Newest Andretti ready for first Indy 500

Barbaro was seen napping in his stall Wednesday morning, another indication the seriously injured Kentucky Derby winner was making steady progress on his long road to recovery from life-threatening leg injuries.\n"I happened to peek in there today, in the ICU this morning, and it was early and quiet and the light was dim and he was laying down very peacefully, sleeping in his stall," said Corinne Sweeney, executive hospital director at the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. "And I talked to Dean Richardson and he told me Barbaro is doing very well and his condition is excellent."\nDr. Richardson and a team of assistants pinned together the three leg bones the 3-year-old shattered in the Preakness Stakes Saturday. So far, all the progress reports have been positive, and Barbaro has been a perfect patient.\nEver since Barbaro broke down, all owners Gretchen and Roy Jackson wanted for him was a life without pain.\nIf their beloved colt does recover from catastrophic injuries to his right hind leg and ends up as a stallion, all the better.\n"But that's a long way from now," Richardson said Tuesday. "If he's doing well, it's conceivable he could possibly be breeding mares next year, but that's way ahead of it. He's just a few days into post op."\nTalk of little Barbaros running around the track will have wait for now, but at least the Jacksons are sparing no expense trying to save their colt.\n"If this horse were a gelding these owners would have definitely done everything to save this horse's life," Richardson said. "If this horse could have absolutely no reproductive value, they would have saved his life."\nThe news was good Tuesday, too, from the hospital Barbaro was transported Saturday night directly from Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.\n"He's actually better today than he was even yesterday and he was pretty good yesterday," Richardson said.\nthe colt was able to balance himself enough to scratch his left ear with his left hind leg. "He's walking very well on the limb, absolutely normal vital signs. He's doing very well."\nTuesday's update was encouraging to the Jacksons, who live about five miles away from the center on the 190-acre Lael Farm. Gretchen Jackson is on the board of overseers at the hospital.\n"We've run the gamut of emotions from the euphoria of the Kentucky Derby to the devastation of the Preakness," said her husband, Roy. "Even though he ran so well in the Kentucky Derby, we probably didn't see his greatest race. But that's water over the dam. We're just glad we jumped a hurdle here so far."\nThough it will be months before the leg heals, the optimistic reports turned the topic to Barbaro's prospect as a stallion, which could mean tens of millions of dollars.\nThe Jacksons have been in racing for 30 years, and Barbaro is by far the best horse they've owned.\n"When one becomes a racehorse owner, one of the things is to not fall in love with the animal because it is so painful when something like this happens," Gretchen Jackson said. "Yes, we've experienced this before ... it's part of life."\nBarbaro 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.\nRichardson said the pastern bone was shattered in "20-plus pieces."\nThe bones were put in place to fuse the joint by inserting a plate and 27 screws to repair damage so severe that most horses wouldn't have survived it. Horses often are euthanized after serious leg injuries because circulation problems or fatal disease can arise during recovery.\n"I couldn't believe it at the time of the accident," Gretchen Jackson said. "At first, I thought he just got a suspensory (ligament) injury, then it became more evident it was life threatening. Each day as he shows signs of wellness and is behaving himself in that stall is encouraging"