Rebel Stakes winner Win Willy is out of the Kentucky Derby.

Trainer Mac Robertson scratched the 3-year-old colt from Saturdays Run for the Roses after X-rays revealed a possible crack in the horses left front ankle.

Win Willy burst onto the Derby scene in an upset at the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, knocking off Old Fashioned as a 56-1 longshot. He finished fourth in his last start in the Arkansas Derby.

Robertson said the horse was being examined Tuesday as a precaution when the crack was noticed and that Win Willy will be given a few months off to recuperate.

Win Willy is the latest of several scratches from the Derby, joining Florida Derby winner Quality Road and Square Eddie.

Former jockey Chris McCarron stood between the grave sites of two legendary horses that defined his Hall of Fame career. He told himself he wasnt going to cry. Still, he had to fight back tears when he spoke about Alysheba.

Less than 19 months after hundreds showed up at the Kentucky Horse Park to memorialize champion thoroughbred John Henry, a slightly smaller crowd did the same Wednesday for Alysheba, the Kentucky Derby winner McCarron says might have been even better.

The sadness is overcome by the incredible joyous memories I have, McCarron said. I feel incredibly blessed to have been chosen to ride this horse.

Alysheba, dubbed affectionately as Americas horse, didnt get much time to experience his new American home in the stall formerly occupied by John Henry at the horse parks Hall of Champions.

Less than six months after returning to the United States as a gift from the Saudi kinghe had spent eight years abroadAlysheba had to be euthanized after an accident in his stall on March. 27. He was buried shortly after his death next to John Henrys grave at the Hall of Champions. The service was scheduled for this week, three days before the Derby, to ensure many of his former connections could attend.

Among them was trainer Jack Van Berg, who recalled the horses amazing physique. Doctors had told him he had the most perfect joints they ever saw in an X-ray.

He didnt come like the way they do nowadays with the steroids and all that stuff in him, Van Berg said. He was in his every-day overalls.

Even though he had the capability of being faster than practically any horse he raced, Alysheba seldom flaunted his ability. In fact, McCarron said as the competition got tired, the horse would slow down alongside them, sometimes winning a race by only one length when he could have won by several.

He gave me heart failure all the time, McCarron said. Id say, Come on, weve got another 1/8th of a mile to go. I know youre a neck in front, but run a little faster please.

The Horse of the Year in 1988 won the Breeders Cup Classic that year, along with the Derby, Preakness, Breeders Cup Classic and numerous other famous races in his career. He won 11 of 26 lifetime starts and at the time of his retirement was racings all-time money winner with more than $6.6 million in earnings.

If you asked any trainer in North America to list the top 10 races theyd want to win, he dang near won them all, said Clarence Scharbauer III, whose family owned the horse.

Alyshebas stall, across from the one where another famous horse, Cigar, currently lives, is now vacant. A wreath and picture of him hangs on the door, and an assortment of roses and other flowers covers the nearby grave site, which is currently unmarked.

Horse park president John Nicholson said it is good to have Americas horse back home, even albeit too briefly in life.

We can always take solace with Alysheba that he was able to spend his last days in his native land, Nicholson said.

Jeff Mullins pulled I Want Revenge out of California this winter, sending him to run on dirt in New York. Bob Baffert stayed put on the synthetic surface with Pioneerof the Nile, and the colt racked up four consecutive victories.

Now the West Coasts two top horses are headed toward a showdown in Saturdays Kentucky Derby.

Coming off eye-catching victories in the Gotham Stakes and Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, I Want Revenge was made the early 3-1 favorite for the 1-mile Derby after drawing the No. 13 post position Wednesday.

I kind of left it up to the owners to pick, Mullins said. Im just going to concentrate on getting him ready and getting him there safe. Were here to play and hope our horse stays healthy and everyone has a nice trip.

The last of four Derby winners from the 13th spot was Smarty Jones in 2004.

It ended up perfect, I Want Revenges 19-year-old jockey Joe Talamo said. Its just what we wantedto be outside of the early speed. I think it worked out great.

Pioneerof the Nile and Dunkirk were named the co-second favorites at 4-1. Santa Anita Derby winner Pioneerof the Nile drew the No. 16 post, while lightly raced Dunkirk will be next door in 15.

