Big Brown has patch applied to cracked hoof
Specialist says procedure was routine and horse never knew he was hurt
 Marc Serota /The New York Times/ / Redux Pictures Trainer Rick Dutrow is trying to make Big Brown the first Triple Crown winner since 1978. |
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NEW YORK - The Triple Crown trail is littered with colts whose feet failed them along the way. Less than 24 hours before the biggest horse race in three decades, favorite Big Brown and his Japanese challenger, Casino Drive, took steps in opposite directions.
The cracked hoof that stood between trainer Rick Dutrow Jr.’s big bay colt and the sport’s first Triple Crown since 1978 was covered with an acrylic patch Friday, ending a weeklong drama.
No sooner had the glue dried on Big Brown when Casino Drive turned up with a suspect foot that knocked the early second choice out of the Belmont Stakes.
With the scratch from Saturday’s punishing 1½-mile race, it eliminates Big Brown’s chief rival, the only other undefeated colt in the field and send Dutrow’s brimming confidence over the top.
“I don’t think Casino Drive has any chance at all,” he said. “I think the horse has got his issues.”
Of course, that would leave eight other horses to take a shot at Big Brown, the early 2-5 favorite. Dutrow seemed even less worried about them, saying, “They’re going to have to run the race of their life to win.”
At 2-0, Japan-based Casino Drive was coming off a 5¾-length victory in the Peter Pan Stakes nearly a month ago on the same Belmont track.
Big Brown is seeking to join Seattle Slew (9-0 in 1977) as the only undefeated Triple Crown winners. He’s won all five of his races by a combined 39 lengths.
“There’s excitement in the air,” said Dutrow, who memorably declared that Big Brown winning the Belmont is a “foregone conclusion.”
It seemed that way for Spectacular Bid, another horse with the same aura of invincibility, whose attempt at sweeping the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont was derailed in 1979 when he stepped on a safety pin the morning of the Belmont.
The pin was still lodged in his hoof when jockey Ron Franklin rode him to a third-place finish.
Big Brown’s hoof issue was resolved out of public view, with hoof specialist Ian McKinlay applying an acrylic and fiberglass patch to the colt’s front left hoof.
“There were no problems,” he said afterward. “Things couldn’t be better. It’s time for history.”
McKinlay removed the stainless steel sutures holding the crack together, cleaned the area, redrilled holes and put in new sutures. Then he covered it all up with an acrylic adhesive — the same kind used for the $550 glue-on shoes Big Brown wears on his front feet — that set in five minutes. The entire process took about 30 minutes.
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“That’ll be actually stronger than his hoof will,” McKinlay said. “That’ll probably be the last time I’ll work on that hoof unless something else crops up. It could be two months down the line that something else could happen.”
The patch will be left on indefinitely, growing out as Big Brown’s nail grows.
Taking a page from Dutrow’s brag book, McKinlay guaranteed his work.
“If that patch comes off in this race, I might as well quit what I’m doing,” he said. “There is no shot at that.”
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He did leave himself an out, explaining that if an infection is lurking in Big Brown’s hoof, it could be aggravated while using heat to apply the patch. An infection wouldn’t surface for another three or four days, though.
“I don’t expect anything to go wrong with this certainly before tomorrow and not even down the line,” he said. “He looks fabulous.”
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