Rest in Peace, Dear Barbaro

I wrote this piece last year, shortly after the running of the 2006 Preakness Stakes, in which that glorious bullet of muscle and fur named Barbaro suffered what ultimately was a fatal injury to his right hind leg. As you may or may not know, Barbaro was put to rest last week due to complications in healing that injury.

Barbaro was a race horse. He did what he was bred and trained to do, and while he did it, he did it well. Anyone who loves horses was saddened by this, but there was not much that could be done. That he lived for seven months after his injury was only because he was so well bred and thereby profitable as breeding stock. Were he much less, he probably would not have lived past Preakness day.

May he rest in peace, and forever frolic in a sunny field of Kentucky Blue Grass...

On Barbaro, And Who is to Blame...
By: Grant Catton
May 23, 2006

Saturday’s Preakness Stakes was the most disappointing spectacle I have seen in all of sport. Not only was it disappointing, as the heavily favored Barbaro pulled up not 100 yards into the contest in which he was supposed to romp, but, as a lover of both horses and the sport of horse racing, it was heart wrenching. It is never easy to watch such a graceful animal as a horse, or certainly a specimen such as Barbaro, flounder and reel helplessly in pain. In one instant, that beautiful specimen of horseflesh went from being a dominator to an invalid, for reasons he will never begin to know or understand. His life may now be counted as a matter of weeks, not even months or years, also due to instincts and physiological characteristics that are only the fault of his being born an equine. What a fate it is to be a race horse!

In spite of the pain I felt for that poor animal as he flexed his right hind leg in apparent pain on the race track after the race, and the momentary anguish when I saw the tell-tale Black Curtain drawn in front of his barn, I must admit I fall into the “That’s Racing” camp. Unfortunately, it is true.

In one of the hundreds of news articles on Barbaro’s “predicament” in the past two days, I saw a racing official vilified for his flat acceptance of the situation as a natural part of the sport. I think his vilification is preposterous. I have heard calls for “softer track surfaces,” and lofty predictions that “horse racing will never get over this outrage,” or some such fiddle-faddle. These reactions, however good natured they may be, are ludicrous. They are a symptom of a heavily litigious society and a starved sporting press eager to capture the next big trend, or at least to generate some copy as they try to hype a few concerned tears for an injured horse into a national sporting scandal. I say that with only the slightest bit of disdain. I, after all, am one of these.

I am not, however, one of the so-called horse racing fans who will supposedly “turn away from racing” because I saw a horse injured during a race. That would be as ridiculous as turning away from football because I saw my favorite quarterback injured. That is juvenile and naive.

I am also not one of those who believes that “someone is to blame” for everything. Every injury, every accident, every scandal, should not be cause for a complete top-to-tail soul search of a sport or institution. Granted, inquiry and examination are the only ways institutions (such as sports leagues) advance and become better and more just. However, let’s know when to say when.

Thoroughbred horses, like it or not, are bred for one reason. They are bred to be fast and to run faster than whichever horses against which they find themselves pitted. Advances in breeding have created sleek, well-muscled and driven animals, intent on one thing. They are bred to be the fastest and to have that inherent desire to get there first. It is a beautiful thing. One trait common to the fastest horses is well-formed but very thin leg bones. The finer the bones, the less the horse weighs and the more nimble he will be on the racetrack (try to pit a Clydesdale (the huge-hoofed, Budweiser horses) against even the most gangly thoroughbred and see who wins). But the very trait that contributes to their speed also makes them more vulnerable to injury, for the finer the bone, the less pressure it can withstand.

Barbaro, unfortunately was on the bubble of the latest generation, the latest advance of thoroughbred breeding. He had the stamina, the drive, the muscles, but apparently not the leg strength to withstand the punishment of the Triple Crown and his racing career, if hopefully not his life, is over. Furthermore, anyone thinking of breeding his horse to Barbaro will take this genetic weakness into account, and possibly breed elsewhere. Barbaro could have been an anomaly, but for the amount of money it may cost to breed to him, could a horse owner take that chance? Barbaro may have been a victim of his own genetics, sort of a “bridge too far” in genetic terms; built for hyper-speed, but without the bone structure to withstand it.

Anyone with a heart will cry an inner tear for this once majestic horse, and I hope he makes a full recovery. However, I do not weep for horse racing. It can be a brutal sport. It is dangerous for man and horse alike, as are many, many human endeavors. Yet we watch, and we bet, and we drink, and we yell, and we salute men and animals braver than we. And yes, we must accept when one of those men or animals befalls an unfortunate event. We owe it to them for their sacrifice, for their pursuit of greatness. Barbaro, unfortunately, was a victim of horse racing, of the very sport for which he came into existence.

To blame the sport, or the tracks, or the workout regimen, however, is to go down a dangerous road. To paraphrase Mo Green in the movie The Godfather Part II, “This is the business we’ve chosen.” The horses did not chose the business, but everyone who tuned in on Saturday, or drank a $10 Black Eyed Susan at Pimilico Race Track, or even stopped off at his local OTB on the way to a party, is as responsible for what happened to Barbaro as anyone else.

Comments

Popular Posts