Barbaro leaving the comfort of home

ELKTON, Md. – An hour away and a world removed from the cramped barns and concrete walkways of Pimlico, the Kentucky Derby winner is living a real horse’s life.

Instead of being stuck in a stall for 23 out of 24 hours a day, Barbaro can graze and occasionally be turned loose in a small round paddock for a few hours of freedom. He gets to stretch his legs over a green rise that leads to a training track free of the noise, bustle and traffic that characterize most major American racecourses. He sees trees and trails instead of trucks and trailers.

The idyllic, 350-acre Fair Hill training center is where Barbaro has been resting and training, and where he will stay until sometime today, when he will take the 60-minute van ride and move into the Derby winner’s stall in the Preakness stakes barn.

Barbaro has never set hoof on Pimlico’s racing surface, and won’t until sometime Saturday morning, some 12 hours or so before he attempts to win the second jewel of racing’s Triple Crown.

He will be running on only two weeks’ rest for the first time in his (so far perfect) six-race career.