KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was euthanized Monday after complications from his breakdown at last year's Preakness, ending an eight-month ordeal that prompted an outpouring of support across the country.\nA series of ailments -- including laminitis in the left rear hoof, an abscess in the right rear hoof, as well as new laminitis in both front feet -- proved too much for the gallant colt. The horse was put down at 10:30 a.m.\n"Certainly, grief is the price we all pay for love," said co-owner Gretchen Jackson at a news conference.\nBarbaro battled in his Intensive Care Unit stall for eight months. The 4-year-old colt underwent several procedures and was fitted with fiberglass casts. He spent time in a sling to ease pressure on his legs, had pins inserted and was fitted at the end with an external brace. These were all extraordinary measures for a horse with such injuries.\n"Clearly, this was a difficult decision to make," chief surgeon Dr. Dean Richardson. "It hinged on what we said all along, whether or not we thought his quality of life was acceptable. The probable outcome was just so poor."\nRichardson, fighting back tears, added: "Barbaro had many, many good days."\nRoy and Gretchen Jackson were with Barbaro on Monday morning, with the owners making the decision in consultation with Richardson.\n"We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain," Roy Jackson said. "It was the right decision, it was the right thing to do. We said all along if there was a situation where it would become more difficult for him then it would be time."\nRichardson said he was comfortable the right decision was made and could tell Barbaro was not his usual self early Monday morning.\n"He was just a different horse," he said. "You could see he was upset. That was the difference. It was more than we wanted to put him through."\nOn May 20, Barbaro was rushed to the New Bolton Center, about 30 miles from Philadelphia in Kennett Square, hours after shattering his right hind leg just a few strides into the Preakness Stakes. The bay colt underwent a five-hour operation that fused two joints and recovered from an injury most horses never survive.\nBarbaro suffered a significant setback during the weekend, and surgery was required to insert two steel pins into a bone -- one of three shattered in the Preakness but now healthy -- to eliminate all weight bearing on the ailing right rear foot.\nThe leg was on the mend until an abscess began causing discomfort last week. Until then, the major concern was Barbaro's left rear leg, where 80 percent of the hoof had been removed in July when he developed laminitis.\nWell-wishers young and old showed up at the New Bolton Center with cards, flowers, gifts, goodies and even religious medals for the champ, and thousands of e-mails poured into the hospital's Web site just for him.\nThe biggest gift has been the $1.2 million raised since early June for the Barbaro Fund. The money is put toward needed equipment such as an operating room table, and a raft and sling for the same recovery pool Barbaro used after his surgeries.\n"I would say thank you for everything, and all your thoughts and prayers over the last eight months or so," Roy Jackson said to Barbaro's fans.
AP Racing Writer Richard Rosenblatt in Kennett Square, Pa. and AP Writer Will Graves in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.
