Customer Reviews

My Guy Barbaro: A Jockey's Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak with America's Favorite Horse

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3 star:		(4)
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This is a wonderful tribute to the life and death of a great champion from the jockey who guided him to tremendous victories and saved his life on that fateful day in May 2006.

Edgar Prado tells his story on how he got the opportunity to be the jockey of Barbaro and how the champion emerged as something very special in his life. Prado is especially candid on his personal feelings on the Preakness and covers every aspect of what was supposed to be another race on the track to immortality, but became - in a few seconds - a trek of life and death.

There are excerpts of letters sent to Prado from fans, which chronicle the outpouring of concern and grief for Barbaro. A powerful section is what was Prado's last visit with Barbaro at the The University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine's New Bolton Center and how he was notified that the Thoroughbred lost his battle to defeat the long odds caused by mounting health problems.

This is a powerful recollection and is an absolute must for anyone who was touched by any aspect of Barbaro's story.

I thought I knew the whole story of Barbaro's short life. I had read every book, watched every news story, and seen every posting online. I ordered this book in August. over 7 months before it was released, based on a letter I heard read from Edgar Prado at a Delaware Park function. It was extremely articulate and full of emotion. By the time the book arrived 2 days ago, I wasn't sure I wanted to read it - it was an emotional story and I knew how badly it ended - but after the first chapter I couldn't put it down. It's extremely well written. I learned a lot about racing in general, but most of all, it told a side of the story I don't think any of us knew. Yes, it opened up old wounds, but it also made me remember what a truly remarkable animal Barbaro was - and this is a truly remarkable book. Thank you, Mr. Prado, for sharing your story with us. If I could give it 100 stars, I would - it's that good!

It was hard for me to read this book, knowing the sad ending. I'm nuts about animals, and stories about the death of one invariably makes me tear up. I read the ending of Good Dog. Stay., for example, with tears streaming down my face, although it was the story of an old dog that had lived a long and pampered life. Barbaro, on the other hand, dies in pain at the peak of his life.

Author Edgar Prado, Barbaro's jockey, tells this heartbreaking story with skill and compassion. From the moment Prado first sees Barbaro, he is impressed. "He wasn't a sleek and slender classic beauty. He was all jock."

Prado successfully petitions the owners to let him ride the big colt. After a thrilling win in the Kentucky Derby -- with the largest margin of victory since 1946 -- Barbaro is the favorite for the Preakness. But in this second leg of the Triple Crown, the horse sustains an injury, a terrible fracture. By quickly stopping Barbaro, Prado prevents the racehorse from damaging his leg further.

Although at first it seems to go well, the recovery effort does not work. At the end Barbaro is suffering and losing weight. The big horse is put down.

Prado includes 33 color photographs, most of them of Barbaro in his glory days, racing around a track. He seems to be flying, with his feet barely touching the ground. A shot of him the day before the Preakness shows Barbaro in his stall, reaching out his long neck and nuzzling the horse next door.

That one got to me. I cried.

I just loved this book. It's incredibly moving without being overly sentimental. I read it for Barbaro's story, which didn't disappoint, but I was as fascinated by the details about a jockey's life. I recommend this book for horse racing fans but also for anyone who likes a good human (and animal) interest story.

This is a beautifully written book. It must be very difficult for two people to collaborate on a book and come out with a single cohesive voice and style, but this book has that. Edgar Prado is a brilliant jockey and a fine man with a loving heart. This book conveys that and adds a unique new perspective to a remarkable story.

The first time he saw Barbaro, Edgar was riding another horse in the Laurel Futurity. As Barbaro broke away from the pack to win by eight lengths, Edgar says, "My horse had basically stopped running when he saw Barbaro pull away. I swore the sight had depressed him. But it had thrilled me. When you see a horse accelerate and finish like that,... you know you're seeing something special."

He describes his feelings after a phone call in which he and trainer Michael Matz agreed that Edgar would be Barbaro's new jockey: "I smiled as I hung up. I was being handed the keys to a Lamborghini."

Edgar talks about the significance of Barbaro starting out as a turf horse and switching later to dirt. Previously, Barbaro had been saddled on hard concrete floors in paddocks before racing on dirt tracks. However, preparations for the Preakness were different. "Now he was being saddled on grass, which excited him. He was a turf horse at heart,... He was never happier than when he was running on grass. The longer he stood on the grass, the more excited he became. He breathed harder. His muscles tensed. He was noticeably pumped up by the time I got on him." Barbaro was "agitated, impatient, a little too eager to get going" in the post parade. Edgar implies that this might have been a factor in the subsequent tragedy.

I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it, but I cannot give it a five-star rating. Throughout this book, Barbaro's magnificent groom, Eduardo Hernandez, is repeatedly and inexplicably called "Jose" (no last name). A quick Google during the book's editing process would have identified Eduardo so that he could have been properly acknowledged as the person who had given Barbaro such excellent and loving care.

His last comment is "I hope I've done him justice." He most definitely has! This was a truly heartwarming story of the magnificent rapport between a jockey and a wonderful horse. They shared a kinship, and throughout the book, the reader is able to feel and rejoice in their bond. Sadly, Barbaro had to ultimately be euthanized, but you never doubt that he really felt the love that surrounded him.

I purchased this book to learn more about Barbaro's life and career. I was disappointed in the major content of the book dealing with Edgar and not the horse. I know that the jockey only rode Barbaro four times and visited in Pennsylvania twice-I guess it's difficult to pull a whole book together on that.

