Curlin's Horseshoe Beat Him to the Hall of Fame

by Fran Jurga | 10 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The square-toe glue-on Polyflex horseshoe design dictated by Curlin's 2008 campaign needs

A highlight of last week's Hoofcare and Lameness/Hoofcare@Saratoga reception for the Ride On! exhibit at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was a little piece of plastic with a big story to tell.

Oklahoma horseshoer David Hinton had been scheduled to be with us but had to change his plans; he will be with us this week at the Parting Glass at 7 pm (August 11) instead.

David shoes for the Asmussen Racing Stable and flies all over the country. Last year, he was working on Curlin when the champion colt was stabled at Saratoga and training for the Woodward and Jockey Club Gold Cup as part of his campaign toward the 2008 Breeders Cup and becoming North America's richest-ever racehorse.

Trainer Steve Asmussen had success with the Polyflex shoe developed by Saratoga horseshoer Curtis Burns on other horses but he only wanted a square-toed "Silver Queen" type glue on for Curlin. The problem: the Polyflex shoe had a round toe.

Changing the mold for one horse in the middle of the busiest time of the year was a tall order for the Polyflex team but somehow, but mid-summer, a prototype was made and put in Hinton's hands to try on Curlin. Not only did it work, the company soon added the design as an alternate model and it is selling well.

Curlin went on to wear the shoes for the rest of his career. Asmussen starter Kensai wore Polyflex glue shoes a week ago when he won the Jim Dandy, although I don't know if they were square toes or round toes.

One of the square-toe shoes that Curlin wore in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, when he passed the $10 million earning mark, was presented with documentation to the National Museum of Racing last Tuesday, on behalf of Stonestreet Farms, owner of Curlin. Burns and Hinton worked behind the scenes with Hoofcare and Lameness to make this happen for the night of the reception, which was sponsored by Life Data Labs.

The shoe was presented to curator Beth Sheffer, who was thrilled to receive it. She said it was the first glue-on shoe the museum would have in its permanent collection, although they currently have on display Big Brown's Kentucky Derby Yasha shoe on loan from Ian McKinlay.

Sheffer revealed that the museum had received the extensive shoe collection of Calumet Farm in Kentucky and its late trainer Jimmie Jones. The collection is in storage.

The Ride On exhibit contains examples of horseshoes, hoof boots, and pads used to overcome different lameness problems, especially laminitis, in horses. Included in the exhibit are two handmade shoes by Michael Wildenstein FWCF (Hons), adjunct professor of farrier science at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, and a selection of rail and roller motion shoes by Dr. Scott Morrison of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital's Podiatry Clinic in Lexington, Kentucky. Also included is the Soft-Ride hoof boot, which Dr Morrison helped to develop for laminitic horses.

Dr. Morrison will speak on Tuesday, August 11 in the Hoofcare@Saratoga series at the Parting Glass, 40 Lake Avenue, Saratoga Springs, at 7 p.m.; Michael Wildenstein will speak on August 18 at 7 p.m., with a farrier-only session in the afternoon. Admission to both lectures is free; seating is limited.

© 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.

The Hooves Have It: Will Thoroughbreds Sink or Swim Over the New Surface at Santa Anita?

A horse trains over the hilly Pro-Ride covered training track at Lindsay Park Training Center in Australia. (Photo at www.prorideracing.com)

(NOTE TO EMAIL-SUBSCRIBER READERS: This blog post contains two video clips. To watch the videos, you will need to click here and read this post on the blog's web site.)

“Training on dirt, you know exactly where you are going into a race. Synthetics? They all seem to train well over it but they don’t all run well. So, it’s a question mark.” (Trainer Todd Pletcher earlier today)

"Sure, I guess it is good publicity if a horse wearing my shoes wins the Breeders Cup but right now I don't care if my horses win or lose. I just want them to all come home safely. None of us wants to see an injury in the Breeders Cup, or any race, but on Saturday, well, I can't wait until it's over. And they're all home safe and sound." (Horseshoe manufacturer)

If you haven't been following the Breeders Cup, here's the nutshell version (Readers: if you are already up to speed on the Breeders Cup, please skip past this recap): America's biggest race series has expanded to two days this year, culminating in the Breeders Cup Classic, where 2007 Horse of the Year and all-time leading money earner Curlin will face off against the best American horses left standing and some of the best horses that Ireland and England have to offer.

