Quality Road Quarter Crack Not Serious

Foot specialist Ian McKinlay, who was in the news last year dealing with Big Brown  ’s quarter crack prior to the Belmont Stakes (gr. I), is back on the Triple Crown trail once again, treating a lesser quarter crack suffered by Quality Road in the Florida Derby (gr. I).

McKinlay said he’s optimistic Quality Road will be able to make the Kentucky Derby (gr. I). The main priority right now is drawing out the heat that is lingering in the foot.

“He got patched down in Florida, and it was only on for two or three days before the foot started heating up,” McKinlay said. “They had already drawn on it with Animalintex, which draws out the infection. There’s no sensitivity up at the hairline, so basically we just put a bar shoe on him to stabilize the quarter, and then we put a set of wires in, almost carbon copy of Big Brown, just so they could move him a little bit and keep him out of trouble.

“I figured his foot would be ice cold today, but it was a little warmer than I thought. We had planned on patching him on Wednesday, but we’re going to be cautious, that’s all, and wait until the end of the week. They’ll just draw on it again with the Animalintex. This isn’t anything huge, that’s for sure. It’s just that I was looking for a simple one, but they never seem to be when you’re dealing with good horses. This one is basically pretty easy, but I was hoping it would be really easy.”

McKinlay said Quality Road’s quarter crack isn’t anywhere near as bad as Big Brown’s.

“Big Brown had a pretty large abscess blow at the top, but with this one there’s no soreness at all up at the hairline,” he said. “It’s just a little pocket. Believe me, if his foot was cold today we’d be patching him on Wednesday. There’s just a little bit of heat that I don’t like. It could him moving around or just a little lingering infection, which the Animalintex should pull out along with any soreness.”