Stackin’ Cheddar: Recalling Kentucky Derby Winner Barbaro’s Stunning Turf Debut

That is the newest version of “Stackin’ Cheddar Look-Again,” a brand new biweekly sequence on America’s Finest Racing. Right here, we’ll look again on an early race within the careers of among the best horses of all time, together with spots the place they went off at a giant worth.

Oct. 4, 2005

Maiden Particular Weight

Race 7, Delaware Park

Usually, folks don’t assume to search for Kentucky Derby prospects in maiden races on the turf at Delaware Park. Nonetheless, racing followers who tuned into watch and wager Delaware on a sleepy Tuesday afternoon obtained to witness, and money in on, a future champion.

A son of high stallion Dynaformer, Barbaro was a homebred for Lael Stables, the nom de plume of Roy and Gretchen Jackson. Barbaro’s coach Michael Matz was a mid-Atlantic primarily based horseman who gained a silver medal within the group leaping competitors on the 1996 Olympics. He selected a one-mile grass race for Barbaro’s debut, and named Jose Caraballo to trip. Because the lone first-time starter within the 11-horse subject, Barbaro went off at 7.50-1.

Barbaro made that worth appear to be a discount. He obtained an awesome journey ranking off the early chief, and because the subject rounded the far flip, Caraballo requested Barbaro to run. The colt responded powerfully. He crossed the wire 8 ½ lengths in entrance, going the space in 1:35.87 whereas paying $17 to win. John Curran famous in his race name, “he could possibly be a pleasant one”, and that prediction quickly proved to be right.

After Barbaro gained two extra stakes on grass, Matz switched him to grime, the place he gained the Holy Bull Stakes and the Florida Derby. Then, Barbaro turned in a memorable efficiency within the 2006 Kentucky Derby, crushing the sphere by 6 ½ lengths. Sadly, his profession ended one race later, when he fractured three bones in his proper hind leg quickly after the beginning of the Preakness Stakes. Though he fought onerous in restoration, and towards subsequent laminitis, medical problems resulted in his being euthanized in January 2007. Barbaro is honored with a statue on the entrance of Churchill Downs.