Big Brown's Loose Shoe

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg Jun 26, 2008

Okay, now we have evidence, let's try this one more time. Big Brown lost the Triple Crown. He ran badly. Why? First reported in The Blood-Horse magazine in a statement from owner Michael Iavarone, BB came back from the race with a loose shoe described as "no issue" on his left hind. (June 14, pg. 3025 -- "Big Brown, Connections Regroup After Mystifying Performance".)

Photographic evidence now shows a significantly loose right hind shoe (June 21, pg. 3160 -- Dispatches, "Dutrow, Desormeaux Mend Fences).

Gary Stevens, retired top jockey, now TV analyst, says: "It had to be uncomfortable. It's pretty significant..."

D.Wayne Lukas, top active trainer, says: "Good horses can win without a hind shoe, let alone a loose nail."

I gotta go with Gary. Gee, D.Wayne, did you see the picture in Blood-Horse? How could a horse run well with a shoe hanging as badly as that?! It wasn't a case of a loose nail, or a shoe thrown off altogether.

"To win the Triple Crown, everything has to line up absolutely perfect. The weather, the horse's condition, the track conditions, everything has to be just absolutely perfect." -- USA Today newspaper, June 6, 2008, quoting John Veitch, trainer of Alydar, who chased Affirmed in all three classics to second place.

The horse's shoes...very much part of "everything". And how ironic to have a hind shoe go wrong after all the attention paid to his front two.