THE PREAKNESS STAKES...

[mrracetrack]

soflat mentioned LIKE NOW...

I posted this about LIKE NOW back on April 24th...

The final prep race that means anything was run yesterday, the Coolmore Lexington. A horse named Showing Up won it by about a length. It wasn't an easy win, but it was fairly impressive. He didn't have the easiest trip, he was stuck down along the inside for a good portion of the race, and then had to be taken out for the stretch run. Have a look MrR, let me know what you think.

I watched the replay 3 times (thanks for providing the link again, Pina )
and while it certainly was an impressive win by Showing Up, especially the move from the rail to the far outside into the stretch, I was more impressed with the effort on Like Now.

Like Now was pressured every step of the race, put away all challenges other than Showing Up, and was actually coming on again close to the wire!

Like Now, who was on the graded stakes earnings bubble, was also assured of a spot in the Derby with his $65,000 paycheck, but unfortunately, he probably will not race in the Derby, and it is still questionable if Showing Up will, either.

Here is what Like Now's trainer had to say:


Quote:
"Unfortunately he got into a bit of a speed duel with [Fast Parade]. Take [Fast Parade] out and I think we could have won. But he ran a huge race and fought hard. We'll talk to the owner [John Dillon], but I think we'll probably look at the Preakness [Stakes (G1)]. It's a little easier spot. He's a gelding, and we want to have some fun with him this year. The Derby is a little too soon to run back."

I will go with LIKE NOW to upset BARBARO in the Preakness.

BARBARO will be the overwhelming favorite (probably 6-5 or lower) and although he deserves the role as favorite, and has a great chance of winning this race... there is no value from a betting standpoint.

At the morning line odds of 12-1 (which may drop a bit)... LIKE NOW offers value as a "live" price. Pimlico is a speed track, which favors front runners... and LIKE NOW should be on the lead early. If he gets away without being pressured for the first 6 furlongs... he could be very game and tough to catch.

I will also give my Derby selection, SWEETNORTHERNSAINT a good shot to win if LIKE NOW falters.

I will go with a 3 horse exacta box of LIKE NOW/ SWEETNORTHERNSAINT/BROTHER DEREK... a $3 box (total $18) and $12 to WIN on LIKE NOW... ($30 total invested)

How good is BARBARO? We'll know a bit after 6pm Saturday evening.

[Pinababy69]

Well, I really am hoping that Barbaro wins the race. I want to at least have the hope of a Triple Crown winner alive when the Belmont rolls around. But.....if I have to take one horse that I would bet (cause I wouldn't bet Barbaro at 2-1 or lower), I would probably go with Bernardini. Relative newcomer, excellent breeding, decent price...worth a shot.

And MrR, that's gonna be my pick at Sucks as well, on my way to post my winning entry, lol.

Go Barbaro!!

[soflat]

I am taking Barbaro to win, exactas with Like Now and Bernardini over Barbaro, and one trifecta Brother Derek,Barbaro,Like Now.

I think Barbaro will take the Triple crown. Not that impressed with Brother Derek even though he did have a tough trip in the Derby.

[Pinababy69]

I don't know how others feel about it, but I can't even talk about the race right now.

For those who don't know, or didn't watch, Barbaro suffered a definite career-ending injury to his rear right leg. Waiting to hear if it's bad enough that he has to be put down. MrR knows more of the details, I'm way too upset.

[mrracetrack]

I will update this as soon as further information becomes available

Barbaro sustains 'significant injury' as Bernardini wins Preakness


Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Barbaro went from being a Triple Crown contender to battling for his life 100 yards into the Preakness Stakes (G1) on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course, putting a pall over Bernardini's victory.

Barbaro, whose record-setting margin of victory in the Derby had racing fans thinking the 28-year Triple Crown drought might be over, took a bad step less than one furlong into the 1 3/16-mile Preakness, breaking the bone above his right hind ankle and seriously breaking the bone below his right hind ankle.

