Ouch. Barbaro Xrays

The Xray was published showing the 25 screws that are helping to hold the bone splint in place on Barbaro. The Kentucky Derby winner shattered his rear leg during the Preakness, placing this animal’s life at risk.

Chances of survival is still around 50-50. It was a heartbreaker to see this animal come up lame during the race, and it will also be heartbreaking if its owner is unable to make the millions in stud fees Barbaro was expected to bring.

From the AP here:

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. – Barbaro underwent more than five hours of surgery Sunday to repair rear leg bones he’d broken in the Preakness, calmly awoke from anesthesia and “practically jogged back to his stall” for something to eat. His survival, however, is still 50-50.

“Right now he’s very happy,” Richardson said after the surgery at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center for Large Animals. “He’s eating, he’s doing very good. But I’ve been doing this too long to know that day one is not the end of things.”

The strapping 3-year-old colt sustained “life-threatening injuries” Saturday when he broke bones above and below his right rear ankle at the start of the Preakness Stakes.

Unbeaten and a serious contender for the Triple Crown, Barbaro broke down Saturday only a few hundred yards into the 1 3-16-mile Preakness in Baltimore. The record crowd of 118,402 watched in shock as Barbaro veered sideways, his right leg flaring out grotesquely. Jockey Edgar Prado pulled the powerful colt to a halt, jumped off and awaited medical assistance.

Barbaro sustained a broken cannon bone above the ankle, a broken sesamoid bone behind the ankle and a broken long pastern bone below the ankle. The fetlock joint the ankle was dislocated.

Richardson said the pastern bone was shattered in “20-plus pieces.”