Hall of Famer Baffert carried his 4-year-old son, Bode, to the post position board, where the child named for Olympic skier Bode Miller hung Pioneerof the Niles silks.

I was set on 10 or 16, Baffert said. He hasnt had that dirt experience, hell get less dirt kicked on him out there than on the inside.

Pioneerof the Nile has trained well over Churchill Downs sandy loam surface this week despite never having raced on dirt.

His breeding suggests he can succeed on the surface. His father, Empire Maker, finished second to Funny Cide in the 2003 Derby, then went on to spoil Funny Cides Triple Crown bid by winning the Belmont Stakes.

Baffert will be going for his first Derby victory since 2002 and fourth in 12 years, which would tie him with fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas and H.J. Dick Thompson.

He offered a bit of advice to his friend Mullins, a country music fan.

Lose the cowboy hat; guys with money dont like the cowboy hat, Mullins said, taking a return jab at Baffert. If I win maybe I can start coming to work at 8 oclock and barking orders into a walkie-talkie.

If he does win the Derby, Mullins wont be around on Sunday. Thats when his seven-day suspension by New York authorities begins for illegally administering an over-the-counter substance to another one of his horses in a security barn at Aqueduct the day I Want Revenge won the Wood.

Mullins said he made an honest mistake and blamed it on not knowing New Yorks rules.

About 5 1/2 hours after the Derby ends, Mullins must be off the Churchill grounds and he cant train any of his horses again until May 9a week before the Preakness Stakes. His suspension will be upheld by racetracks throughout North America.

If it all sounds familiar, it is. Mullins has a history of running up against his sports drug rules, just like Rick Dutrow Jr., who trained last years winner Big Brown.

I Want Revenge has another tie to Big Brown. One of the colts owners is IEAH Stables, which owned Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown. The group bought into I Want Revenge before he won the Wood.
Take your poison and put the attention back on the horse, IEAH co-president Michael Ivarone said he told Mullins. Its not like you were caught injecting the horse with a medication that was performance-enhancing.

Mullins has saddled four previous Derby starters, with his best finish coming in 2005 when Buzzards Bay was fifth.

Dunkirk didnt race as a 2-year-old and enters the Derby off just three career starts. Two of those were victories, while the other was a runner-up finish to Quality Road in the Florida Derby.

Dunkirk is one of three horses to be saddled Saturday by Todd Pletcher, who brings an 0-for-21 record into the Derby. His others are long shots Advice and Join in the Dance, co-owned by Orlando Magic forward Rashard Lewis.

Dunkirk drew the No. 15 post positionthe first spot in the auxiliary gate with space to the insidewhich was Pletchers first choice.

I was a little hesitant about going in next to Pioneerof the Nile because I know he doesnt always come out of there the right way, the trainer said. But 15 is a good spot. Youve got some room there and being outside, you can fall into a good spot.
Lexington Stakes winner Advice drew the No. 4 position, while Join in the Dance is in the No. 9 spot, a nod to Lewis jersey number.

Friesan Fire was the fourth choice at 5-1, while the other 16 entries carried double-digit odds.

I think the top four will be the top four in the betting, Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia said. I dont think theres any doubt about that.

Friesan Fire will leave from the No. 6 hole.

Larry Jones, the colts trainer, saddled filly Eight Belles to a second-place finish last year. She broke both ankles past the first turn and had to be euthanized on the track.

This horse is going to have a whole lot of the same style as Eight Belles, Jones said. She had a wonderful trip in there, hopefully we can repeat that. Hopefully well be in a running position and be able to go turning for home.

Besides Pletcher, two other trainers have multiple starters.
Saeed bin Suroor brought Desert Party and Regal Ransom from Dubai in hopes of giving Godolphin Racing owner Sheik Mohammed a long-desired victory in Americas most famous race.

The sheiks previous best Derby finish was sixth with China Visit in 2000.

Kelly Breen, a 39-year-old trainer based at New Jerseys Monmouth Park, has West Side Bernie and Atomic Rain as his first Derby runners.

