As terrible as it was to watch Barbaro's tragic fall (I was at Pimlico that afternoon), his recovery is becoming a bigger stroy than one could really imagine. I thought it would pass and be non-news by last Tuesday.
If we were smack dab in the middle of Barbaro looking to win the Triple Crown in a week and a half, the hype would be outrageously fun and the crowd at Belmont would have been splitting at the seams. In racing, we all seem to be very anxious to see a true stud winner or superhorse and we really thought this was the one. It would have been easy to root for him as a champion, and its even easier to root for him to battle his way back from the brink.
I hope people have seen the website where people are free to leave comments for Barbaro to "read", which is
here
It is quite something. Ordinary people, moms, grandmothers, kids, dads and bettors. There will be coverage of Prado visiting him today down at his recovery stall. As sad and upsetting as Preakness day was, it appears if Barbaro can recover (God willing), it would cap off one of the most unprecedented, unlikely and heart warming stories of recovery in history.