Barbaro update.

[Justpat]

In Thursday's Daily Racing Form, there is an article by Jay Privman talking about Edgar Prado's visit
to New Bolton Center to see Barbaro.

Mr. Privman quotes Lou Raffetto, president and CEO of Maryland Jockey Club regarding the stewards review of the films
of the Preakness. Mr. Raffetto says: "...a review of stewards patrol films and corresponding still photos has led him
to theorize that inadvertant contact between Brother Derek's right front leg and Barbaro's right rear leg contributed
to Barbaro taking an awkward step and suffering the fracture."


I hope MJC makes the films available to the public in order to put the rest the idiotic conspiracy theorys about Edgar
knowing before the race that something was wrong and that breaking through the gate before the race was the cause of
his injury. It is important for the racing world to see it. It is also important for all the nuts screaming for an
end to horse racing to understand that this type of injury occurs in the field also when youngsters are running in
a group around the fields. It is something that happens to large animals traveling at speed whether on the track or in
the paddock. There is a point in the horses stride where one leg at a time is taking the full weight of the horse's body
while the other legs are in the air. Being pushed off balance, even for an instant, is all is takes to cause a fracture.

For the past week the NY Times has engaged in absurd, tabloid style type jouranlism with regard to this whole thing.
I am writing them a letter today and encouraging them to apply more rigorous standards to their coverage of racing.

[two gun sid]

1. I'd like to see the film also...

OB, you are so correct. Horses get hurt in the paddock and pasture just as easily as on the race course. They get cast in stalls. No one can hope to prevent all injuries. The folks who think banning racing is going to stop horses from injury are wrong. And anyone who thinks Prado knew before hand is way wrong. Ain't no way I'd get on a horse that I knew was gonna breakdown and ride it in a race. That's crazy.

Good luck with your letter.

I'm glad that Barbaro is doing so well.

[Justpat]

2. copy of letter.

Dear Mr. Finley,

In Thursday's DRF, Jay Privman writes of Prado's visit to New Bolton to visit Barbaro.
In the same article Mr.Privman quotes Lou Raffetto, president and CEO of the Maryland Jockey
Clubas as saying: "...on Tuesday he reviewed the stewards' and patrol films and corresponding
still photos which led him to theorize that inadvertent contack between Brother Derek's right
front leg and Barbaro's right hind leg contributed to Barbaro taking an awkward step and
suffering the fracture."
Mr. Raffetto went on to tell Mr. Privman that it happened just before the sixteenth pole
as Barbaro drifted out as Brother Derek closed the margin. He said: "Brother Derek extends his
right front and it appears to het Barbaro's right hind. Barbaro's head comes up."
I think this is a more likely scenario than the one you published on 5/29 in which you
quote a veteranarian from Montana who felt that Barbaro injured himself breaking through the
gate before the race. The person quoted felt that those professionals in charge did not scratch
Barbaro because of the hugh sums of money that would have had to be refunded. It seems that Dr.
Sid Gustafson falls into the same mold as Bill Frist who claims to be able to detect life in a
brain dead woman based on carefully selected videos. Your quoting of Dr. Gustafson, who no doubt
is a dedicated professional, who made his diagnosis from his couch two thousand miles away.
This is the type of journalism I would expect from the Globe or the National Enquirer.

For the last week I have been reading the Times coverage of this event and considered
writing earlier in the week but decided to wait until I worked through my disappointment,
anger and disgust with your paper's portrayel of our sport. Maybe if the Times had condescended
to cover racing on a regular basis for the last twenty years except for its Derby week coverage,
your paper would have been abreast of recent developments in equine sports medicine, equine surgery
and the daily dedication of everyone involved, from the jocks to the vets, ambulance drivers and
outriders and officials, all who performed a speedy and efficient job or removing a severely injured
horse from the track and getting hin the help he needs to survive. Barebaro's accident showed the
country the efforts we make to save horses who experience these horrible events. Contrary to some
of your readers, this procedure is the same for the bottom level claimers as it is for the
stake horses.
Those of us who have chosen to participate in this sport and managed to stay in it for a while
do so out of love for the horse. Personally, I have a feeling of respect and often awe at the
willingness of race horses to compete and try their best at their own level of inherited ability.