Interest in the Classic was toned down several notches with the defection of Big Brown a few weeks ago, when a training mis-step ripped his heel and sent him to the Breeders Shed instead of the Breeders Cup.

The x factor in the Breeders Cup is that while the championship has been hosted at Santa Anita Racecourse outside Los Angeles, California in the past, this is the first time that it will be raced on an artificial surface. Santa Anita agreed to host the 2008 races years ago and installed an artificial surface last year, but had to rip it up and installed a different one in September of this year. The dark-colored Pro-Ride surface from Australia has not been raced on by most of the horses.

To make matters more interesting, most of the European horses have never raced on anything but grass. (And some Euro runners are entered in the turf races.) Classic entries HenrytheNavigator and Duke of Marmalade are running on a non-grass surface for the first time. The Euro excuse for poor performance over dirt in the past when running in the USA is that the horses hate having dirt kicked in their faces. And Pro Ride claims little to no kickback.

As Todd Pletcher says, horses all seem to train well over artificial tracks but they sometimes run differently than they would on dirt.

This video clip will give you an idea of how the hoof hits the surface; you can also see how dark the material is:



Colonel John and Tiago are two horses in the Classic who have won on an artificial surface; Japan's undefeated Casino Drive shipped in a month ago and ran in an allowance race in order to see how the undefeated colt did on the new track. (He won.)

According to the Pro-Ride web site, the new surface "has minimal kickback, provides greater hoof support and is the most consistent surface available." And, most interesting of all, it does not require watering.

The company estimates that the hoof penetrates 20 mm into the surface. Comments from farriers include that the surface does stick inside the foot, especially along the frog, and that some horses appear to be shedding the back parts of their frogs.

Horses need to adjust to a surface for exactly those kinds of reasons. Many Thoroughbreds have intentionally-thinned soles to create a cupping effect, but if the cup fills with track surface, it can make the horse sore until the horse gets used to it and the sole hardens. If a horse's sole fills with dirt or his frog is sore, he may adjust his stride to land more toe first, or heel first, as need be to avoid pain.

Trainers watch for this type of change in action and will pack the feet or poultice them or work with the horseshoer to adjust or change the shoes. Some horses in California now train over the artificial surfaces without shoes while trainers try to figure out what the best foot solution is for an individual horses.

Trainer Bobby Frankel is quoted in the New York Daily News yesterday as one who is having troubles with his horses' feet. He blames it on the heat: "When it's 90 degrees out, the (synthetic) track surface heats up to 160 degrees."

And many horses just take the changes in stride!

Here's a video clip, courtesy of Horse Racing TV, of Curlin in a public work last week at Santa Anita. I know this is pretty boring, but watch behind him as he gallops. There is very little, if any, displacement. Also notice how deeply (or not) his feet penetrate the surface.



John Sherreffs, trainer of Tiago, said on September 25: "I've looked at the course a couple of times, but the one thing I like about any racetrack is the ability of the horse to get a hold of it and get a little rotation of the foot into the track. Some of the synthetic tracks, they just stop the foot from going into the track at all so that...they don't slide. So, there's a little jarring and, personally, I don't like that for racehorses. I prefer that they get a little hold." (NTRA quote)

Other factors affecting the championship are that the temperature continues to be in the 90s, which is very hot for the Europeans, and which may affect the track, which is not supposed to need watering...but watering has been done during this hot spell. There are also wildfires in the hills around Arcadia, which could affect air quality on some level.

Trainer D. Wayne Lucas is one who avoids racing his horses on the artificial tracks. His quote: "I'm on all dirt tracks. I gear our program to that."

Four horses have broken down since the Oak Tree meet opened on September 20th, according to the Daily Racing Form.

Hoofprints in a Pro-Ride racing surface show distinct impressions; the manufacturer claims that the hoof sinks 20 mm into the surface. General observations about artificial surfaces are that the hoof slides less. (Pro-Ride photo)


© 2008 Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online or received via a daily email through an automated delivery service. This post was originally published on Thursday, October 23, 2008 at www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal, please visit our 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.

Comments to individual posts are welcome but are moderated; please click on the "comment" icon at the bottom of the post.

