Barbaro was a hugely talented, but ultimately ill-fated, racehorse, best known for his runaway, 6½-length victory in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in 2006. Bred and owned by Gretchen and Roy Jackson, under the Lael Stables banner, and trained by Michael Matz in Fair Hill, Maryland, the Dynaformer colt ran just once as a two-year-old, winning the Laurel Park Futurity at Laurel Park, Maryland by 8 lengths. He also won his first three starts as a three-year-old, the Tropical Peak Derby at Gulfstream Park West, the Holy Bush Stakes at Gulfstream Park and the Florida Derby at the same venue.
Thus, Barbaro was sent off at a narrow 6.1/1 second-favourite for the ‘Run for the Roses’, behind only the Illinois Derby winner Sweetnorthernsaint. However, he never gave his supporters an anxious moment. Having taken the lead with a quarter of a mile to run, he soon left the opposition floundering in his wake and only had to be pushed out by jockey Edgar Prado to become the widest-margin Kentucky Derby winner since Assault, 60 years previously.
Not altogether unsurprisingly, Barbaro was sent off at prohibitive odds of 1/2 for the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico two weeks later, but his troubles began when he broke through the starting gate, He was soon pulled up and, deemed fit to race, reloaded, but worse was to follow. Once the race was underway, after the field had travelled just a furlong Barbaro broke down on his off hind and was pulled up.
He was rushed to hospital at the New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was found to have suffered a catastrophic fractures to three bones in his right hind leg, which, according to medical staff were ” shattered into more than 20 fragments.” After multiple surgeries and lengthy rehabilitation, Barbaro recovered sufficiently to walk again, but developed laminitis; he was humanely euthanised on January 29, 2007.