Triple Crown Hopeful Big Brown Has Slight Injury
ELMONT, NEW YORK (TICKER)–Big Brown has missed two days of training due to a slight left foot injury, horse trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. announced Sunday.
The massive colt, who is vying to become the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years, is being treated for a “slight” quarter crack on the inside of his front left hoof.
Dutrow admitted he was somewhat concerned by the injury. But Dutrow also said that it will not prevent Big Brown from running in the Belmont Stakes on June 7 at New York’s Belmont Park, when he will attempt to become horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.
“We didn’t know until Saturday that it was a quarter-crack,” Dutrow said. “It scares us this happened, but this has nothing to do with his ability to finish what he started.
“It’s bad it happened, but it’s good it happened now. He’s going to be OK.”
A quarter crack is a vertical crack in the hoof wall between the toe and heel.
Big Brown has had quarter cracks on both front feet before. He first developed a quarter crack in his inner right front foot while in New York.
“This is a very, very minor crack,” said hoof specialist Ian McKinlay, who said the crack was about five-eighths of an inch long. “We will put a set of wires in and patch it up.”
“Ian keeps telling me it’s nothing and he’ll be fine in a couple of days, that he will be able to fix it up by Thursday,” Dutrow added. “I am sure he will be 100 percent, yes. If we get to breeze him Tuesday or Belmont week, or even Wednesday, we can live with that.”
Big Brown demolished the field at last Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, finishing a comfortable 5 1/4 lengths in front of Macho Again who will be ridden by jockey Garrett Gomez in the Belmont Stakes. Two weeks prior to the Preakness, Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
Dutrow claimed that Big Brown is primed for another strong performance in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes.
“The horse is doing fine, he’s eating up, he’s walking the shedrow two times a day,” Dutrow said. “If the race was today, or yesterday, or tomorrow, it would not be an issue. Because we have the time, we’ve addressed the issue the right way.
“He’s been as aggressive as I’ve seen him. He’s really been rank in the afternoon.”
"Triple Crown Hopeful Big Brown Has Slight Injury" was posted on 26 May 2008 12:26 AM under Belmont Stakes, Horse Racing News, Horses, Special Features, Stakes Races, Triple Crown
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