Four months after his death, Barbaro’s legacy lives on in horse racing. Now he’s credited with helping raise ratings for this year’s Kentucky Derby, a race he dominated last year before being seriously injured a few weeks later.

NBC’s coverage of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday drew the event’s best overnight ratings in 15 years, since 1992, and bested last year’s race by 12 percent. From 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., NBC averaged an 8.3 rating and 18 share in households.

The actual race and post-race portion of the event, which began at 5:45, averaged a 9.8/21, 10 percent better than last year’s 8.9/20, according to Nielsen data. Prerace coverage averaged a 6.4/15, up 16 percent from last year’s 5.5/13.

It was the best overnight rating since an 8.3 in 1992, and tied 2001, 2002 and 2004 for that distinction. Final ratings will be released later this week.

Saturday’s race was certainly among the most exciting in recent years. Eventual winner Street Sense was running 19th in the race and seemed to have no chance at victory early on.

That was far different from last year, when undefeated Barbaro won by a record six and a half lengths.

But Barbaro likely did help boost Saturday’s coverage. NBC produced a special on the horse, who was put down earlier this year following complications suffered from an injury in last year’s Preakness Stakes, that also ran Saturday.

No doubt many of Barbaro’s legion fans tuned in to the Derby in hopes of seeing similar tributes and features on their favorite horse, and NBC included several.

His legacy is a large one. TimWoolleyracing.com, the web site that provided daily updates on Barbaro’s condition until he was euthanized in January, still receives up to 7,000 hits per day. An average 1,500 message board tributes to the late horse are also posted on the site each day.

And 500 fans, including one who came all the way from South Africa, showed up in Delaware to celebrate what would have been the animal’s birthday last month.

Many of them have formed a coalition of Fans of Barbaro to raise money and support for Congressional legislation opposing the slaughter of horses.