The gasps that rose from the record crowd gathered for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes (gr. I) at Pimlico Race Course told the story. There eventually was a winner, but even his connections were thinking about the injury to heavily favored Barbaro, who was pulled up in front of the stands soon after the start.
“You feel very upset when you see something like that happen,” said Tom Albertrani, who trained Darley Stable’s Bernardini to his 5 1/4-length win in the Preakness. “I can understand what they’re going through.”

“Nobody wants to see that happen,” said John Ferguson, bloodstock adviser for Sheikh Mohammed, who owns the international Darley operation. “We would have loved to see them battling down the straight together.”

Mike Trombetta had a lot to cheer for as the trainer of Sweetnorthernsaint, who made a bid for the lead near the top of the stretch and ran on well to finish second, six lengths ahead of Hemmingway’s Key. But even he struggled to speak after the race.

“Give me a while before I say anything–I just can’t talk right now…Our performance was great, and obviously he got a great trip. It looked like he stumbled a bit coming out (of the gate). He might have grabbed a quarter. I think it is incidental, but I don’t think it’s an excuse…This is terrible (what happened to Barbaro)