He was a successful Thoroughbred racehorse.
January 30, 2007 -- The long, valiant fight is over. Sadly, Barbaro is dead.
Unbeatable on the racetrack until he fractured his right hind leg a few strides out of the gate in last year's Preakness, the gallant Kentucky Derby champion battled the odds for more than eight months at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center, reaching out beyond the racing world to tug at the heartstrings of mainstream America.
But Barbaro's iron will to live could not, in the end, overcome the forces of nature and a thoroughbred's innate fragility that ultimately crippled him in all four legs.
Over the course of a restless Sunday night, the strapping son of Dynaformer finally succumbed to an onslaught of sudden, snowballing complications, all stemming from his original injury, that forced Dr. Dean Richardson - the chief of surgery at New Bolton who put his heart and soul into trying to save Barbaro - and the colt's wealthy owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, to make the decision they'd been hoping against hope to avoid.
At 10:30 yesterday morning(January 29), Barbaro - standing in the sling in his stall at the ICU that helped support his weight - was tranquilized. Then an overdose of anesthetic was administered through a catheter already inserted to medicate him through his latest setback. He died peacefully as Richardson and the Jacksons stood by, stricken with grief.
"We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain," Roy Jackson said. "It was the right decision, it was the right thing to do. We said all along if there was a situation where it would become more difficult for him, then it would be time."
Barbaro's Leg after Surgery
R.I.P BARBARO WE WILL ALL MISS YOU