Besides Baffert, the other Hall of Fame trainers in the race are Lukas (Flying Private), Bill Mott (Hold Me Back) and Nick Zito (Nowhere to Hide).

The field, from the rail out, is West Side Bernie (30-1), Musket Man (20-1), Mr. Hot Stuff (30-1), Advice (30-1), Hold Me Back (15-1), Friesan Fire (5-1), Papa Clem (20-1), Mine That Bird (50-1), Join in the Dance (50-1), Regal Ransom (30-1), Chocolate Candy (20-1), General Quarters (20-1), I Want Revenge (3-1), Atomic Rain (50-1), Dunkirk (4-1), Pioneerof the Nile (4-1), Summer Bird (50-1), Nowhere to Hide (50-1), Desert Party (15-1), Flying Private (50-1).

The day of racing has ended at Churchill Downs, and tractors have plowed away the evidence of thousands of hoof marks left behind on the dirt track.

This is when Mick Peterson goes to work creating a few more.

He calls his machine a robotic horse, but the metal contraption attached to the back of a van doesnt at all resemble the graceful animal it is designed to imitate. That is, until he turns it on.

As it slams the dirt, the angle, force and especially the sound of the devices leg are unmistakable. Its just how a hoof hits the ground during the ferocious stretch run of a thoroughbred race.

Peterson, a professor in mechanical engineering at the University of Maine, has been affectionately called a mad scientist by track superintendents. But his hope is to use the simulated hoof prints and data his machine produces to detect trouble spots on racetracks, giving maintenance crews new information to avert potentially fatal accidents.

You dont want to say, Theres a rash of injuries, lets go fix something, Peterson said. What you want to do is catch it before the horses get hurt.

Catastrophic injuries at thoroughbred tracks in the United States are not uncommon, although the death of filly Eight Belles last year was the first in 134 runnings of the Kentucky Derby. While her accident has not been attributed to a problem with the track, Peterson is convinced injecting science into track maintenance can significantly curb fatality numbers.

While this is the first year Peterson has been using his device at Churchill, it has been employed for five years at racetracks in California, where it did catch a drainage problem.

The idea for the device came more than a decade ago when Peterson was on the faculty at Colorado State and was working with equine orthopedic surgeon Wayne McIlwraith on a graduate students research project.

That project dealt with the correlation between horse exercise and injuries, but Peterson wondered whether the data could ever really be valid unless there were uniform standards for how racetracks and training surfaces should be maintained. As it turned out, there werent.

Besides working on the device, Peterson and McIlwraith have teamed up this year to create a laboratory in Maine that will analyze samples from synthetic and dirt tracks to determine the risk of injuries to horses. Churchill and several other tracks have contributed to the startup funds for the lab.

Were still on a learning curve, particularly for synthetics, but you adjust the track to accommodate, McIlwraith said. Sometimes it may not be changing material. It may just be adding water.

As for the robotic hoof in use at Churchill and elsewhere, it produces two sets of numbers measuring vertical and horizontal force.

The first reading measures the load, or how well the surface can withstand the slamming of a leg onto the ground. The other measurement is the slide, the horizontal force of the hoof once it is in contact with the ground.

The wrong load can potentially break a horses leg while slide problems can create soft tissue injuries.

Finding a track with the perfect balance of load and slide is the goal, but Peterson says the device isnt designed to answer the long debate about whether dirt, grass or synthetic tracks are safest. Rather, hes using the machine on a test basis at 27 tracks, giving supervisors information to improve whatever surface they have.

Were looking for a way we can scientifically judge what were doing, said Butch Lehr, track supervisor at Churchill Downs. Were really new to it, but were also excited about what were going to find.

The phone call was supposed to be just a quick congratulations to the man behind one of the Kentucky Derbys feel-good stories.

Still, Steve Bass couldnt help but sneak in a little shop talk while chatting with Tom McCarthy after the former high school science teachers colt General Quarters won the Blue Grass Stakes on April 11.

Bass, the agent for jockey Julien Leparoux, wasnt sure what his former teachers plans were for the Derby. Eibar Coa, who piloted General Quarters to the winners circle in the Blue Grass, also had the option of riding Illinois Derby winner Musket Man in the Run for the Roses.