"There are some major hurdles to clear," attending veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage said. "This is a significant injury. There are at least a couple of aspects that are very life threatening for him. His career is over; this will be it for him as a racehorse. But under the best of circumstances, we are looking to try to save him as a stallion."

Bramlage said there is a two-pronged problem with this type of injury—the level of damage to the blood supply and keeping the horse off the leg while it recovers. Horses have two small arteries supplying blood to the lower leg, he said.

"If there is significant danger to the blood supply to the lower limb, that's the one you worry about the most as far as this being a life-threatening injury," Bramlage said. "But equally as important is that that's an injury that you or I would be put in bed for for six weeks until allowed to walk on it, and that's impossible to do with a horse, so it's going to take some sort of major stabilizing surgery."


Barbaro broke through the starting gate prior to the Preakness, but Bramlage said the injury would not have happened at that time.

"[Jockey Edgar Prado] probably knew, before the horse knew, that something was wrong," Bramlage said.

Prado said he heard the ankle break about 100 yards into the race and he pulled him up, getting Barbaro to finally stop just past the finish line less than a quarter of a mile into the race.

"When he went to the gate he was feeling super," Prado said. "I felt like he was in the best condition for this race. He actually tried to buck me off a couple of times. He was feeling that good."

Jockey Alex Solis, who was aboard Brother Derek, said he heard a crack early in the race and saw Prado pull the Dynaformer colt up.

"We didn't expect this," said Gretchen Jackson, who along with her husband Roy own Barbaro. "You can expect being beaten. You don't think about this. …We are hoping that they will operate on him tomorrow."

Michael Matz was traveling with Barbaro. As she was leaving the racetrack Dorothy Matz, his wife, said "Barbaro reacted like the true champion he is, and hopefully he'll get the best care possible and he'll be all right."

The injury overshadowed the effort of Darley Stable's Bernardini, and left the Pimlico record crowd of 118,402 in a hush.

UPDATE...

Barbaro transported to equine facility

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was transported to the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center following his injury Saturday in the Preakness in Baltimore.

The 3-year-old stumbled a few hundred yards after leaving the starting gate at Pimlico and was pulled up by jockey Edgar Prado. Barbaro was diagnosed with a fracture above and below his right hind ankle.

Penn is renowned for its specialized care, especially on animals needing complicated surgery on bone injuries. Veterinarians at the Center first started performing arthroscopic surgery on horses in the early 1980s.

Penn also developed a pool-recovery system that allows a horse to recover from surgery without injuring itself.

The New Bolton Center treats horses from throughout the mid-Atlantic region, and has treated some from as far away as Florida and Canada.

Penn acquired the Chester County, Pa., farm in 1952 and a large animal clinic was opened at the New Bolton Center in 1964.

[Pinababy69]

Derby Winner Barbaro Undergoes Surgery
By RICHARD ROSENBLATT , 05.21.2006, 01:18 PM

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro went into surgery Sunday to determine the extent of "life-threatening injuries" after the colt broke three bones above and below his right rear ankle at the start of the Preakness Stakes.

The surgery was being performed by Dr. Dean Richardson at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center for Large Animals. He said the operation could take several hours.

Richardson, the chief of surgery for the center, said the injuries were "very, very serious," and that he's never worked on so many catastrophic injuries to one horse.

"You do not see this severe injury frequently because the fact is most horses that suffer this typically are put down on the race track," Richardson said. "This is rare."

"It's about as bad as it could be," he added. "The main thing going for the horse is a report that his skin was not broken at the time of injury. It's a testament to the care given to the team of doctors on the track and (jockey) Mr. Prado on the racetrack."

Richardson said Barbaro sustained a broken cannon bone above the ankle, a broken sesamoid bone behind the ankle and a broken long pastern bone below the ankle. The fetlock joint, the ankle, was dislocated.