I would like to end this note with a quote from a book on the medical care of sporting dogs
written by Dr. Sid Gustafson. It is taken from the author's comments on the publisher's web site.
Speaking of emergency care of the animals, he writes: "Effective initial treatment and safe transport
of an injured dog to a veteranarian are critical elements of first aid..... the way you handle the
problem in its early stages often will determine how well or how quickly the dog recovers, or even
if it recovers at all. Administering dog first aid requires knowledge, preparation, and a dog that
can be effectively handled and restrained." He further states: "Be careful and cautious and, as much
as possible, prepare for the unexpected. Life is fragile."

Substitute the word horse for the word dog in the above quote and, by the standards of your
distant expert, what you witnessed on Preakness Day was an injured animal being treated with care
and professionalism.

Please take time to become more familiar with all aspects of our sport and those of us who
are honored to share our lives with race horses


I doubt it will be printed or that I will get a reply, but I was sick and tired of their anti racing
bias in their sports department.

[two gun sid]

3. Great letter. I hope they will read it and actually think about....

the points you raise.

[aaronbees]

5. Did they print your letter?

I hope so. It was excellent (especially the Frist quip).

I think it's possible anything happened, frankly, and that includes this Brother Derek conjecture or hurting himself at the gate or an undetected injury or simply a bad step. I would like to have this tape distributed (or images from it) so people could see for themselves; I don't quite buy the theory (I'd expect Derek to have gone done or visibly bobbled, and I think Solis pulled him up when he heard Barbaro's leg break, not when there was contact) but it certainly is possible.

But to believe that Edgar Prado, a professional who clearly adores Barbaro, would press on knowing Barbaro is hurt is to believe Prado chose to go on a suicide mission. And that's ridiculous.

And I'm much in agreement on the anti-horse racing nuts; considering today's Epsom Derby, there's only going to be more of them out.

[Justpat]

8. I haven't heard from the times yet,

but the guy who is head of publicity for NYRA said he thought they
might not print it because it was too critical.

I'll submit another one and keep after them until I get a response.

[jakefrep]

10. Could not have said it much better myself.

I doubt the anti-racing zealots here on DU will be bothered with reading it.

[Awsi Dooger]

4. I still have the race on tape

I'll try to look for the contact tomorrow.

That would be sadly ironic because Brother Derek wanted to break in front of Barbaro. Instead, Brother Derek broke so poorly I remember thinking, "he's out of it." That was my only early conclusion in the race until Barbaro broke down.

[Awsi Dooger]

6. Can't say for sure while looking at the video

Certainly possible. Barbaro definitely has the false step and goes lame just after Brother Derek charges past.

While watching the tape, specifically the isolated replay in slow motion, the amazing aspect is how slowly Barbaro was running before the misstep. Several horses behind him were gaining significant ground and seeemingly stalled by Barbaro. Brother Derek's jockey literally lurched the horse's head to the right as he approached Barbaro, to encourage Brother Derek to pass on the right. Otherwise Brother Derek was running smack into Barbaro. Brother Derek had the 5 spot to Barbaro's 6, but Brother Derek broke so poorly he ended up being hustled past Barbaro on the right.

As Brother Derek begins to pass Barbaro on the right, the #9 horse, I think it was, a horse with red silks, is in the center of the picture and blocks the view of what happens when between Barbaro and Brother Derek. Brother Derek seems to be a bit further right of Barbaro than you would expect, for them to make contact. However, just as Brother Derek comes up on him, Barbaro appears to move slightly to his right, which may have been just enough of a fluke to cause the contact and the injury.

It must have been a loud injury. After watching the replay a dozen times, I finally noticed the jockey on #9 turned his head dramatically to the left and looked back at Barbaro, just after the injury would have occured. The #9 horse was at least a full length ahead of Barbaro at that point and I couldn't see any other reason to look back like that, head on a swivel, unless he heard the break.

[Justpat]

7. I haven't seem the films yet myself

but the starter in MD is a friend of ours.

He said the stewards have the super slow motion film which shows the
brief contact between the two horses.

[Awsi Dooger]

9. It looks definite, watching another angle from the NBC telecast

I didn't notice the slow motion head-on view until today. There must have been contact since Brother Derek jolts suddenly to the outside. I never saw that until today since I always focused on Barbaro.

In watching the head-on, Barbaro moves out much more dramatically before the injury than it appeared when I watched the isolated replay. He moves out at the same time Brother Derek was passing Barbaro and moving in.

[Justpat]

11. The man who works in the film room at Pimlico/Laurel

is a friend. He said on the super slow motion film you can see the instant where BD's hoof is makes contact with
Barbaro's pastern. It was truly an accident and not the result of unsoundness or unfitness.