, although Corinne Sweeney, director of the New Bolton Center, said it occurred during the race and not before.
An injury to the rear leg of a horse during competition is almost unheard of, said Bill Brasaemle, a race chart caller at Pimlico, who watches in the neighborhood of 2,000 races a year for Equibase, the official racetrack-information company.
“Off the top of my head, it’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen one,” said Brasaemle, who helped write the official chart of the Preakness. “I was incredulous. Horses just don’t break hind legs and break down that early in a race. They break down on the turn or in the stretch.
“I was completely shocked. A catastrophic break like that doesn’t happen early.”
Barbaro is a son of Dynaformer, a noted distance and turf runner whose sire fee is $100,000 a session.
Barbaro offered potentially added value as a stallion because he had demonstrated versatility, winning three races on the grass, three on the dirt and at distances up to a mile and a quarter.
