BARBARO
Patricia McQueen photo
Word spread like wildfire this week about Barbaro's imminent departure from the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center, however, no timetable has been set for the transfer of the injured Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner. Gretchen Jackson said on Saturday that Scott E. Morrison, D.V.M., equine podiatry specialist at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, will on Tuesday examine Barbaro's laminitic left hind foot.
Barbaro is steadily regaining strength in his right hind limb, which he shattered in the opening stages of the Preakness Stakes (G1) on May 20, after his cast was removed on August 6 by Dean Richardson, D.V.M., chief surgeon at Penn's veterinary school.
The three-year-old Dynaformer colt, a homebred of Roy and Gretchen Jackson, developed life-threatening acute laminitis in his opposite left hind foot while recovering from the original injury. Doctors resectioned 80% of the hoof wall in July and, while the hoof is gradually growing back, the laminitic hoof remains a source of concern.
"I just think they are coming to a point where they can't do anything more for him [at New Bolton]," Gretchen Jackson said. "He's ready to move on is, more or less, what Dean is telling us. But we don't have any dates. I'm under strict orders, things are in the making, but I just can't say anything until it's all solidified.
"They are just thinking that maybe [Morrison] can help him out more," Jackson continued. "Even though it has grown, it will never look like a normal hoof, I've been told. But it's definitely grown, and he walks on it fine."
For now, Barbaro remains in the intensive care unit at the New Bolton Center's George D. Widener Hospital for large animals, where he underwent a five-hour surgery in which Richardson and the New Bolton staff stabilized the limb with a locking compression plate and 27 screws.
Barbaro's life was in grave danger when he developed laminitis in July, but Richardson believed he could control the pain and thus far Barbaro has made steady progress.
"I could kick myself today, because he's been just wonderful for the last month, very gentle. ...My grandkids were in his stall [Saturday] morning and I didn't have a camera," Gretchen Jackson said. "He's lying down and they were walking right up to his head and kissing him and everything. I would have loved to have a picture of it, and I just hope I get the opportunity again to have the kids in there with him at the same time he's lying down. He's shown such a nice side to his personality and such a sweet side going through this whole ordeal."—Mike Curry
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