NEWS
Barbaro cremated, final resting place remains undetermined
Posted: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 6:13 PM
by Mike Curry
No decision has been made for the final resting place for Kentucky Derby Presented By Yum! Brands (G1) winner Barbaro, who was euthanized Monday morning at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center.
Owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson had the Dynaformer colt cremated but want to take some additional time to consider their options.
“We have to think that one out; we really don’t know what the best is, but we’re trying to work that out,” Roy Jackson said. “We have a little bit of time and we didn’t want to rush into a decision. We just want to find out what is best for everybody.”
Barbaro shattered his right hind limb in the opening stages of the Preakness Stakes (G1) and subsequently developed acute laminitis in his left hind foot. He battle bravely to survive the catastrophic injuries suffered in the Preakness for more than eight months after his right limb was fused in a six-hour procedure at the New Bolton Center on May 21. The Jacksons in consultation with Dean Richardson, D.V.M., chief surgeon at Penn’s veterinary school, made the final decision to euthanize Barbaro after he became insufficiently able to bear weight in his rear limbs and began developed laminitis in both front feet.
One option for a final resting place that intrigues the Jacksons is an unofficially proposed small museum in the Delaware-Maryland-Pennsylvania area to honor recent classic winners Afleet Alex and Smarty Jones as well as past great horses from the Mid-Atlantic region.
“A couple of people have brought it up, and we have to see if it is a viable situation, that it might be appropriate to have a small museum in this area here because of Afleet Alex and Smarty Jones, and many others going back a ways, George Strawbridge had Terlingua, Kelso was close by here,” Roy Jackson said. “Storm Cat was born here and trained here. That has come up, whether that would be appropriate or not or if some appropriate place could be found. I know Mrs. Chapman and the owners of Afleet Alex probably have a lot of memorabilia and so forth, and just don’t have a place for it in there house.
“Whether or not there would be any interest, I don’t know,” he continued. “There are so many other area museums, the Brandywine Museum and Winterthur and Longwood Gardens, a lot of people travel through the area here, and would it be appropriate to have a little building [for Thoroughbreds. That’s something that my son-in-law and several other people have brought up. You have the general public, too, that got so interested in this, and that would allow them [access].”
Mike Curry is a Thoroughbred Times daily news editor
