Hard to believe that this May will mark 10 years since Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby. I will be talking about his stakes wins leading up to the Derby in the next few months. First up is the Laurel Futurity.
It was his second start of his career and he was facing a field of 12 other horses. Included where the favorite Wedding Singer who was coming off a 2nd in the Bourbon and had finished 3rd in the Summer, Rock Lobster who broke his maiden at Belmont and Diabolical who had been 2nd in the Sapling and 3rd in the Nashua. Sent off as the 2nd choice, Barbaro sat 2nd behind Capo Dei Capi until the stretch when he zoomed off by 3 1/2 lengths. No one was going to catch him that day as he had won the race by 8 1/2. Diabolical had finished in second and Exton who was the 4th longest shot on the board was third. Wedding Singer would be sixth and Rock Lobster finished in fourth. This race would mark the final time that Jose Caraballo would ride Barbaro. In his next race which would be in Florida he would be taken over by Edgar Prado who up to that point was most known for being the denying jockey for the Triple Crown for both War Emblem and Smarty Jones.
As for the second and third place finishers, Diabolical would win the Vanderbilt before being sold to Godolphin where he would run in Dubai and Europe for. His best finish for them was a runner up finish at Ascot and in the BC Turf Sprint where he lost by a nose. He currently stands in New Mexico. Exton would not break his maiden until September of 2006. He would never run in another stakes race and ended his career with a 6th place finish in a claiming race at Saratoga.
Note: The reason why I'm doing this series is because I know how beloved he is for not just myself, but fans around the world.
Up next: Tropical Turf Derby
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