Of the things that can go wrong with a horse, a hoof (same material as a toenail, as opposed to the foot itself), while annoying, is one of the least serious, given fiberglass patches and all the other advances of the last 15 years. Roman Ruler's situation had obviously gotten a lot more serious than the usual quarter crack problem, but if he has a good blacksmith, a little time (3 weeks still until the Ark Derby), and doesn't miss too much training, well, there's only one Derby. If things continue to go wrong, that's another story.

Victory Gallop got a quarter crack about 6 days before the Dubai World Cup, got patched 4 days out (by memory, could be off a day or two). He was slightly tender when they first put the patch on, and since it was his only race that year that wasn't a top, it could be why he got beat (third by 3/4 length). Ah well, at least it wasn't a big race.



TGJB