Good news everyone!

Our favorite horse here at Boiled Sports is back in the news! That's right... it's Barbaro! Hooray!

Barbaro's owners will return to Churchill Downs on Tuesday to honor the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner on the first anniversary of his death.

Neither the Jacksons nor Churchill Downs would elaborate on plans. The Kentucky Derby Museum, a few hundred feet from the finish line, has offered to set up a memorial for the colt in whatever manner the Jacksons deem appropriate.

Barbaro was euthanized Jan. 29, 2007 following an eight-month fight for survival after his breakdown in the 2006 Preakness.

Barbaro won the Derby by 6 1/2 lengths, dominating the field like no other Derby winner in 60 years. Roy Jackson said the colt remains a symbol of hope and courage.

"We're still amazed at all the good wishes and the positive things that have come out of this whole thing," he said. "I can't say we're real sad or anything. We're more happy that things continued in such a positive way."

After the colt's breakdown, fans flooded the New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., with gifts and cards. Fan sites sprouted on the Internet, and giant get-well cards were sent from tracks all over the country.

The Jacksons have spent much of the last year considering options on how to memorialize the colt.

"I think we just had to step back from the whole emotion of the time when he was put down and weigh all the various possibilities," Roy Jackson said. "I think all those things have a way of working out for the best."

I was reading comments on the ESPN story and particularly liked this one, as it seems to capture our sentiment here: "I can't get over the fact that people would waste time and money to send cards and gifts to a horse. News flash: IT'S A HORSE! IT CAN'T READ!"

It's true. No matter how you wish it weren't so, horses can't read.

Off To The Big Glue Factory In The Sky

Well, it's likely you've heard by now. Barbaro is no more. As we try to pick up the pieces and move on with our lives, I suggest a national day of morning for everyone's favorite oat-eater.

No, not really.

When I was driving at lunchtime yesterday (mmmm, lunch) I heard the news on the radio about Barbaro being put down and I laughed gleefully. But then I stopped abruptly and wondered if I had reached a new low in callousness, laughing at the death of an animal. Like many people, I am heartbroken when I hear about or see abused animals (like dogs at shelters) and cannot understand how anyone could abuse a lower life form like that. And, I thought, here I am laughing at the death of a horse.

Then I came to my senses and realized I wasn't laughing at Barbaro's death; rather, I was laughing with glee at the morons who have pinned the value of their own existence to the health and well-being of a horse. Remember the Barbaro message board? Well, that thing kept going strong and while I considered making it a weekly feature around here, enough other sites were bashing them. See the makeshift Myspace pages (here's one example) or Deadspin's coverage.

Yes, I have some anger in me and very often I vent it at people with barely enough brain cells to function on their own. Most of these people, I've learned, are obsessed with Barbaro, a horse that they hadn't ever even heard of before he won one famous race and then broke his leg. They send him cards and emails and post messages... it's ridiculous.

The main reason it all made me angry? The bullshit suggestion that what the veternarians and owners of Barbaro were doing was somehow noble or well-intentioned. That they wanted Barbaro to be happy and live out his days eating apples on a nice farm. What a crock of shit. This was about money, plain and simple, and nothing -- nothing -- more than that.

Any other horse would have been put down the day he grotesquely broke his leg. Horses don't understand their treatments and they don't understand calming down and not thrashing on their broken leg. They will suffer if they're not put down. But Barbaro's owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, saw dollar signs and realized that Barbaro could be a stud and spread his seed to dozens of mares and they could college a handsome stud fee for each time Barbaro mounted another horse.

Think I'm wrong? Well, in 2005 the top stud fees in Kentucky were well into the six figure range, as you can read about here. So having a potential gold mine in their hands, is it so hard to imagine the Jacksons trying at all costs to keep Barbaro alive?

Let's not pretend that Sunday night was Barbaro's first "bad night." There's no doubt that this horse has been suffering and the vets finally said on Monday morning that he absolutely had to be put down.

Those who claim to "love" Barbaro should be happy at this development -- he's finally at peace and no longer being drugged or having dozens of screws put into his leg. This was the humane thing to do and it was the humane thing to do last May. All these clowns who post messages about him and make him carrot-treats can move on to something else now.

So it turns out I really don't like to hear about animals suffering and that on Monday, Barbaro actually -- finally -- was put out of his suffering.