Treatment for the injured racehorse will run in the tens of thousands of dollars, according to officials at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center, where he is recovering.

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A spokeswoman for the school declined to be more specific, citing client confidentiality issues.

However, Dr. Dean W. Richardson, chief of surgery at the center’s George D. Widener Hospital for large hospitals, shed some light on the subject during a July press conference.

“I think it’s very important for the public to recognize that in fact, the surgery that was done on (Barbaro) is really ridiculously inexpensive compared with what would be charged for the same effort, same materials, same everything, in treating a human with a similar fracture,” he said.

Unlike human health insurance, though, there is no coverage for medical treatment. Mortality insurance pays a claim in the event a horse dies or needs to be humanely destroyed.

The 3-year-old colt has come close to death after suffering a broken hind limb shortly after the start of the Preakness May 20.

The surgical procedure, known as fetlock arthrodesis, normally costs $10,000.

“That’s if it were uncomplicated and the horse were back home within 30 days,” said Dr. Larry Bramlage of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky. “As to what (Barbaro’s) will cost, there’s no way to determine it. You have to go week by week.”

He has battled a severe case of laminitis following surgery to reconstruct the leg. Laminitis results from putting too much weight on one leg. The lamina, an area in the hoof, is full of blood, and excessive pressure stops the circulation, killing the bone and creating skin ulcers.

Initially, laminitis is reversible, but in Barbaro’s case, it cannot heal until his broken leg mends and the weight is evenly distributed.

Horseracing experts say economic considerations are playing a role in the extensive treatment, because most horses with fractures such as Barbaro’s are rarely operated on due to low success rates and high medical costs.

Even so, Bramlage said the surgery in not unprecedented.

“The thing that is different about him is he won the Derby and he got injured on national TV,” he said.

Barbaro is owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson. Because he was bred, there was no purchase cost. They did pay a $100,000 stud fee to the owners of his sire, Dynaformer.

Most owners will not race their male horses beyond age 3 because they can make more money putting them out to pasture as stallions, said Dan Metzger, president of the Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association in Lexington, Ky.

In rare instances the fee can hit $500,000. That’s the price people pay for the offspring of Storm Cat, a 23-year-old stallion owned by Overbrook Farm in Lexington, who has sired more than 125 stakes winners worldwide.

If Barbaro’s leg heals sufficiently, he could follow in Storm Cat’s footsteps as a stallion, Metzger said.

This is an update of the “Racing Economics: Horse Tales” article published in June.