Big Brown's Part Owners Pledge Drug-Free Stable After October 1st

Here's a statement issued today by International Equine Acquisitions Holdings (IEAH), the partnership that is part owner of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown. The statement comes on the heels of a Congressional hearing held Thursday in Washington DC in which House committee members were highly critical of lax drug policies (among other things) in US horse racing.

This is the first announcement of this sort that has been issued, although there are probably racing stables and/or trainers who have similar policies without stating them. Remember that medication rules vary by state. For many years, New York had a much tougher medication policy than other states. Today, it is legal to race horses on steroids and other medications in most states.

The Jockey Club has been promoting a nation-wide ban on steroids by the end of this year, by the issuance of a model rule that would be adopted by individual states. They also have issues a model rule change outlawing any traction devices or toe grabs on front shoes. However, no one has the power to force a state to change its drug or horseshoe regulations.

From IEAH's statement:

"In an effort to re-build confidence and the integrity to the great sport of Thoroughbred horse racing in North America, IEAH Stables is proud to announce effective October 1 all horses in training and racing in IEAH silks will run only with Lasix. No other medication, drugs, or steroids will be administered.

"While regulatory standards and indeed legislation may be required to resolve most of the controversial issues surrounding our sport, we believe our announcement today is a step in the right direction. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first racing stable in North America to make this commitment. We encourage others to follow our lead.

"We have selected an effective date of October 1 as the official "free-of-medication" withdrawal date because our horses should be clear of all substances by that time. As of October 1, we will request all tracks at which our horses run to perform pre-race and post-race testing at our expense. These procedures have proven effective under racing conditions outside North America.

"Moreover, in the interest of fairness to the wagering public, we will request and strongly urge that race programs include data indicating which horses will run with medication, which will run free of medication. The programs should also indicate which owners/trainers decline to divulge this information.

"As a further test of our commitment, beginning October 1, if any of our runners test positive for medication other than Lasix, we pledge to donate our share or purse money to charities related to thoroughbred horse racing. We will specify those charitable organizations at a later date.

"We believe this change is for the betterment of our sport. In the long run, it will benefit all involved in the game -- the tracks, horsemen and most of all the fans."

(end quote)

(Note: Lasix, the one drug that IEAH says it will allow, is a diuretic anti-bleeding medication.)

An interesting footnote to this story is that Benny the Bull, owned by IEAH, won the Golden Shaheen, a tough international race in Dubai this fall. Dubai racing has a zero tolerance for medication and the Dutrow-trained horse managed to win impressively in spite of the drug ban, international travel, and searing desert heat, as did 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin.

IEAH's October 1 deadline means that their horses, if entered, would not run on medication for the 2008 Breeders Cup to be held in California later that month.

Big Day for Horse Racing Dawns...on the Internet

It's a great day for horse racing. Some of the world's best horses, representing 16 different countries, have been keeping cool in air-conditioned quarantine stables at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai, capital city of the United Arab Emirates. They will be on the track today for the world's richest day of racing: more than $20 million in prize money is at stake in the Dubai World Cup.

You might think that I'll be down at the pub with the big-screen high-definition television monitors to watch the races...but you're wrong. The Dubai World Cup will not be televised, except on the subscription-only racing networks for handicap aficionados with dish services.

So instead of explaining horse racing to the folks down at the pub, I'll be huddled over a computer monitor, since ESPN just announced that they will "broadcast" the races live on their espn360.com web site.

Make no mistake: the world's best horses, including the world's #1 racehorse (2007 Horse of the Year Curlin), will be running for more than $21 million, but there is not enough of an audience for television coverage by a network.

There is enough of an audience (ESPN believes) for a live broadcast of the Florida Derby from Gulfstream at 5 p.m., presumably because it is one of the final prep races for the Kentucky Derby.

People will watch poker, though. I'd rather watch Curlin.


Top American racehorse Curlin is the overwhelming favorite to win today's Dubai World Cup. If your internet service provider has an agreement with ESPN, you can watch the races live today on espn360.com. The Hoofcare office has Verizon dsl, which is an ESPN internet partner, so I can watch. The races start at 9:30 EST, with the Big Race going off around 1:30 p.m. EST. I think there is a nine-hour time difference, so do the math: these races will be under lights. Let's hope Curlin's a night owl. Two interesting factoids about this day of racing: admission to the racecourse is free to the public. And there's no betting.

Photo of Curlin by Dave Harmon, courtesy of Dubai World Cup Media Centre. Thanks!