APIn the best-case scenario, Barbaro would have recovered from his catastrophic injuries, spent his days on a farm and perhaps even produced little Barbaros.
When the Kentucky Derby winner was euthanized Monday after complications from his gruesome breakdown at last May’s Preakness, it led to a natural question: Was any sperm taken from the colt?
It wasn’t, said Barbaro’s doctor and co-owner.
“We don’t even know if he was potent,” co-owner Gretchen Jackson said Wednesday. “It would be great to have his babies, but it won’t happen.”
Dean Richardson, chief surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., said future fertility would have been a bonus, but “we only were interested in saving his life.”
Anyway, established rules require that thoroughbreds breed naturally with mares.
Barbaro’s lineage survives with his siblings.
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Bayne Welker, director of sale at Mill Ridge, said Wednesday another La Ville Rouge-Dynaformer mating is scheduled for later in the spring.
But for the Jacksons, there’s no replacing Barbaro.
A final resting place for Barbaro’s ashes has not been determined.
It could be the Kentucky Derby Museum, just a few hundred yards from the scene of his greatest triumph in the 2006 Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Or it could be in the bluegrass of Lexington, Ky., at the 1,200-acre Kentucky Horse Park.
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“Right now, it’s a concept, and we want to look at that before we decide where Barbaro goes,” Jackson said. “We’re hoping some of the other owners of horses from the area who have done well will be interested as well.”
Count in Pat Chapman, co-owner of Smarty Jones and a longtime friend of Gretchen and Roy Jackson.
“I would throw my support behind them in anything they would want to try,” she said. “I’d love to be part of it.”
Despite vigorously denying he gave one of his horses an illegal performance-enhancing mixture, trainer Doug O'Neill was suspended 45 days — a ban that won't take effect until after his superstar colt, I'll Have Another, tries to win the Triple Crown.
Slideshow: I'll Have Another one win away from becoming the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.
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Remembering Barbaro A look back at the life of 2006 Kentucky Derby champion Barbaro, euthanized in 2007 after a months-long fight to recover from a broken leg. more photos |
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Preakness prepping Fans party on the infield ahead of the 137th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Baltimore. more photos |
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INTERACTIVE |
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Triple Crown winners The horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in the same year. |