I knew (Coa) couldnt ride two horses in the Derby, Bass said. They werent committing right away and I told Tom If you want us, were available.

Rather than wait for Coa to make a decision, McCarthy helped make it for him, giving Leparoux the mount in the Derby. Leparoux is 0-for-2 in the Derby so far, his best finish fifth in 2007 aboard Sedgefield. Coa is also winless in two Derby appearances.

It wasnt personal, just another stop in the seemingly endless game of musical chairs between owners, trainers and jockeys.

Thats part of the business, McCarthy said. Eibar apparently made a commitment to Musket Man. I thought maybe hed change his mind. He didnt so I had to move on.

Leparoux wont swing a leg over General Quarters for the first time until hes in the paddock moments before the Derby. Riding an unfamiliar horse every day is typical for lot of jockeys. The Derby is no different.

Several jockeys, including Leparoux, Calvin Borel, Ramon Dominguez and Robby Albarado, will be making their first starts on their respective Derby horses.

Besides, Leparoux jokes he saw all he needed when General Quarters motored by Leparoux and Terrain in the Blue Grass.

I never really was next to him, Leparoux said. He looked pretty good going by me.

While Leparoux needed a little bit of politicking and a dash of luck to get his third Derby start, Garrett Gomez found himself in a more enviable if somewhat awkward position earlier this month.

The two-time Eclipse Award winner had the choice of riding either Pioneerof the Nile for Bob Baffert or Dunkirk for Todd Pletcher in the Derby. The pick was so highly anticipated that his agent Ron Anderson held an impromptu news conference at Keeneland to announce it.

Gomez opted for Pioneerof the Nile even though the horse has never raced on dirt. Anderson described it as a ridiculously tough call, one that could cost Gomez his first Derby win if the Santa Anita Derby winner doesnt like getting dirt in his face.

Its part of the gamble all riders face at some point.

The future is now, which horse is doing it and this horse is doing it, Baffert said. Its pretty hard to take off a horse that has won four graded stakes races, especially in Southern California. The other horse is a nice horse. I guess well know next Saturday if he made the right choice.

Either way, Gomez will almost certainly ride for Pletcher again. Jockeys who find their way to the winners circle as often as Gomez usually have little trouble finding work.

Its not always that way.

Sometimes owners and trainers can freeze out a rider if he chooses to change mounts. It happened to Hall of Famer Gary Stevens during his career, though never when a Derby horse was involved.

The Derby is different and I think all the connections realize that its different, he said. You can only be loyal to a certain point. When it comes Derby time you pick the best horse in your mind and try to wait to make that decision.

Sometimes, the wait can prove too long. Two-time Derby winner Nick Zito wouldnt hesitate to dump a rider if he thought the jockey was waffling.

I dont want anybody that dont want to ride my horse, the trainer said. Lets say you make somebody stick to the call, youre out of your mind. How could he go out there with good karma? He didnt want to ride your horse.

If Zito has a problem with a rider, he usually wont take it out on the jockey, instead focusing on the agent.

People get upset, but thats why you have an agent, so you have somebody to blame, Stevens said with a laugh.

Acting as a buffer is old hat for Jerry Hissam.

The longtime agent for Borel doesnt leave the calls up to his rider, even if it costs them both money in the short-term. Borel, who won the Derby aboard Street Sense two years ago, will ride Mine That Bird on Saturday.

If you start trying to handicap, you might as well go over to the grandstand and be a bettor, Hissam said.

While Stevens allows in a perfect world a jockey would hook up with a trainer early on in a colts career and team up through the Triple Crown season, he never felt comfortable making a promise in January he wasnt sure he could keep in May.

You might think youre on the fastest horse in January, but theres that chance that something can happen leading up to it, he said. In the end, everybody wants to get on the best horse no matter what.

A federal judge in Virginia has handed an 18-month prison sentence to a co-founder of Morgan-McClure Motorsports who the government said accepted bags of cash to avoid taxes.

The government said Larry Allen McClure was also ordered Monday to pay more than $125,000 in restitution, fines and investigative costs.

According to U.S. Attorney Julie C. Dudley, McClure avoided more than $100,000 in income taxes by accepting cash payments totaling $269,000 for services provided by the company.

