Barbaro: Rest in Peace at Scene of Triumph, Not Tragedy

Churchill Downs has been selected as the final resting place for 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, who was euthanized one year ago after a lengthy battle with laminitis. The announcement was made Tuesday by Barbaro’s owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, at a Churchill Downs news conference.

Barbaro’s remains were cremated following his death on Jan. 29, 2007, and his ashes will be interred outside of Gate 1 at Churchill Downs, in a large elevated space enclosed by bricks that is currently used as a garden. The site, which will be open to the public, will include a larger-than-life-sized bronze statue of the Kentucky Derby 132 winner that will be commissioned by the Jacksons and loaned to Churchill Downs as part of Barbaro’s official memorial site.

“Gretchen and I are pleased to be collaborating with Churchill Downs in this wonderful project,” said Roy Jackson. “In the year that has just preceded, we have spent much time thinking about Barbaro’s memorial and where it would be best placed. Churchill Downs became the obvious site for us. It was here that he ran his best race. It was here where we spent our most memorable day as horse owners and breeders. It was here where his racing fans could visit daily, and it was here at Churchill Downs where he was cordially invited to rest. We look forward to working with Steve Sexton and his team.”

In the coming weeks, Churchill Downs will install a bronze marker in the garden outside Gate 1 to designate the area where Barbaro’s ashes and bronze statue will be located.

The Jacksons are currently considering a select group of artists for the project and plan to make a final decision on the artist and statue design in the next few months. The Jacksons and Churchill Downs anticipate the statue’s completion and the formal unveiling and dedication of the Barbaro memorial site sometime in 2009.

To date, Barbaro will become the only horse buried on the grounds of Churchill Downs. The adjacent Kentucky Derby Museum has the remains of four Kentucky Derby winners interred on its property -- Sunny’s Halo (1983), Carry Back (1961), Swaps (1955), and Broker’s Tip (1933).

Following today’s news conference, the Jacksons participated in an autograph signing session at the Kentucky Derby Museum, which was open to the public.

Make Space on the Shelf for Edgar Prado's Book on Barbaro

A tip of the hat today to the memory of Barbaro, the racehorse whose fight for survival filled this blog in its early days. Today is the one-year anniversary of his death.

And, fittingly, Barbaro is still making news!

HarperCollins Publishers has announced an April 1 publication date for My Guy Barbaro, jockey Edgar's Prado's memoir of his days as rider of the late, great Kentucky Derby winner.

Here's what Joe Drape had to say about the new book: "This inside look at how a racehorse and jockey communicate and care for each other is at once heartbreaking and harrowing; it chronicles the relationship of two of the sport’s most compelling figures -- Barbaro and Prado. Their tale is wonderfully told, and makes you understand why people love horses."

— Joe Drape, author of Black Maestro and The Race for the Triple Crown

You can pre-order a copy of My Guy Barbaro at your favorite local independently-owned bookshop. Official release date is April 1.

Barbaro Still Makes News: Vanity Fair Writer Chronicles "Gone Like the Wind"

It's been a while, but the memory of Barbaro is still stamped on many hearts....and visible on many magazine racks.

Students of good journalism and lovers of the Late Great One should beat a path to the newstand and settle down with the August issue of Vanity Fair to read Buzz Bissinger's tribute to Barbaro: "Gone Like the Wind".

Call me old-fashioned, but I think that a story like this one deserves to be read from the printed page. And it's so hot out (at least around here), you can justify sitting in front of a fan for a good read.

This article is a bit different because it includes some very personal excerpts from Gretchen Jackson's diary.

True, for those who can't afford to buy the magazine or who can't make it to a newsstand, the article is posted on the VF website. But it's not the same as holding the fat magazine in your hands and drinking in those words.

There's also a terrific slide show of Barbaro images, some of which I had not seen before.

However you read it, do. Then send an email to the editors and ask them to assign more writers to chronicle life with and around horses. VF has had some interesting horse-related articles in the past year or so, and this is the latest.

July 12 post script: The Thoroughbred Times is reporting that this article is being used as the source material for a screenplay for a new feature film from Hollywood, to be created by the producers of the recent film "Friday Night Lights". Barbaro on the big screen! I wonder who will play Dr. Scott Morrison from Rood and Riddle...how about Brad Pitt? Will farriers finally make it on the Hollywood scene? I'd cast Tom Hanks as Dean Richardson, George Clooney as Michael Matz, Anthony Hopkins as Roy Jackson and Meryl Streep as Gretchen Jackson. Edgar Prado will have to play himself...