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Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Notes - Apr 1

- Nick Kling stole my Big Brown headline, but then again, I stole it from UPS. He points out that Big Brown was wearing "pricey" shoes designed to protect a horse's feet. A wise trainer once said, "No foot, no horse." In this horse's case, the issue is quarter cracks.

These are the equine version of torn fingernails, except in the case of a horse, the animal has to stand or run on the injured area. [Troy Record]
Well, I wouldn't want to run a mile and a quarter on torn fingernails either, so the concern about Dutrow's colt is understandable.

To show you just how far War Pass has fallen in stature, David Grening, writing of this Saturday's Wood Memorial in the Form, merely lumps him in with Court Vision, Tale of Ekati, and Texas Wildcatter. Visionaire will go to the Blue Grass instead, and Denis of Cork to the Illinois Derby, where he was installed as the 2-1 favorite from post five. Julien Leparoux picks up the mount, and he seems like a good fit for this horse.

(And remember that I'll be doing the live blog thing from the Big A pressbox on Saturday.)

- Nice workout for Colonel John; six furlongs in 1:10.80. “He went five-eighths in :59 and two or three (fifths of a second), and couldn’t have done it any easier," said trainer Eoin Harty.

- Hoosier Park and Indiana Downs are set to join the racino club.

4 Comments:

Harl said...

I'm disappointed with the injury to GEORGIE BOY. He was a main cog in my Road to the Roses Stable and, I imagine, one of the reasons I'm ranked 14th among paid players and 28th overall.

Of course, it made my decision this weekend a little easier since I had eight probables among the three scoring races prior to GEORGIE BOY's defection.

Superfecta said...

I linked to this site the other day for a good visual on quarter cracks. I know some horses (granted, mostly show horses) who have performed well with them and others for whom it was career-ending.

Can you remember exactly what was wrong with Unbridled's Song's feet? I just recall they were 'bad' (and that he apparently passes that on often).

Nick said...

The horse in those pictures has such and ugly foot it's no wonder it's having problems. The poor thing is in bad need of a decent trim.

I'd love to see some decent pictures of Big Brown's feet.

Anonymous said...

The opening odds are out for the final Future's Pool (starting noon on Thursday) and Big Brown is now installed as the ML favorite at 3-1.

Courier Journal 4/1 "Kentucky Derby Future Wager"

Tomcito is now going to be a wagering interest opening at good 30-1; the prior favorites are
Pyro at 4-1 and War Pass at 6-1

I'm a bit surprised that Lane’s End Stakes winner Adriano is being listed at 20-1. Haven't his connections said "Derby attempt unlikely"? So isn't that kind of public remark even more support that the risk to a punter be that much higher then 20-1?