from bloodhorse:
"The stewards always ask me to look at them (when they break through the gate)," said Zipf, a state veterinarian since 1965 and chief veterinarian for the last 20 years.
"I went through the stall he(barbaro) was in and followed him back around. Once he was gathered up (by an outrider) and turned around, the first thing I looked for was head trauma or abrasions or cuts. I then walked behind him as he trotted back to make sure, leg-wise that there was no problem. I could see nothing that would insult his performance; saw no problems with his head or legs. I'm certain there was nothing that would predispose to the injury that occurred in the race."
and this:
Bramlage does not believe the injury occurred when Barbaro broke through the starting gate. "I watched him break through the first time and I watched him break the second time," Bramlage said. "He didn't break with the right hind injury. I would guess that it happened sometime out about a furlong. It took an additional 110 yards to 200 yards for Edgar to get him under control because these don't hurt immediately when they happen. There is so much adrenaline that the horse has no concept. Edgar probably knew before the horse knew that something was wrong. I don't think breaking through the gate the first time had anything to do with this."
from prado:"During the race, he took a bad step and I can't really tell you what happened. I heard a noise about 100 yards into the race and pulled him right up."
this from dr richardson:
Richardson continued to try to put to rest nagging questions about whether Barbaro was injured when he prematurely broke from the Preakness starting gate and had to be reloaded for the race to begin.
"I think it is exceedingly unlikely the horse injured himself breaking from the gate," Richardson said. "The horse jogged back to the gate and broke out of the gate well. This is a single catastrophic accident."
|