Rating: 
April 28, 2007
NEVER underestimate the power of an animal. Think about it: Seventy years after Seabiscuit was born, he is still beloved in this country.
Then last year we were given the beautiful Barbaro, a horse that first captured our hearts when he ran the Kentucky Derby in 2006, leaving all the other horses so far in his dust it looked like they were running in the next race.
After that giant win, Barbaro was almost a sure thing to be the next Triple Crown winner. But then the unthinkable happened. At the Preakness, he bolted out of the starting gate before the bell sounded and had to be guided back inside the paddock before the race could begin.
Finally, the bell sounded, the horses began the race and within seconds, it went from unthinkable to unfathomable. Barbaro, who bolted out ahead of the pack, was limping and the crowd was going insane. He had snapped a right rear leg in 20 places!
Had he not had the instincts, we learn, to stand stock-still with his broken leg raised on the track immediately after the accident, he could have been injured beyond all hope right then and there.
But his instinct kicked in, and we as a nation watched daily the horse's remarkable progress. No, he'd never race again, but he probably would live - and live a decent life.
Barbaro, however, had to be put down after a valiant fight with laminitis, an inflammation of his hooves.
Interviewed for this tribute biography are Michael Matz, the three-time Olympic Equestrian who was Barbaro's trainer; Barbaro's owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, who were clearly in love with their horse and everyday mourn his passing; his surgeon, Dr. Dean Richardson; and Edgar Prado, the jockey who rode him in the Derby and in the Preakness.
The documentary explains how it wasn't the broken leg that eventually forced the Jacksons to make the heartbreaking decision to put Barbaro down, but the laminitis. Even after it was cured in his unbroken back leg, it suddenly appeared in both his front legs, making him unable to walk without severe pain.
Fifty percent of the proceeds from the sale of the DVD, which you can buy at NBCSports.com after the show, will go to the Barbaro Fund and Laminitis Fund.
I may never recover from this documentary.
"Barbaro:
A Nation's Horse"
Tomorrow at 5 p.m. on Ch. 4
