Big Brown has Quarter Crack

[Pedigree Ann]

Originally Posted by pgardn

Northern Dancer.

It rears its ugly head here and there.

Northern Dancer didn't have a problem with quarter cracks, as I recall. Ran 9 times at 2, 9 times at 3 before he bowed a tendon after the Queen's Plate, to the best of my recollection. Danzig had a tricky knee that limited his starts to three. Both of them were stretching it to be 15 hands. Hard Spun was ND/Danzig clone; Big Brown is nothing like them in conformation and his physical problem is nothing like theirs.

[Cajungator26]

Originally Posted by Pedigree Ann

Northern Dancer didn't have a problem with quarter cracks, as I recall. Ran 9 times at 2, 9 times at 3 before he bowed a tendon after the Queen's Plate, to the best of my recollection. Danzig had a tricky knee that limited his starts to three. Both of them were stretching it to be 15 hands. Hard Spun was ND/Danzig clone; Big Brown is nothing like them in conformation and his physical problem is nothing like theirs.

Yes, he did. He suffered from quarter cracks in his left front, but they raced him with a rubber patch.

[Pedigree Ann]

Originally Posted by Cajungator26

Yes, he did. He suffered from quarter cracks in his left front, but they raced him with a rubber patch.

Considering how much he ran in his career (15 times before the Preakness) they couldn't have been the more severe sort. Maybe because he was littler (less weight) the damage was less and the patch was sufficient.

I am on a crusade to revive respect for the little horse (under 16 hands). Hyperion was little, Northern Dancer was little, Round Table was little (Shoemaker on his back looked a normal-sized jockey!), Tom Rolfe, Arts and Letters,... In the two great 3yo rivalries of my lifetime - Affirmed/Alydar and Easy Goer/Sunday Silence - the smaller horse came out on top. Give me a neat, balanced 15.3 horse over one of these bulky 17-handers without the ankles to hold them up, anytime.

[Cajungator26]

Originally Posted by Pedigree Ann

Considering how much he ran in his career (15 times before the Preakness) they couldn't have been the more severe sort. Maybe because he was littler (less weight) the damage was less and the patch was sufficient.

I am on a crusade to revive respect for the little horse (under 16 hands). Hyperion was little, Northern Dancer was little, Round Table was little (Shoemaker on his back looked a normal-sized jockey!), Tom Rolfe, Arts and Letters,... In the two great 3yo rivalries of my lifetime - Affirmed/Alydar and Easy Goer/Sunday Silence - the smaller horse came out on top. Give me a neat, balanced 15.3 horse over one of these bulky 17-handers without the ankles to hold them up, anytime.

I'll take 15.3 hands any day of the week, but I would consider that more an average size than anything else. Maybe 16.1 or 16.2 is more the norm nowadays. Wasn't Northern Dancer like 14.3 or something like that? He was definitely a little guy.

[Cannon Shell]

"Big Brown, who will be seeking the coveted Triple Crown in the June 7 Belmont Stakes (gr. I), has a "slight" quarter crack on the inside of his left front foot, trainer Rick Dutrow said May 25."

from bloodhorse

[ShadowRoll]

http://tcm.bloodhorse.com/article/45398.htm

[pweizer]

Is there really such a thing as a slight quarter crack? Isn't any quarter crack serious?

Paul

[Pedigree Ann]

Originally Posted by Cajungator26

I'll take 15.3 hands any day of the week, but I would consider that more an average size than anything else. Maybe 16.1 or 16.2 is more the norm nowadays. Wasn't Northern Dancer like 14.3 or something like that? He was definitely a little guy.

Oh, yeah, 15.3 would have been average for a long time. I think many folks would be surprised at how "small" some of the great heros of the past actually were, like Count Fleet, Seabiscuit, Citation, War Admiral, Bold Ruler, etc. were. I have stallion registers from the late 1960s and early 1970s wherein stallions were listed at 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, although some of the 15.0s may have been stretched a bit ( 14.3 sounded too pony-like). Nowadays if you can't say 16h (on tip-toes), you don't list a height. The fashion for big horses has gotten out of control.