from what i've seen about barbaro, when he ran his first race they really got to thinking he was a t.c. horse. his entire schedule was set up based on having a fit, but not tired horse for the trail. like matz said, a lot of people focus on the derby, he focused on the series. that so many try so hard to get the horse to ky, without considering the bigger picture. of course the winner than heads to md, but that's more of an 'afterthought'..hey, won the derby, now we gotta try to win the next two. he set up everything to make all three, knowing how grueling the three races would be. so, i'm not so sure barbaro dictated the time between starts--the overall plan did.