The New York Post is reporting that HBO has quietly begun production on a feature-length documentary about Barbaro, the horse that captured the public's imagination after winning the Kentucky Derby in 2006 and suffering a disastrous injury during the running of Preakness two weeks later. Barbaro was euthanized on January 29th of this year.

During the eight months that passed between Preakness and Barbaro's eventual death, he became the center of immense media and public attention. Somewhere along the way, Barbaro, like Seabiscuit before him, became more than a horse. He became a symbol - albeit a contested one. To the thousands who sent him "get well" letters and holy objects to speed his recovery, he was the picture of strength and perservance. To some on-lookers, his story was an intolerable mixture of media overkill and misplaced senimentality. To others, he represented the excesses of breeding animals for sport. Regardless of what you think of Barbaro and his fans, a film was inevitable. Expect to see HBO's Barbaro documentary in June, during Triple Crown season.

1. How much air time should TV news give to Barbaro dying? Um, how about a quick mention during sports and that's it? In the grand scheme of things, it's really not that important. One of the Boston news anchors said that the horse was "a great athlete" twice within five minutes. The horse's death was not only talked about over and over and over and over again on the major networks and all the 24 hour news channels, ABC led their nightly newscast with it. What, nothing happening in Iraq on in Washington? And they say Katie is doing fluff.