Barbaro Updates: 48
updates are now here.
Update 481: Russell Baze just called back so here is our interview (what a class act btw):
I worked him all but once or twice since he was a two year old. I rode him in every race he ran bar one. He was a real genuine horse to be around. He was the best horse I have ridden throughout his career. He did everything, against allcomers. His temperament, ability and enthusiasm were unmatched. He had natural speed. He was so quick out of the gate, but he did not need the lead. He had a lot of natural speed, you could sit back and relax, switch leads in the turn, and keep going (when most horse were stopping). He would ship everywhere to run. Just a very rare racehorse.
Greg (trainer) and Harry (owner) have done an exemplary job with this horse. Throughout the horse's career he has always given his best, now looking back its amazing how well he ran in Churchill (his win this year), knowing what we know now about the horse. It's all very sad, but he is shipping back to Golden Gate and I will be fortunate to get to see him one more time. He has really been important to me as you can imagine.
I asked Russell what his barn name is: The Fog
I asked about any idiosynchrosies: he's agressive, and displays it, especially before races trying to bite the pony on the way to the gate
Update 480: I just spoke to Russell Baze, Lost in the Fog's jockey (who also happened to ride seven winners today). I will post our interview tomorrow (once I have typed it up and run it by Russell). I thought I would highlight this comment from Bubbranch, timestamp: 11:28 pm:
I got to watch his work at Golden Gate Fields in 2005 prior to shipping to Belmont for Breeder's Cup. The track was closed so he could work alone, and a ton of employees spread out along the rail to watch. By chance an acquaintance of mine saw me in the public box and said come on over here, we picked out a spot on the rail, and then Hary Aleo and his daughter came along and stood right next to us, right next to me. If I had burped I would have bumped elbows with him.
Will never forget how I could feel - physically, like a tingle transmitted - his excitement, pride, and affection for this horse, and I got a great taste of what it must be like to have a truly spectacular horse. Unforgettable. I hope that feeling never goes away for him, and that he's comforted by that and everyone's sincere support.
Signed very sadly,
Bubb in California
And finally, Lost in the Fog by Barbara Livingston, again.
Update 479: I am attending the NTRA conference, scheduled for 6:45 pm re: Lost in the Fog (thanks Ed Fountaine, New York Post for alerting me to the conference). A transcript will be available on monday. LITF's trainer and vet are online for the teleconference.
Vet:
Unfortunately two more tumours in his abdomen, and another very large tumour along the roof of his back, about the size of a football (not that shape). This one cannot be removed surgically. His condition is terminal.
Trainer:
He is not in a lot of pain, he just gets uncomfortable at times. The end is inevitable, and do not want the horse to go through things he does not need to. Want to provide some final quality of life, pampered and cared for with his own people around him. He won't take it too far. Mr. Aleo (owner), Harry is a tough old guy, but this is bringing him to his knees. LITF is a hell of a warrior.
I typed the above as I was listening, I missed some stuff.
Thanks Alex Fleming, who reported this in the comments, timestamp 10: 20 pm and alerted us to the situation:
Gilchrist was on TVG at 6pm EST and announced he will be brought back to GGF in his stall with his groom to keep him comfortable during his last week. He did not want to euthanize him up at Davis where he would be all alone. He will be cremated and be buried at Ocala Florida where he started his life.
I am sorry, I watched LITF in his debut, and on two different occasions. I am borderline obsessed with my favorite horse, and I am devastated.
Update 478: Peter just called (6:00 pm), Barbaro remains well, Michael had just visited and called Peter.
It does not appear yet we have any updates for Lost in the Fog. We know today is a big day for him. I have left a message with Russell Baze's agent in the hopes Russell will share some words with us about his relationship with Lost in the Fog. Shelley Haysed left this message in the comments:
Good afternoon, everyone out there on pins and needles - I only have a minute and found Cheryl's (hopefully!!) positive info, and I have to let you know I called UC Davis and talked to a person who is a public contact for the Large Animal Clinic. She also SOUNDED OPTIMISTIC, she had good warm tones in her voice, when she said she could not yet release any information.
She did tell me that we could send BEST WISHES TO LOST IN THE FOG by posting to UC Davis website,
www.ucdavis.edu
and use a subject line of BEST WISHES TO LOST IN THE FOG - VMTH LARGE ANIMAL CLINIC
The messages are sorted out by the campus and forwarded to the appropriate department. Guess they have no idea what they're in for...
