was barbaro breaking out of the gate early his cry for help?

Question

was he saying something was wrong?

Answer 1

no. He was just eager to get on with his race. A cry for help would have been a refusal to get in the gate.

Answer 2

No, Barbaro did not "cry" for help. He was a horse and did what he was told to do. However, the whole false start thing is very suspect on a couple of levels. 1) Horses don't normally break through the gate early. I have been involved with horses all my life and spent a good number of years with horse racing (both QH and TB). The false start thing was very weird. Those gates have incredibly strong magnets holding them shut and something has to trip those magnets other than the horse (i.e., the starter etc.) they don't just "pop" open because the horse hits them hard. They are designed to take some pretty significant abuse and hold those horses in. Typically if a horse "flips" in the gate, the starter or assistant has to spring that gate manually in order to ease the situation. The horse very rarely, and I mean RARELY, hits those things and opens them. 2) the horse has a handler in the gate at his head whose job it is to hold him and get him centered for a good start. You're telling me both these things failed at the Preakness, one of the biggest races of the year, the second jewel of the Triple Crown? I think the Maryland Racing Commission needed to delve further into that little "mishap".

I do think the false start may have strained the leg enough that another explosive start on top of that one could have "done the trick" i.e., stressed that leg to the breaking point. Those horses break with tremendous force out of that starting gate, picture launching and relaunching a rocket twice in a row. Then there is still that whole Brother Derek incident that the Maryland Racing Commission is about "80% sure" that Brother Derek may have hit Barbaro's right hind leg in that intitial stretch drive. The tape isn't 100% conclusive though so don't blame Brother Derek for anything.

So, NO, put your mind at ease -- Barbaro was not "crying" for help. Really he wasn't. He was just wanting to run and doing what he was trained all his life for. By some mystery the gate popped open early which I have contended all along deserved its own investigation.

Thoroughbred racing should be crying for help at this point. I do believe that the Barbaro incident may very well have a significant backlash against it especially since it did not have the fairytale ending that everyone was wishing for. Over 700 thoroughbreds were put down on racetracks last year due to catastrophic injuries during a race. We don't know how many are actually lost to similar injuries in just training, the industry doesn't keep those statistics (wonder why?). Doping is still rampant in the industry (the top trainer -- Todd Pletcher just underwent suspension for it). And the industry contributes to the horse slaughter problem in this country by overbreeding and "disposing" of racehorses when they are no longer winners and can't generate anymore $$$.

Barbaro wasn't crying for help --- But the racehorse industry is.

Answer 3

I have a huge distaste for horse racing now, not specifically for Barbaro, but for other reasons. I went to a race track in where 2 horses collided together. 1 jockey walked away with a few scrapes and bruises, the other had to be taken away to the hospital. The 2 horses were euthanized. Now had I NOT seen this with my own eyes, I wouldn't be too concerned, but that event happened to coincide around the time (within a month or so) of Barbaro's incident. It makes me wonder how often Horses are put down because of these types of injuries.
I guess what I'm saying is that horse racing is a pretty F'd up way to make a buck.

Answer 4

I don't believe he was crying for help, he just was fresh and full of himself and wanted to get going. I agree with the other writer in this column. Horse racing, both as a sport and as a profession, is in serious trouble right now. This writer is correct when he says that over 700 horses die in racing related accidents each year. Considering the number of horses that race and the number races there are, the figure is probably much higher. The cause of so many of the sport's problems- and the only real solution to a lot of them- lies in one simple fact that no one wants to admit to. THESE HORSES ARE RACED AT FAR TOO YOUNG AN AGE. A horse's bones are still soft and growing at ages 2 and 3, and they SIMPLY CAN'T TAKE THE TREMENDOUS STRESS OF RACING AT HIGH SPEEDS. Under normal circumstances, most pleasure and sport (performance horses who do things besides race) horses are never started under saddle until they are at least 3 and sometimes 4 years old, depending on the breed and what the horse will be doing. This gives the baby horse time to grow up, and for his/her bones to become strong and able to take hard work. (Let's face it, folks, all race horses are babies.) But this is not true for racehorses, whether here in the US or anywhere else in the world right now, because of the tremendous pressure exerted on the racing industry by the breeders, who want to see a return on their stud fees and other expenses as soon as possible. Indeed, until people wake up and realize what we are doing to these beautiful animals, we are going to see lots of tragedies like Barbaro's repeated over and over again. Barbaro was a BABY when he had his accident. We wouldn't ask a 9 year old child to run at high speed over such long distances, so why do we ask that of race horses? There's one answer only. MONEY. No breeder, and very few owners, want to stand the cost of keeping a horse until he's mature enough to race without injuries. The ONLY way this will ever change will be if the sport itself is totally restructured, not just in the US, but in every nation where there is racing on the face of the globe. Both the sport of horse racing and the breeding industry that supports it are in dire need of restructuring- but no one wants to see this or admit to it.I also don't believe that this will happen in either my lifetime or in that of anyone I know, much as I wish it would. One of the simplest things they could do for the sport of racing would be to raise the minimum age to 4 for the juvenile races and 5 for the major stakes races like the Triple Crown series. This would go a long, long way toward reducing or even eliminating the types of catastrophic accidents which have plagued the sport over the last 2 or 3 decades. Barbaro's injuries could have been prevented entirely if he had been physically mature before he was raced. Let the babies grow up- they will win more, live longer, and be more productive because of it. I know that this won't happen anytime soon, but it would be nice to see it.

Answer 5

No. Race horses are taught to break from the gate early. If there was something wrong before he went into the gates the track vet would have saw it or the jockey would have noticed something and the horse would have been scratched before the race. Also if the horse was hurting upon entering the gates he would have broke from the gates slow or late.

Answer 6

unlikely. normally the type of injury barbaro experienced happened near the point where he was pulled up. it's unlikely that he felt any pain in that leg prior to the injury.

Answer 7

I think he just wanted to get out of that gate. We really don't know what was going on in his mind sense he couldn't talk to us. Maybe he wanted his freedom! Maybe he just wanted to be a horse to fun free................We will never know for sure.

Answer 8

No he was probly just ready to win again and had good self esteem at the moment

Answer 9

he he he, no, he just liked to run. A lot of horses break early, it's not that uncommon.