"The aspects of the surgery will be dictated slightly by what we find," Richardson said. "But the bottom line is we will attempt to perform a fusion of that joint and to stabilize it and make it comfortable enough for him to walk on."


So I guess we should know within a few hours if he has any chance at all of survival. It sounds pretty grim, but I guess there's always hope. I give credit to the owners here for giving this horse a chance anyway, I don't think that all would.

[mrracetrack]

Corinne Sweeney, a veterinarian and the executive hospital director, said the horse was still in surgery about five hours after it began but that the procedure was near completion. She didn't give any other details on the horse's condition.

[mrracetrack]

Kentucky Derby Winner Barbaro Recovering From Surgery...


Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, wearing a cast up to his knee, was recovering tonight at the University of Pennsylvania's George D. Widener Hospital after surgery to repair three broken bones in his leg.

``He was walking on his own,'' Chief Surgeon Dean Richardson said after more than four hours of surgery at the Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, hospital.

Trainer Michael Matz said the three-year-old colt walked into his stall and starting eating hay.

[soflat]

That is good news. The injury sounds very severe and they say it is still basically a coin toss if it works out for him. So anyways, I hope the news stays good.

I'm pretty much speechless. It was so disappointing and reminds of me when Holy Bull broke down at Gulfstream Park and how so many people went from excitement to sadness and worry in an instant.

[mrracetrack]

UPDATE... Barbaro 'Comfortable' After Day of Surgery...

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro underwent more than five hours of surgery Sunday to repair three broken bones in his right rear leg and afterward "practically jogged back to the stall," the colt's surgeon said.

At this moment "he is extremely comfortable in the leg," said Dr. Dean Richardson, who stressed before the marathon procedure that he's never worked on so many catastrophic injuries to one horse.

Barbaro sustained "life-threatening injuries" Saturday when he broke bones above and below his right rear ankle at the start of the Preakness Stakes. His surgery began around 1 p.m. Sunday at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center for Large Animals.

Although the operation was successful, Richardson warned that Barbaro was far from home free. He said it was still "a coin toss" that the strapping 3-year-old colt would be able to survive what had been termed catastrophic injuries.

"I feel much more comfortable now," trainer Michael Matz said afterward. "I feel at least he has a chance."

Unbeaten and a serious contender for the Triple Crown, Barbaro broke down Saturday only a few hundred yards into the 1 3-16-mile Preakness. The record crowd of 118,402 watched in shock as Barbaro veered sideways, his right leg flaring out grotesquely. Jockey Edgar Prado pulled the powerful colt to a halt, jumped off and awaited medical assistance.

Barbaro sustained a broken cannon bone above the ankle, a broken sesamoid bone behind the ankle and a broken long pastern bone below the ankle. The fetlock joint - the ankle - was dislocated.

Richardson said the pastern bone was shattered in "20-plus pieces."

The bones were put in place to fuse the joint by inserting a plate and 23 screws to repair damage so severe that most horses would not be able to survive it.

When he came out of surgery, Barbaro was lifted by sling and placed on a raft in a pool so he could calmly awake from the anesthetic. When he went back to his stall, he was wearing a cast from just below the hock to the hoof.

"He's a real genuine athlete, there's no doubt about it," Richardson said. "Even the way he woke up from anesthesia, he was very much the athlete waking up from general anesthesia."

Matz, who attended the briefing with Richardson, looked fatigued, but relieved.

"From the last time I saw him to now was a big relief," Matz said. "They did an excellent job. It's just an amazing thing to see him walk in like that."

Richardson again stressed that surgery was just the first step on a long road to recovery.

"Getting the horse up is a big step, but it is not the last step by any means," he said. "Horses with this type of injury are very, very susceptible to lots of other problems, including infection at the site."

Horses are often euthanized after serious leg injuries because circulation problems and deadly disease can arise if they are unable to distribute weight on all fours.

Richardson said he expects Barbaro to remain at the center for several weeks, but "it wouldn't surprise me if he's here much longer than that."