Reply #14: The people around this horse are also remarkable

[bklyncowgirl]

Ordinarily when a horse stops racing the trainer's job is over. Michael Matz & his assistant Peter Brett have stayed in this horse's life, visiting almost every day with the sort of devotion you'd find hard to muster for a very close human friend.

As for the owners, they seem genuinely unconcerned about whether Barbaro will ever make money as a stallion. Visiting every day and bringing presents--of course the only present a horse would care about is food--is way beyond checking up on your investment from time to time the way most wealthy racehorse owners do. They are also active in horse rescue organizations and have a farm full of old pensioners.

Dr. Richardson seems like a fact based sort of guy but you can't help but think he's developed a great deal of affection for his most famous patient. According to an interview I read with Mrs. Jackson, he was actually in tears when he told them the horse had come down with laminitis.

Good things sometimes happen to good people and the Jackson's second best three year old--a bargain purchase named Showing Up, has become a top turf horse after losing to Barbaro in the Kentucky Derby. The trainer of that horse incidentally, is Barclay Tagg the notoriously cranky--horses first trainer of Funnycide--who spotted the Showing Up at an auction and convinced the Jacksons to buy him for $60,000.