Full of Run

Full of Run is my Horse Racing Blog. Simple as that. It’s inspiration, however, is as deep as deep gets.

You’ll notice that the header for Full of Run is a photo of Barbaro turning for home in the 2006 Kentucky Derby. I decided on  that image and the title Full of Run because that is how I choose to remember him; nostrils flaring as he leaves all rivals in the wake of his powerful strides as he charges down the long Churchill Downs stretch. Barbaro’s lasting contribution to the Sport of Kings may be the world-wide attention his subsequent injury and doomed recovery brought to laminitis, but I remember him like he is in the photo; full of run.

The last quarter mile of the 2006 Derby is forever stored on the hard drive of my mind. I was (and still am) convinced that I was witnessing the horse. This 3 year-old son of Dynaformer was going to do “it.”  He was going to end a going-on-thirty-year drought of Triple Crown Winners.

As I stood in front of the TV, barely hearing Tom Durkin calling the race, I began to repeat over and over, “He’s in hand! He’s in HAND!!” I have no idea if the people with me had any idea what that meant exactly, but I am sure they got my meaning. Barbaro crossed the finish line 8+ lengths in front and in a canter. He had soundly defeated a crop of three-year-olds that had earlier in the week been desribed as one of the best ever. “There are seven or eight Smarty Jones’s in this field,” I remember commentator Frank Lyons stating. There was, in fact, a future Belmont Stakes winner and runner up (Jazil and Bluegrass Cat) and a future Eclipse Winner of Champion Older Horse honors (Lawyer Ron). A good portion of the rest of the field were no slouches, either. Barbaro beat them all and made it looks easy.

History will tell the complete story of Barbaro. I, however, will forever tell the story of that first Saturday in May when a colt raced himself into my heart. Thanks to Barbaro my heart is, and forver shall be, full of run.