Quality Road's Derby Withdrawal: What Did Others Do?
by Fran Jurga | 27 April 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog When Monday rolled around, the stall door did not open wide. No big colt came striding out. Before you write this colt off, read your history. Today's leading sire A. P. Indy sat out both the 1992 Kentucky Derby and Preakness while recovering from a quarter crack, which popped the day before the Derby, and came back to win the much longer Belmont Stakes and Breeders Cup before entering stud. And who could forget another leading sire, Unbridled's Song, whose owner (the now infamous Ernie Paragallo, currently accused of neglecting almost 200 horses on his farm in upstate New York), sent his colt to the post in the 1996 Kentucky Derby in spite of a quarter crack and bar shoe, only to have him finish fifth. Unbridled's Song missed the Preakness and the Belmont. And don't forget one of the most underrated racehorses in American history: the great Buckpasser, who won 14 stakes races with a gaping quarter crack that was often unpatched. The crack did keep him out of the Triple Crown, but he came back to win the Travers...and everything else. I think he won something like 14 stakes races in quick succession, within a year, in spite of his recracking hoof. His jockey, Braulio Baeza, said he ran on his heart, not his hooves. Buckpasser's three-year-old quarter crack was infected; the Phipps Stable brought in Standardbred quarter crack expert Joe Grasso to patch him and the crack recurred when he was four. Buckpasser is one of the most interesting horses, hoof-wise, in recent American history. The Phipps Stables is said to have tested experimental European raceplates on him. He retired with a record of 31-25-4-1. That's right: he started 31 times in three years, almost all of which were stakes races. In 1964, Northern Dancer (who looms in Quality Road's pedigree, thanks to Mr. Prospector) won the Flamingo and Florida Derby prep races, as well as the Derby, while recovering from a quarter crack, but the crack would have been quite grown out by the Derby. Northern Dancer wore the vulcanized patch by Bill Bane at Santa Anita. Just to muddy this whole situation, a horse can have a quarter crack, a Quarter Crack, or a QUARTER CRACK. It sounds like Quality Road has a quarter crack in a sensitive spot, and his decisionmakers aren't taking any chances. That translates to one less reason to hold your breath for two minutes on Saturday. And that's ok. Click here to read a 2008 Hoof Blog article on the history of quarter crack patches and horses who benefited from them.
Florida Derby winner Quality Road sported a new patch on his new quarter crack when he galloped on Sunday, and plans called for a serious work today (Monday) at his home track of Belmont Park in New York before shipping to Louisville for Saturday's Kentucky Derby.
He stayed in his stall this morning: not a good sign.
Ian McKinlay called on Sunday to say that he was disappointed that the crack's location, right at the hairline, meant that when he inserted the drain and tightened the sutures before applying the patch, there was a tiny drop of blood at the hairline.
“This is live tissue – we’re not changing a flat tire, so there are a lot of judgment calls," McKinlay said. “Everything had been stabilized and when I changed the wires today, the crack opened up. There was a bit of sensitive tissue aggravated during the process. Hopefully, there won’t be a tinge of blood tomorrow (Monday) when he breezes.”
Trainer Jimmy Jerkens said Sunday that he was planning to treat the hoof with “Thrush Buster” as a drying agent and also with Animalintex poultice. “He’s got 24 hours to get better,” said Jerkens on Sunday. “I would have liked to have seen no blood, but it didn’t surprise me because he was still tender. He’s sound, he galloped the way he usually does, but I would have been more optimistic without blood.” 
© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.
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3 comments:
Fran, do you know why they would be using a drying agent? It was my understanding that overly dry hooves can contribute to quarter cracks and one form of treatment was keeping the hoof walls moist. So I'm a bit confused.
Thanks as always for a great blog.
Trying to figure out why they'd use thrush buster on a bleeding quarter crack, but what do I know? I do know a bleeding hoof is not something I'd want to mess with, as in push a horse to race with it.
A pedigree correction for Quality Road.
Mr Prospector does not have Northern Dancer in his pedigree. Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer both have the Tesio-bred Nearco within two generations. Ms Prospe4ctor's Dancer ancestor is Native Dancer. Quality Road does indeed have Northern Dancer in his pedigree -- twice, once via his sire's dam line and once via his dam sire Strawberry Road, the well thought of Australian horse.
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