Barbaro: His Greatest Legacy

He wasn't supposed to die.

Despite all the warnings from his vets, America's Horse remained invincible to his thousands of loyal fans. We watched him graze in the autumn sun at the New Bolton Center (NBC) at Kennett Square, PA, where he held court in the Intensive Care Unit for eight months.

When word got around in December that he could soon be moved to (literally) greener pastures, we really whooped it up. Having survived terrible odds for so long, Barbaro could overcome anything except old age, we reasoned.

Except he couldn't.

On January 29, 2007, he died after his long struggle. To call it courageous would be an understatement.

The tens of thousands of fans who checked several times a day on the progress and the daily menu of America's Horse became known as the Fans of Barbaro, or FOBs, as they referred to themselves. The racing community came to refer to them respectfully as the Barbaro Nation.

Throughout Barbaro's ordeal, Fair Hill trainer Tim Woolley's web site, http://timwoolleyracing.com, was the gathering place for the Barbaro Nation. Alex Brown, the indefatigable webmaster, continues to post updates and host comments and a discussion board on the site. It's home, the place where the Barbaro Nation still congregates. A second home is a candle site, http://gratefullness.org/candle/. The day before the horse died, the number of candles lit swelled from around 7,700 to more than 20,000 from around the world. After the announcement was made that Barbaro had been euthanized, the NBC web site staggered under the load of 60,000 hits instead of the typical 1,000 a day.

As the last weekend of January came to a close, some members of the Barbaro Nation sensed with a pin through his cannon bone, the end was likely at hand for the beloved bay colt. Members scheduled candlelight vigil after vigil as he underwent two dozen surgeries. With the odds of his survival dimming, they still fervently posted comments urging everyone to remain optimistic.