Well as I wrote in an earlier Blog so much can happen from the Preakness to the Belmont that it's just bad karma to be running your mouth the way Big Brown's trainer Rick Dutrow Jr has been. With that said it has been announced that Big Brown suffered a quarter crack in his left front hoof. It is a minor crack that can be repaired. I have had my horses suffer quarter cracks before it's not a serious injury but it's a nuisance because you lose some training time.

Big Brown's connections have called in a specialist to repair the crack with a procedure that will see them put wires in for support and then stitch up the crack and put a patch over it to cover the crack to prevent infection. This is a routine procedure but here are the possible drawbacks.

Big Brown will miss some valuable training time something that you don't want to do when your going to be racing at a distance you never have raced before the gruelling mile and a half at Belmont. None of these horse have ever gone that far before so you really don't want to be short on conditioning.

Lastly and this is very important if the foot does bother him I can tell you from personal experience that when a horse has a foot problem it will get worse the further he goes in the race. Every stride puts a 1,000 lbs of pressure and concussion on their feet. That pounding starts to feel worse later in the race and given the extra distance of the Belmont that could be huge in the final stretch run because as the pain worsens the horse won't finish strong. This is an injury to keep your eye on leading up to the Belmont.