To send cards by USPS snail mail, the address is:
LOST IN THE FOG
VMTH - Large Animal Clinic
UC Davis
1 Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
If anybody has better info, please let everyone know. I think the vigil yesterday was very powerful and I have all hopes for another miracle.
Bless Bobby for his power.
We also posted a link last night to Barbaro Livingston's pictures, here it is again: Lost in the Fog.
Update 477: Steve Willard (Giacomo's exercise rider) just called and all remains well as Giacomo continues his preparations for the Pacific Classic. His training today was very much the same as yesterday. He came onto the track at about 9:30 am. He actually hand walks before he trains, he then gets to eat a little bit and rest up. Training later also ensures a quieter race track.
Once on the track, Giacomo stood for 4 - 5 minutes, and then jogged the wrong way (left handed) for a mile and a quarter. He turned in, and around and galloped a mile and a half. He was a little more relaxed today overall in his gallop. He then jogged back to the gap, all was well. He has had plenty of visits from fans in the area, getting their picture taken with him and so forth (as a Derby winner should). John (his trainer) is very happy to let people visit him. The barn is conveniently located near the stable gate. For those in the Del Mar area, you can watch the morning training from the grandstand, Giacomo should be out again about 9:30 am tomorrow.
ESPN2 will be covering the Pacific Classic on sunday, 7 - 8 pm. Their coverage will also include Barbaro coverage.
Update 476: Another comfortable night last night for Barbaro (thursday night). I was just driving back in to Fair Hill for my third set when I saw Michael's crew heading up to the track. I stopped, got out of my truck, asked the inevitable question, and got the good, positive response. There appears to be a pretty obvious upbeat mood within the barn judging by the poor jokes being cracked at my reporting efforts!
updated friday 7:10am
Update 475: No update just yet, its still a little early! I had a break after my second set and thought I would try to describe the morning activities thus far. For the first set we left the barn at about 5:25 am, there were two us of, Linsey and I, on two two year olds. It was pretty dark out for sure, and the tractors were still working on the main dirt track (note to self, are we starting a little early at this point ?) We thus had to go to the inner wood chip track (my two year old had not been there before). We jogged back a mile (counter clockwise) together, and basically followed the tractors that were on the outer track, they had big lights on them, which helped! There was one other horse out on the woodchip track, and I kept looking to see if he was going to gallop by us (it would have likely set our horses off a little). Fortunately we met no (horse) traffic. We turned them around after jogging back a turn, and galloped a turn together. On the way home there was a fox cub, ON the horsepath. He was not moving until we got _very_ close to him (her ?) Then he just wandered off to about 10 foot away, as if to say, what the heck are you doing at this time of morning!
My second set went out back across the fields. OK, so now it was beautiful. The sun was just rising, and it was a lovely sunrise, and there was a low mist coming from the damp grass (although it beats me how the grass gets damp, we have not had rain for ages and the ground is rock hard)! Anyway, Deer everywhere, which is usual if you are first to take a horse outback, which meant my horse was scooting around a little, but he does enjoy jogging up and down the low gradient hills.
OK, I think we may have a couple of visitors today, which will be great. I have about six more to ride. The Barbaro update may come at its usual early time, OR it might be around 8:30 ish. I am not riding my third set at the usual time (now) which is when I normally run into Michael after he hears from Dean. I just wanted to let you know.
Update 474: A few of you have set up web-sites in honour of Barbaro. I may not have highlighted them all, please e-mail me your web-site URL and I will compile them all into an update and add them to the Fan Media page. On that note SharonLynn sent me a note about an online book she is compiling at CelebrateAHero.com (Book ID: 428640). You can contribute some comments, thoughts, remembrances and/or photos to make this book as wonderful as possible. Sharonlynn is planning to purchase the original for the Jackson's, and make copies for those connected to Barbaro.
Good morning Alex, Bobby and everyone! I really enjoyed Barbra Livingston's album, what a beauty LITF is! My prayers will be with him, I hope there is a good report that the C hasn't spread any further!
Hope you had another good night, Bobby and a good day ahead! :))
Posted by: Ruth Ann at August 18, 2006 9:13 AM