Post by Christine on May 26, 2008 3:51:33 GMT -5
Hoof Issues Resurface, Hampering Big Brown
By JOE DRAPE
Big Brown’s smooth path to a potential Triple Crown sweep was spoiled Sunday when his trainer, Rick Dutrow, revealed that the colt had sustained a quarter crack on the inside of his left front hoof.
Big Brown, the undefeated Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, who has a history of sore feet, has not been to the racetrack to gallop since Friday, when Dutrow sensed something was amiss. He saw a small spot on Big Brown’s foot Friday afternoon and summoned the hoof specialist Ian McKinlay to Belmont Park later that night. By Saturday, the spot had turned into a slight quarter crack, or a stress fracture of the hoof wall, about five-eighths of an inch long.
Dutrow insists that this is a minor setback and that Big Brown will be in excellent shape for the Belmont Stakes on June 7 and for an opportunity to become the 12th Triple Crown champion, and the first since Affirmed in 1978. He is expected to meet as many as eight challengers in what is known as the Test of the Champion, a grueling mile-and-a-half marathon. “If the race was today, yesterday or tomorrow, this would not be an issue and he’d run,” Dutrow said Sunday morning at Belmont Park. “We’re all concerned with a big race coming up, but it’s better that it happened now.”
He added: “It’s not going to be an issue. It’s bad that it happened, but we’re going to be able to fix him up. The amount of training he is missing is nothing. He is going to be ready to roll.”
McKinlay said Big Brown’s hoof should be healed by Thursday at the latest. McKinlay is treating the injury with an iodine and alcohol solution. When he is certain that the crack is clean and that any chance of infection has passed, he will close the crack in the hoof wall with wire stitches perhaps as early as Monday.
He said the injury was nothing like the ones Big Brown sustained last fall and over the winter. Those injuries sidelined him for nearly three months. Last September, Big Brown developed an abscess in the sole of his left front hoof that caused a wall separation and kept him idle for 45 days. He had the same injury in his right front hoof in December and did not train in January.
“This injury is nothing remotely close to the two foot injuries he had last fall and winter,” McKinlay said. “Those were wall separations and very tender. This is just a straight quarter crack that will pretty much heal by itself.”
Big Brown has been dominant despite his injuries, winning all six times he has walked onto the racetrack by a combined 39 lengths. Dutrow conceded that the quarter crack made his and Big Brown’s owners’ stomachs churn. Still, he seems certain Big Brown is a fit horse that will not be set back by a few days away from the track. In fact, he said the colt had been aggressive in his morning walks and clearly wanted to run.
“The horse is in no discomfort; he doesn’t even know anything is wrong,” Dutrow said. “He is trying to figure out why he is not going to the track, and he has been tough to walk. Missing a few days of training is not going to hurt us at all. If I can work him on Tuesday before the Belmont, that would be perfect. Or even Wednesday would be good.”
By JOE DRAPE
Big Brown’s smooth path to a potential Triple Crown sweep was spoiled Sunday when his trainer, Rick Dutrow, revealed that the colt had sustained a quarter crack on the inside of his left front hoof.
Big Brown, the undefeated Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, who has a history of sore feet, has not been to the racetrack to gallop since Friday, when Dutrow sensed something was amiss. He saw a small spot on Big Brown’s foot Friday afternoon and summoned the hoof specialist Ian McKinlay to Belmont Park later that night. By Saturday, the spot had turned into a slight quarter crack, or a stress fracture of the hoof wall, about five-eighths of an inch long.
Dutrow insists that this is a minor setback and that Big Brown will be in excellent shape for the Belmont Stakes on June 7 and for an opportunity to become the 12th Triple Crown champion, and the first since Affirmed in 1978. He is expected to meet as many as eight challengers in what is known as the Test of the Champion, a grueling mile-and-a-half marathon. “If the race was today, yesterday or tomorrow, this would not be an issue and he’d run,” Dutrow said Sunday morning at Belmont Park. “We’re all concerned with a big race coming up, but it’s better that it happened now.”
He added: “It’s not going to be an issue. It’s bad that it happened, but we’re going to be able to fix him up. The amount of training he is missing is nothing. He is going to be ready to roll.”
McKinlay said Big Brown’s hoof should be healed by Thursday at the latest. McKinlay is treating the injury with an iodine and alcohol solution. When he is certain that the crack is clean and that any chance of infection has passed, he will close the crack in the hoof wall with wire stitches perhaps as early as Monday.
He said the injury was nothing like the ones Big Brown sustained last fall and over the winter. Those injuries sidelined him for nearly three months. Last September, Big Brown developed an abscess in the sole of his left front hoof that caused a wall separation and kept him idle for 45 days. He had the same injury in his right front hoof in December and did not train in January.
“This injury is nothing remotely close to the two foot injuries he had last fall and winter,” McKinlay said. “Those were wall separations and very tender. This is just a straight quarter crack that will pretty much heal by itself.”
Big Brown has been dominant despite his injuries, winning all six times he has walked onto the racetrack by a combined 39 lengths. Dutrow conceded that the quarter crack made his and Big Brown’s owners’ stomachs churn. Still, he seems certain Big Brown is a fit horse that will not be set back by a few days away from the track. In fact, he said the colt had been aggressive in his morning walks and clearly wanted to run.
“The horse is in no discomfort; he doesn’t even know anything is wrong,” Dutrow said. “He is trying to figure out why he is not going to the track, and he has been tough to walk. Missing a few days of training is not going to hurt us at all. If I can work him on Tuesday before the Belmont, that would be perfect. Or even Wednesday would be good.”