My Guy Barbaro: A Jockey's Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak with America's Favorite Horse Horseracing is a sport in which the horses are too often regarded by their connections as nothing more than commodities. Not so with Barbaro. Edgar Prado's love of this great champion was tangible in his moving account of their relationship, especially as he wrote of the months that followed Barbaro's ultimately fatal injury. If we thought the only time he visited Barbaro was when the cameras were rolling, we were wrong. It is especially gratifying to learn that Barbaro's tragedy has led Prado to become a vocal advocate for the welfare of thoroughbred horses. In addition to raising money for veterinary research, Prado works with groups that rescue unwanted thoroughbreds who would otherwise end up dying under appalling conditions in foreign slaughterhouses. His efforts to improve conditions for Barbaro's breed does honor to Barbaro's memory.

This is a story of Barbaro, a great racehorse cut down in his prime, and Edgar Prado, the jockey who was riding him when the horse's right leg bone shattered in a dozen pieces and ultimately led to his death despite heroic efforts by the best of veterinarians to save him. Edgar Prado, one of eleven children, was born into proverty in Peru, but he was blessed with parents who did not use proverty as an excuse to not hold themselves to high standards. Through perservance and hard work, Prado became a top-notch jockey. He rode Barbaro to victory in the Kentucky Derby and expected to ride him to a win in the Preakness, but the shattered leg bone ruined those hopes. Prado loves horses and Barbaro most of all. Reading this story and the interaction between the two, I am certain that Barbaro loved Prado too.
Eunice Boeve, author of the western, Ride a Shadowed Trail

Easily the saddest racetrack story since Ruffian (Ferdinand's trip to the slaughterhouse was the worst off-track one), Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado rides to the rescue and saves Barbaro's tale from the depression heap. The warmth of friendship between horse and rider along with Prado's detailing of the many good things that Barbaro's battle and passing have inspired make the book a heroic work.
Prado feeds readers added carrots by showing what it's like to be a successful jockey. Yep - as some may have guessed - horse racing is a business. Even a big-time winner like Prado needs to continually compete and excel or the game will pass him by. The pull of work/profession is something most of us feel and to see Prado bucking it a bit to be with Barbaro during the horse's hospitalization connects with us on a deep level.
Biographical information about the jockey's rise from a poor yet productive family in Peru is well-placed. The gifts bequeathed to the author by his parents are an important part of "My Guy Barbaro." Yet I lost track of Prado's father in the story. The book left me uncertain whether the father is living or dead. The love of animals the father instilled in Edgar lives on and that's the more important thing.
Another fuzzy point is the reason why Roy and Gretchen Jackson switched Barbaro from grass to dirt running. We don't read it from the Jacksons' mouths but we can conjecture that they were seduced by the allure of winning the Triple Crown. They're certainly not the only owners captured by this idea but it's tragic just the same. The tragedy becomes sharper when reading Marcus Hersh in the Daily Racing Form on the day of the 2010 Arlington Million writing about the dearth of top-level American grass runners and considering that Barbaro could have been a foundation sire for a surge in U.S. grass success. The Jacksons must have felt an additional blow from the American dirt ethos when another horse they bred - European grass champion George Washington - fatally broke down in the 2007 Breeders Cup Classic (run in the Monmouth Park slop), a race he should never have been in.
Racing is becoming more international (Great Britain now has a Kentucky Derby qualifying race) and this should prompt American owners and breeders to try harder in the grass game. The waning of the U.S. Triple Crown and lessening the obsession with breeding for dirt speed would likely improve the health of the American thoroughbred and boost interest in the American game, especially in Europe. Funny that the Triple Crown is American racing's biggest asset and biggest liability at the same time.
Besides the bravehearts shown by Barbaro, Prado, trainer Michael Matz, and the Jacksons, the most compelling thing about "My Guy Barbaro" is that it shows what it's like to be a human being in a suddenly tense and fluid situation. Prado (with the help of co-author John Eisenberg) puts us in the saddle at the 2006 Preakness. Our hearts pound as the jockey has to make the most weighty decisions in split seconds. We also get a glimpse of the grand fact of horse racing and almost everything else - that things converge from the distant past and the near present, creating a situation no one (other than G-d) could have imagined. Consider Barbaro's turf beginnings when mulling Matz's saddling of the horse on the Pimlico dirt backstretch then leading him onto the grass course where Preakness runners are traditionally saddled. Barbaro probably thought he was going to run on the grass and may have adjusted his physiology accordingly. Also, consider the troubled loading of Diabolical and how that second gate click sent Barbaro off prematurely. Prado considers them in hindsight but his reaction at the moment was the eternally human - "Why is this happening now?" Our hearts go out to this braveheart.
The puzzle is solved by studying the words of the great scientist/philosopher Ernst Mach, who said you may think you can predict the outcome of the most simple situation/experiment but don't be surprised if the expected results don't become actual. In other words, be cautious. Dr. Mach inspired me to question the certainty of Barbaro in the Preakness. I went three deep with Bernardini on my Pick 3 that day and it paid nicely.
Prado and Matz were consoled in the aftermath by teaming up on 2006 Breeders Cup Distaff winner Round Pond and separately winning Barbaro Stakes races the next year at Pimlico and Delaware Park. The author had hoped for extended joy through Barbaro brother Nicanor in the 2009 Triple Crown but it was not to be.
My hope is that Prado gets his first Preakness victory (all those wins in Maryland yet winless in the state's biggest race) aboard a Barbaro sibling or at least a product of Dynaformer (Barbaro's sire). It would be great if Matz and the Jacksons are part of it. 2011 will mark five years since Barbaro's breakdown. The stage is set and I'm willing to place a futures wager on the fact that our spiritually attuned jockey/author is ready to ride and write a new and glorious final chapter.