KYW Newsradio Team Coverage
KYW's Steve Tawa reports The co-owners of the three-year-old colt said they knew all along Barbaro was facing long odds. Gretchen Jackson is asking the public that embraced the horse to say a prayer for Barbaro. In her words certainly grief is the price we all pay for love.
"It was a brilliant time. It was the best of times for us. It was great. We had so many people who cared and it was just a real high. We were lucky to have experienced it. We were lucky to have had our horse."
Roy Jackson said they too knew they had reached a point where it would be difficult for Barbaro to go on without pain. The Jackson's were with Dr. Richardson when Barbaro had his morning grass and the decision was made to euthanize the Kenntucky Derby winner.
SPECIAL PHOTO GALLERY: The Career of Barbaro
The colt suffered a significant setback over the weekend, when surgery was required to insert two steel pins in a bone in his right rear foot. He was being treated at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., after he broke a leg during the Preakness race.
Although the broken leg healed, the horse developed the painful and potentially deadly malady of laminitis in other legs.
KYW's Suzanne Monaghan reports that the three-year-old brown colt was beloved by fans. After the undefeated thoroughbred won the Kentucky Derby in May, there was talk of him achieving the Triple Crown. But at the start of the Preakness Stakes last May 20th, he suffered catastrophic injuries to his right hind leg.
At a press conference following Barbaro's first surgery, veterinarians were up front about Barbaro having a long road ahead:
"Horses with this type of injury are very, very susceptible to lots of other problems including infection at the site because of the severity of the injury."
His owners and veterinarians at the New Bolton Center pursued various treatment options, but his injuries proved too severe to overcome.
KYW's Sonia Rincon reports that there were many complications from that initial fracture at the Preakness, which was an injury that most horses would not survive because of the complications. A horse simply has to have its weight on all four legs evenly.
Barbaro's doctors had been mostly concerned with making sure his left hind foot -- which had developed laminitis -- was healing correctly, because the right leg was on the mend.
But recently, an abcess in that right leg started bothering Barbaro, and the surgery that was done over the weekend put two pins in that right leg.
D.r Dean Richardson has said they would continue to treat him aggressively, as they have since May. But his assesment was grim.
And Monday morning, before the horse was euthanized, Dr. Richardson said Barbaro did not have a good night.
SPECIAL PHOTO GALLERY: The Career of Barbaro
Read earlier Barbaro stories from KYW Newsradio 1060.
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