Quarter Crack should not be a factor in Belmont - according to most
Most in the Horse Racing Industry seem to agree that the injury to Big Brown's hoof is minor and should not play a factor in Saturday's Belmont Stakes, but most also seem to feel that Richard Dutrow and the Big Brown team are likely downplaying the injury. Concerns that racing Big Brown is putting his life in jeopardy are clearly outlandish, but reports that he is as "good as new" are also not correct. His hoof will be patched on Friday afternoon by hoof specialist Ian McKinlay. An Acrylic adhesive will be applied and McKinlay says that it will make the area stronger than the hoof itself.
Arizona Republic - Jim Gintonio: Few see hoof crack slowing Big Brown
...."When you're talking about an injury that Big Brown is dealing with right now, a quarter-crack type injury, it's more an annoyance to a horse than anything else," ABC-ESPN analyst Randy Moss said. "It's not something along the lines that would lead to what you saw in Derby with Eight Belles or anything such as that. It's something that can cause some minor discomfort to a horse, and in a worst-case scenario could prevent him from maybe putting out the full 100 percent of effort. I'm confident that they're on top of this, although I will agree they're probably downplaying the significance of it a little bit compared to what the actual reality of the situation is.".....more
London Free Press - Rob Longley: Big Brown crack splits analysts /span>
...."We could run him the way he is, but we're going to patch it up," trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said yesterday. "We're not taking any kind of risk by patching him up right now."Others aren't so quick to dismiss the condition. While it may not seem like much for a fit thoroughbred, missing a few days of training can take a horse off his game. And if the injury is even a touch more than the Big Brown camp claims, it easily can be exposed in the gruelling Belmont. "I'm a firm believer (that) everything has to go right between races," veteran New York trainer Shug McGaughey said this week. "It's the third race in five weeks. It's a mile and a half. Big Brown, he looked great, but everything has not gone exactly right for him since the Preakness."......more
Boston Globe - Mark Blaudschun: Horse set to hoof it
....So it was two weeks ago when Big Brown's trainer, Rick Dutrow, announced that the horse who had breezed to ridiculously easy wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes had a quarter crack in his left front hoof and would miss a few days of training. Ah, perhaps a sign of weakness. But yesterday, as he has done for the past several days, Dutrow emphasized that Big Brown couldn't be better......more
