Thanks to the Jackson and to Dr. Richardson for doing everything they could and for not wavering under huge pressure they faced when staying with the fight or in abandoning it when the moment came...

RIP Barbaro, up you go to where you're sound once more and accompanied by the roses you've won, the cheers of 100,000 at Churchill, and the hearts of those who you inspired.

Churchill could be Barbaro's burial site
 

Every once in a while a Horse comes along that transcends the sport into more. In 2006 we were blessed with such an animal, his name was Barbaro. On the first Saturday of May we all watched as Barabro was made the next “super horse.” In the eight months since then the world has fallen in love with Barbaro, but for different reasons. In winning the Derby Barbaro exhibited the traits of a dream Thoroughbred, Speed, Stamina, Courage. However, in the 8½ months since then we found out what a true Champion Barbaro really was. While under the care of the New Bolton center, Barbaro displayed the characteristic of a super hero: intelligence, courage, strength, and HEART. It was these traits that made the World stop and take note.

I would like to thank the Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, Mr. Matz, Mr. Prado and Dr. Richardson as well as the staff at New Bolton for so deeply caring for Barbaro and seeing that he never suffered, even in his darkest time.

I will always remember Barbaro for what he was a . . . Champion . . .

Though I can understand if the Jacksons want to bury him at their farm, it would be nice if he were buried at the Derby museum so his fans could pay their respects over the years.

Thanks Barbaro for doing your job well. You made us, if only for a moment, forget the larger world of Darfur and Baghdad and OPEC and Al Qaida and shrinking resources and global warming and the smaller world of working for a buck and finger gestures on the freeway and offers of credit in the mail and the travails of being citizens and neighbors, parents, sons and daughters. In short, you made us forget about ourselves, but we will never forget you for your kind comes this way only once in a great while.

The Jacksons didn't have to be so open with us, we strangers; they didn't have to let us participate, for months, in an intensely personal portion of their lives. They didn't have to allow New Bolton to give us unprecedented access, to open themselves and their decisions to worldwide scrutiny. I imagine they did it for the love of Barbaro, and moreso of the sport, and I am ever grateful to them for allowing us to also intimately share Barbaro. They are sportsmen in the most generous and finest sense of the word.