Despite McClures request for probation, U.S. District Judge James P. Jones said McClure cheated the honest taxpayer and ordered the prison term.

McClure entered guilty pleas to five counts, including filing false tax returns and obstruction.

A sport that loses three athletes a day is undertaking new steps toward beefing up safety, the result of disasters that claimed the lives of two of its top competitors.

The sport is horse racing, and the deaths of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro followed by the euthanization of filly Eight Belles last May on the track at Churchill Downs have sparked an array of safety initiatives. Whats unclear is how much theyll help.

Among the changes in place for the Derby this Saturday are padded starting gates, replacement of welt-inducing whips with noisy but less painful riding crops, a ban on a type of cleated shoe believed to cause injuries and laws against anabolic steroid use in almost every racing state.

Alex Waldrop, president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, said the sports response discredits the argument of some that horse racing cant adequately police itself the way pro football or baseball do because it lacks a central authority.

What were our supposed ills? That we were 38 fiefdoms that could never get together, never agree on anything? Waldrop said. Well, weve demonstrated that we can change.

Yet not everybody is convinced the changes are sufficientor ever can be under the current structure.

U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield says he plans to introduce legislation as early as this summer that would compel racing states to comply with safety standards or risk losing the massive simulcasting revenues granted to them by Congress under the Interstate Horse Racing Act.

Theres been cosmetic changesmore committees formed, the Kentucky Republican said. Theyre looking into this and that and making improvements, but the bottom line is, not a lot of change.

Unlike their human counterparts, broken limbs dont just sideline an equine athlete from competition but often end careers and even lives.

Horses are biologically built to stand and run on all four thin legs, so extended bed rest can disrupt the flow of blood to the wounded limb and cause severe arthritis and infection. Because Eight Belles had two broken legs, saving her was out of the question, and she was euthanized immediately. Barbaro broke down at the 2006 Preakness Stakes and underwent extensive medical treatment before finally being euthanized on Jan. 29, 2007.

Just on Monday, a 2-year-old filly died at Churchill Downs in Louisville following a collision with another horse. Raspberry Miss sustained multiple fractures in her pelvis when Doctor Rap dumped its jockey and ran into her during training. No Derby hopeful was involved, but several were on the track at the time.

The Associated Press found last June that thoroughbred racetracks in the United States reported more than three horse deaths a day in 2007 and at least 5,000 in a five-year span beginning in 2003. Several states indicated they dont even monitor the deaths, and many others dont count morning training accidents or race-related injuries that lead to horses being euthanized after they depart the racetrack grounds.

Veterinarian Mary Scollay is working to compile a comprehensive database of thoroughbred injuries in hopes of drawing some conclusions about what causes them.

After releasing initial findings that indicated virtually no difference in the fatality rate between dirt tracks such at the one at Churchill Downs and a cushiony synthetic surface heralded as safer, Scollay backtracked, explaining the sample size was small. She relaunched the study in November with 75 tracks representing 81 percent of all live racing starts in the United States and pledged to wait a year before analyzing the data shes collecting.

While most tracks are now participating in Scollays study by submitting detailed information about each horse that gets hurt and the track conditions that day, a few remain holdouts.

One of the largest is Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark. David Longinotti, the tracks assistant general manager for racing, said racing officials there dont monitor fatalities, in part because many horses dont die until they are hauled off to equine hospitals. The nearest of those is in Oklahoma, several hours away, he said.

Whether we participate or not, I dont think is going to move the needle one way or the other, Longinotti said. Weve got one of the safest racetracks in America.

Indeed, Oaklawn was one of the first to install a safety rail around the track and to regularly check the consistency of the racing surface. Now those efforts and many others, such as the padded gates and bans on certain whips and shoes, have become industry standards under a new accreditation process for thoroughbred racetracks.

Churchill Downs was the first track to get the Safety Alliances stamp of approval earlier this month, followed soon after by Keeneland in Lexington. Both tracks were praised for far surpassing the minimum requirements, submitting their racing surfaces to daily testing with a robotic device that simulates the movement of a horses hoof to detect any bad spots on the track.

