Barbaro, the winner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby, was euthanized today, Jan. 29, when it became clear that it would be difficult for him to go on without pain.

The Dynamformer colt shattered his right hind leg in the Preakness Stakes (Md.) in May and then developed laminitis in his left hind foot after the surgery to repair the break. He had been improving, but on Saturday, Jan. 27, he went back to surgery when he developed a subsolar abscess in his right hind foot.

“We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain,” co-owner Roy Jackson said. “It was the right decision, it was the right thing to do. We said all along if there was a situation where it would become more difficult for him then it would be time.”