by Tom DeMartini

A Sunday birthday celebration for 2006 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Barbaro at Delaware Park, attended by more than 600 members of the Friends of Barbaro group, produced smiles, tears, and fond memories of the three-year-old colt and his fight to recover from a shattered hind leg and the hoof disease that eventually cost him his life.

Owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson were greeted with a thunderous ovation and addressed the throng gathered in a tent in the Stanton, Delaware, track’s picnic grove. The couple was presented with a numerous homemade gifts, including quilts, photos, blankets, and a signed hat in memory of their ill-fated Derby winner.

Barbaro was born on April 29, 2003, at Bill Sanborn's Sanborn Chase Farm in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

Gretchen Jackson recalled receiving the phone call informing her of Barbaro’s birth.

“The farm manager said he was a big, beautiful colt. We got on the first plane we could to see him. We knew he was something, but who knew he would be this special?”

The Dynaformer colt won his racing debut by an impressive 8 ½ lengths on October 4, 2005, at Delaware Park.

Gretchen Jackson told the crowd, nearly all sporting shirts and caps with Lael Stable colors, that they are the people keeping the colt’s spirit alive.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have anticipated anything like this. His racing career was remarkable for us. He just stunned us. Now that time has passed and Barbaro was hurt, struggled to heal and didn’t win, we are into a new era and are you leading the way.”

The Friends of Barbaro group was organized following the colt’s Derby victory by Alex Brown, an exercise rider at Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland and an adjunct professor at the University of Delaware. Brown posted daily updates on Barbaro, posting a blog on Fair Hill trainer Tim Wooley’s stable Web site. Its popularity soared in the months following Barbaro’s extensive surgeries at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, where he was treated following his injury in the Preakness Stakes (G1).

A fund-raising auction at Delaware Park on Saturday, featuring many donated Barbaro-related and other racing items raised $18,000 for the Laminitis Fund at New Bolton and Thoroughbred Charities of America.

Event organizer Sharon Crumb of Phillipsburg, New Jersey, said she expected no more than 100 or 200 participants and was surprised by the large turnout.

“I wanted to honor him and I think we did that. We spent a lot of time and tears [on the Tim Woolley web site] on January 29, literally crying on our computers. Now it’s time to heal and get stronger,” Crumb said.

Many members of the Friends of Barbaro group did not consider themselves racing fans prior to the colt’s Derby win and made their first trip to the racetrack for the gathering.

“I didn’t follow racing until I watched Barbaro win the Derby and then get hurt in the Preakness,” said Robin West, of West Chester, Pennsylvania. “Because I live so close to New Bolton Center, I visited frequently and brought cards and flowers. I’ve never seen an animal fight so hard and it’s a credit to the Jacksons for the time and love they spent on this horse.

Members of the group held similar, smaller celebrations at Lone Star Park, Tampa Bay Downs, Hollywood Park, Thistledown Race Course and Golden Gate Fields.

Tom De Martini is a New Jersey-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent