KENNETT SQUARE — Barbaro was given a walk in the intensive care unit by his veterinarian Friday, perhaps a sign the ailing Kentucky Derby winner was responding well to treatment for an often fatal condition in his left hind leg.

And after spending 2Z\x hours visiting Barbaro, jockey Edgar Prado came away feeling much better about the colt's chance to survive a severe case of laminitis and a reconstructed right hind leg that was shattered in the first few yards of the Preakness Stakes on May 20.

"He looked much better than I thought he would," Prado said after leaving New York at 4:30 a.m. and visiting the colt who gave him his first Derby victory. "I fed him, walked with him and he put his head on my shoulder and fell asleep."

For a day at least, there was hope at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. The mood swing came a day after chief surgeon Dean Richardson delivered the grim news that Barbaro had laminitis, 80 percent of his left hoof wall had been removed Wednesday and that chances of survival were poor.