Barbaro's trainer cautiously encouraged with stability

Updated: July 18,2006 12:35 PM ET

Associated Press




KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- Barbaro trainer Michael Matz was encouraged Tuesday by the colt's recent stability in his health, though he noted the Kentucky Derby winner's condition could still turn any time.

"He could take a turn for the worse or get an infection again, you just don't know," Matz said in a telephone interview. "It's just a slow road now. If he keeps having days like he's having now, then hopefully everything will be fine."

Matz said Barbaro vet Dean Richardson told him the colt had another restful night and his vital signs were normal.

"He said they're very happy with the X-rays yesterday of both hind legs," Matz said.

Richardson said in Tuesday's update that both of Barbaro's hind leg casts were changed a day earlier, and he was pleased with how the colt performed under light sedation in his sling.

"You have to be prepared for anything, obviously. I'm optimistic because I want him to live." Barbaro trainer Michael Matz

"The radiographs looked good; the plates we placed on July 8 to fuse the pastern are intact and the fetlock fusion is unchanged," Richardson said of the right leg. "The leg and the incision looked as good as we could have hoped."

Richardson said the left cast will be changed often so the ailing left foot can continue to be treated.

While the colt has shown some encouraging signs the last five days, the odds of Barbaro's full recovery from a severe case of laminitis and a reconstructed right hind leg are really no better than they were a week ago.

"He's a fighter. He's doing the best he can," Matz said. "They're doing all the best to save the horse. That's all we can do. That's all we can hope for is what's happening right now."

Richardson offered a grim reminder on Monday that Barbaro was not suffering from a "routine" laminitis and that the fiberglass cast on the colt's left hind foot would be changed so the hoof could be treated and watched for signs of infection. Because of laminitis, a painful and often-fatal condition, 80 percent of the hoof wall was removed last week.

"It's a difficult situation," Matz said. "I've had two before with it and we lost both of them."

The cast on the colt's right hind leg -- shattered shortly after the start of the Preakness Stakes on May 20 -- has been changed at least four times in the last two weeks.



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