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Rob NYCRichardson, the chief of surgery for the center, said the damage was "very, very serious," and he's never worked on so many catastrophic injuries to one horse.
"You do not see this severe injury frequently because the fact is most horses that suffer this typically are put down on the race track," Richardson said. "This is rare."
"It's about as bad as it could be," he added. "The main thing going for the horse is a report that his skin was not broken at the time of injury. It's a testament to the care given to the team of doctors on the track and (jockey) Mr. Prado on the racetrack."
Richardson said 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.
"The aspects of the surgery will be dictated slightly by what we find," Richardson said. "But the bottom line is we will attempt to perform a fusion of that joint and to stabilize it and make it comfortable enough for him to walk on."
Unbeaten and a serious contender for the Triple Crown, Barbaro broke down only a few hundred yards into the 1 3-16-mile Preakness. With his right leg flaring out grotesquely, the record crowd of 118,402 watched in shock as Barbaro veered sideways. Jockey Edgar Prado pulled the powerful colt to a halt, jumped off and awaited medical assistance.
Barbaro was fitted for an inflatable cast by the attending veterinarian, Dr. Nicholas Meittinis, and the colt trained so expertly by Michael Matz was taken to the center, known as the University of Pennsylvania's George D. Widener Hospital New Bolton Center. Barbara Dallap, a clinician at the center, was present when Barbaro arrived Saturday night.
"When we unloaded him, he was placed in intensive care and we stabilized him overnight," Dallap said. "He was very brave and well behaved under the situation and was comfortable overnight."
Matz, too, was at the center Saturday night.
"Two weeks ago we were on such a high and this is our worst nightmare," he said. "Hopefully, everything will go well with the operation and we'll be able to save him."
According to Dr. Larry Bramlage, a prominent equine surgeon and On Call veterinarian for the American Association of Equine Practitioners, Barbaro suffered a condylar fracture of the cannon bone in his right hind leg above the ankle. Below the ankle is a comminuted fracture (meaning it is in pieces) of the first phalanx (long pastern bone) and there is a piece off the sesamoid. He described it as a "two-phased" injury.