An Equestrian DBWI: Barbaro Loses The Preakness

I doubt many people here follow horse racing as closely as I do but if you've turned on or glanced at ESPN or a sports section at all in the past week you've probably seen the news. Prospero, Barbaro's first offspring, just set the record for highest price paid for a thoroughbred. Some obscene number from an oil sheik, $30 million I think it was. Anyhow, it got me thinking about something I read awhile back. If you recall, at the Preakness Barbaro infamously false-started before getting reset and running away with the show. Jose Prado, his jockey, said afterwards that he had to hold the horse back with all his might before the gates dropped, because if he false-started again it would've been a scratch and possibly an injury to man or beast.

So, what if Barbaro's nerves get the better of him and he scratches himself? You remove any chance of the Triple Crown, of course, and there's the possibility that they don't run him in the Belmont, so he can't break that record. Would his stock still command a premium, and more interestingly, who else could be a Triple Crown winner in the past years since?
 
Top