Were not going to just give this an eyewash, said Tommy Thompson, a former Wisconsin governor and Health and Human Services secretary who was hired to be an independent monitor for the accreditation process. Were going to really give this an in-depth inspection. I wouldnt be part of it if it was just going to be a public relations gimmick.

Yet there are some calls to go further, especially at a time when racing deaths are not the only high-profile problem.

Big Browns victories in the Derby and Preakness last year were tarnished by revelations that he was given steroids, albeit then legal at the time, which led to bans in 25 states. And, while an entirely separate matter, the deaths of 21 prized ponies during a championship polo match have led to questions about drug use in equestrian sports.

Some have suggested the thoroughbred breed is getting weaker through matings designed to produce speed rather than stamina, and that the emphasis in the sport should be shifted to give more purse money to races involving older horses.

Meanwhile, science is starting to show some promise in the area of injury detection. Wayne McIlwraith, a professor at Colorado State University, has been researching biomarkers in bone scans that he says can prove which horses are at risk for a fracture, even before they race.

All of the developments could reduce the risk to the animals. But Larry Jones, who trained Eight Belles, said nothing can be done to eliminate accidents from the sport.

Unless they want to start swimming these horses, start having swimming races, youre still going to have horses take bad steps, and injuries are going to happen, he said. Some of that is just being an athlete.

Raspberry Miss, a 2-year-old filly, died Monday following a collision with another horse at Churchill Downs.

The filly trained by Ken McPeek was standing near the finish line during a training session Monday morning when Doctor Rap dumped jockey Tony Farina and took off. Doctor Rap, a 3-year-old colt trained by David Carroll, ran into the back of Raspberry Miss, sending both horses to the ground.

Raspberry Miss was taken to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington with multiple fractures and lacerations in her pelvis. Veterinarian Larry Bramlage recommended she be euthanized, but the filly died from shock before being administered an injection.

The fractures were caused from the fall and the other horse landing on top of her, Bramlage said. She just fell awkwardly.

Doctor Rap was transported to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute with non-life threatening injuries. Carroll said Farina was not hurt but did not know the identity or the status of the rider on Raspberry Miss.

Several horses training for Saturdays Kentucky Derby were on the track at the time of the incident but were not affected.

Its just bad luck, Carroll said. There are a lot of people in the grandstand watching the work, theres a lot of distractions with the crowd. I dont know what happened.

Carroll said he had high hopes for Doctor Rap, who was scheduled to make his debut later this spring. The horse was supposed to run as a 2-year-old last summer before a leg injury ended his campaign.

Hes a real gentleman, he said. He was real promising. I guess he spooked.

Fatal collisions during training are rare but not unprecedented.

Record-setting 3-year-old gelding Tin Cup Chalice and 4-year-old colt Zany were both euthanized after colliding during training at Finger Lakes Game and Racetrack in New York last month.

Del Mar will reduce its schedule to five days a week, dropping most Monday programs because of the economy when the seaside track opens its 70th season in July.

Track officials said Monday that racing will be staged Wednesdays through Sundays from July 22-Sept. 9. The only Monday races will be on Labor Day.

Its the first time since 1945 the track wont race six days a week. The move reduces the meeting from its usual 43 days to 37.

Theres a pinch on everyone due to the economy; theres a pinch on the number of racehorses available in the state, Del Mar president Joe Harper said. Racing folks have been talking about racing less and presenting a better product because of it for some time now.

The track plans to add one additional race to its cards on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Under consideration are Wednesday promotions that would offer free admission and reduced food and drink prices.

Del Mar racing secretary Tom Robbins said it had become harder to fill racing cards.

As a result of this change, I think our fans will see larger fields and better cards across the board, he said.

Californias horse population has declined recently, while the number of mares bred in the state and the live-foal crop are both down over the last 10 years, Robbins said. The economic downturn has reduced discretionary spending for claiming and buying thoroughbreds.

Del Mar began its Wednesday through Monday schedule in 1973, when California approved Sunday racing. The track located north of San Diego was founded by Bing Crosby in 1937.

Catherine Kane never met paid much attention to horse racing. It simply wasnt her thing.

Then, watching the Preakness three years ago, she cringed when Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro pulled up a couple hundred yards into the second leg of the Triple Crown.

