Previously known as the Leonard Richards Stakes, in 2007 it was renamed in honor of Barbaro, the horse who won the Kentucky Derby in 2006 but who eventually died after shattering his leg in that year's Preakness Stakes.
A Grade III race through 2009 but now ungraded, it is open to three-year-old horses running one and one sixteenth mile on the dirt and offers a purse of $100,000. In 2011, the race was run at 1 mile and 70 yards.
There was no race from 1983 through 1996.
Records
Speed record: (since 1997 at current distance of 1+1⁄16 miles)
1:42.41 - Burning Roma (2001)
Previously the race has been contested at 1+1⁄8 miles. On June 18, 1960, Victoria Park won the race in a track record time of 1:47.40 for 1+1⁄8 miles. As at 2020, that record remains intact.