I’m a horse racing fan. And anyone who has spent an idyllic afternoon in the spring sun at Keeneland knows why. There’s something majestic about the sport. And something satsfyingly pseudo-scientific about trying to choose a winner based on record, winnings, bloodlines, splits and all the rest.

So each spring when the Triple Crown comes around, I like to think of myself as more than the casual fan.

And each spring, because I’m a horse racing fan, I root for a horse to emerge and seize the moment, to grab the chance to be the first Triple Crown winner since 1978. I’ve watched each of the last few years as a good horse proved himself unworthy on the long homestretch at Belmont and waited for a true champion to come along.

This year, I was certain he had arrived. Barbaro had the right bloodline, the right perdigree and the right record to make a serious run at the Triple Crown — to become the kind of legend that horse racing needs right now to spur interest and attract new fans. His 6 length win at the Kentucky Derby seemed to confirm that he was the a real contender. And as the Derby champion left Louisville, it seemed that in five weeks, he would have a date with history at Belmont Park. Only, he had to win the Preakness first.

Only, he didn’t. Indeed, he didn’t even make it to the first quarter pole.

Most folks who have been to more than a few races have seen — or, more accurately, been told by a track announcer that a horse has been pulled up or broken down. But in a grandstand or on a simulcast, fans are kept at arms length. They never see the effect of an injury up close. Not so on Satuday at Pimlico. NBC’s cameras captured every detail from every conceivable angle. And, for my own part anyway, the images will stay with me a very long time.

As Barbaro was tended to on the track and then through the excruciating next day’s surgery, it seemed that anyone and everyone who watched the race or saw the replays was waiting for the news. And when it came Sunday night, it was welcome. He had survived the surgery. 50-50 the surgeon said. Eating hay and nickering at mares. Huzah! That’s a start.

To be sure, it’s a long road from the stall at the large animal hospital to the breeding barn, but Barbaro’s very survival is testament to how far medicine has come in recent years. It wasn’t that long ago that a horse with an injury as severe as his simply would have been put down. Not out of choice, but out of necessity.

Barbaro’s devestating injury prompts a question: with the risks so high for man and horse, why do it at all?

But the answer is simple, and it’s a fundamental element of being for these fine horses. Thoroughbreds are born to run. If they weren’t racing each other around the track, they’d be racing each other around the pasture. Running is their nature. Coded into every fiber of their being by their DNA. It is their very nature.

Which is why, despite the photos, and despite my profound sadness watching Barbaro break down, I will keep going to races and keeping watch the Thoroughbreds run.

UPDATE: Andy Beyer is, in my opinion, the best racing columnist anywhere. And he has two must-read columns on Barbaro’s injury.

Here’s the first, written within minutes of the Preakness.

And here’s the second, probing the complex issue of why today’s horses don’t seem as durable as the horses of yore.

Cam: I don’t want to stink up this post with my thoughts on horseracing. I just want to say it’s great to have a place where we can write about what we love.

Nice post.

Jim: I don’t follow horse racing much at all, but I enjoyed Marshall’s post and Beyer’s columns. There are some great sportswriters in the world who can take a competition that people don’t follow and lay out a simple, dramatic, here’s-why-you-need-to-watch storyline that will hold the attention of the most casual fan. Michael Wilbon does this pretty well with the NBA; I recall a column he wrote before the playoffs saying, “since Jordan retired with the Bulls, the NBA has been looking for the next great breakout star, the guy who becomes the face of the sport. For a while it looked like Kobe or Shaq, but they stumbled. This year, we learn if LeBron James is that star.” And I found myself reading the sports pages in Washington and in the International Herald Tribune, just to see if James was earning the Jordan mantle or not. (My impression: He’s getting there, but he’s not there yet.)

I joked earlier about figure skating, but really, every four years many Americans do get transfixed by some big international rivalry.

I had my own moment of this sort of breakthrough-in-sports-salesmanship earlier this year when I described ESPN’s annual coverage of the NFL Draft as “The Oscars for Men.” Indeed, this year you had the shock of Reggie Bush not going first, the tight end from Maryland breaking down and crying after he was picked by San Francisco, and Matt Leinart’s seething as he slipped lower and lower in the first round…

Marshall: Quick update: Jonathan David Morris has an excellent post on this topic over at the Conservative Voice.