The sight of the dazzling bay colts shattered right hind leg hanging awkwardly as jockey Edgar Prado tried to keep him calm touched the Franciscan sister from Vineland, N.J. in a way she never expected.

I know this sounds weird, but I feel like he called to me while he was standing there waiting for help, Kane said. From that minute on I have just been so bonded with him.

Kane isnt the only one.

Nearly three years after the injury that eventually lead to his death in January 2007, Barbaro has become an icon to thousands, many of them non-racing fans like Kane who were moved by his valiant struggle for survival.
ADVERTISEMENT

Theyve inundated owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson with cards, flowers and memorial Web sites, a wave of public support that has hardly faded with time.

Less than a week before this years Run for the Roses they made one final journey to pay their respects to the horse they love and the people who made sure Barbaro is remembered for more than the tragedy that ended his brilliant career.

The track unveiled a 1,500-pound bronze statue of Barbaro on Sunday. The sculpture, created by Alexa King, shows Barbaro flying down the track with all four feet off the ground as he carries Prado to glory. The statue, which has Barbaros ashes in the base, is placed outside a gate at the venerable track so the public can visit him at any time.

I think we got it right, Gretchen Jackson said.

The unveiling is the final chapter of a story that began the second Barbaro took that fateful bad step early in the Preakness. During his eight-month battle at New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., the public outpouring overwhelmed the center as fans sent treats, flowers and well-wishes.

Melissa Nobles of Tallahassee, Fla., was visiting her son at Army basic training in Georgia during Barbaros rehab but found time to monitor the horses progress.

He was almost like a person, he felt like family, Nobles said.

Its why Nobles decided to send the horse an e-mailthe only one she says shes ever sent in her lifeto let him know that he was in her prayers.

I could care less for (e-mailing) people, but I made sure he got my e-mail, she said. He was that special.

In a way, Barbaro may be more influential in death than he ever could have been in life. His breakdown put the racing industry under the spotlight, and in the last three years it has taken unprecedented steps to address the sports shortcomings.

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association created the Safety Integrity Alliance last fall, designed to make sure tracks are following recommended safety guidelines. Churchill Downs became the first track in the country to be accredited by the alliance last month.

Theres been just as much movement off the track. The Barbaro Memorial Fund has helped save over 2,900 horses from slaughter while raising more than $1 million for laminitis research.

I think right now everybody is doing their best to stop injuries like this, said trainer Michael Matz. Whether its laminitis or breakdowns on the track, there are so many people trying to correct this situation and I do believe racing is better for it.

Its a good start, but theres still plenty of work to be done, Gretchen Jackson said. She remains a staunch opponent of trainers putting their horses on medication.

I think its a positive and perhaps it is safer, but I dont think you can really say its safe when youre running horses that are on drugs, she said. It does interfere with the truth.

The other truth, Jackson knows, is that she had a special horse with a unique ability to connect with people, even if some of the outpouring has been a little over the top.

Kane made three trips to New Bolton during Barbaros stay in hopes of getting a glimpse. She never did, but she would bring the staff there coffee and doughnuts, thinking if the staff was in a good mood Barbaros treatment would be even better.

Dr. Dean Richardson, who oversaw Barbaros rehab at New Bolton, couldnt help but laugh when talking about the massive wave of support created by his most famous patients fight.

Some of you are flat-out crazy, and you know who you are, or maybe you dont, I dont know, Richardson told the crowd. The fact is these are people who really feel it from the heart and have acted on their feelings. Its been remarkable to even be a part of this great story.

Many of the fans wore either green or blue Barbaro shirts, some with FOB on them to signify they were a member of the Fans of Barbaro. The global fan club has become an aggressive advocate of horse safety and welfare research.

Kanewearing a blue and green rubber bracelet with a pair of Barbaro-inspired quotes Live the Moment and Just Be A Winner on it donates money to several animal welfare organizations each month and has no plans of stopping.

I think he had some sort of spiritual or mystical presence about him, she said. There is a lot people can learn from him. He accepted his situation and set an example human beings can follow. Theres going to be a time when were not healthy, were not as strong as we were initially. He told us to keep on going.