I posted a few messages about this subject, so this is a repeat.

Those of you who assume something was wrong with this horse before the race are quite correct. A condylar fracture, which was the cause of the bad step and the subsequent fractures to Barbaro's sesamoid and pastern, occurs from preexisting conditions.

It has to do with immature or soft bones and the reformation or flattening of the condylar in the ankle or pastern socket, due to the pounding of training and racing. Tale of the Cat is the poster boy of what happens if you stop on a promising juvenile and allow his bones time to harden with age. He came back super and achieved a good career.

Nobody connected with Barbaro will want to admit they knew about his problem, but almost all of us would have done the same thing they did. This was a very fast horse capable of winning at the highest level and the Triple Crown only comes once in a horse's life.

He was medicated to avoid the pain and showed no gimpiness in his stride as a result. He was raced lightly to keep the damage to a minimum, but it was getting worse all the time and I suppose it eventually got so bad that Prado could feel it in the warmup.

Basically this involves damage to the soft tissue below the condylar, which is invisible to ordinary xrays. Fractures occur when the tissue is worn completely through and bone hits bone.

I lost a horse in a race this way and learned what I am writing about through research. You could look it up.

Those of you naive enough to think these vets know everything and are always honest should just keep in mind what some vets bring to this business. It's not their job to protect the breed, but rather to protect their client's investments...and occasionally more.