aluminum pads

[RICH]

I really downgrade horses with pads on, and I hear 1st time pads win at only 9%. However, I am liking a horse running sat, and the pads are on, not sure if he had them before, plus I am waiting to see the figs. If the numbers are good and the price right, would anyone bite on this.

[Rick B.]

RICH Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If the numbers are good and the price right, would
> anyone bite on this.

I\'m totally against this. Either fix the hoof properly,
or let the poor animal heal up.

To my way of thinking, racing with aluminum pads is the
connection\'s way of saying, \"We don\'t have enough money
or patience to do right by this horse\".

JMO. Vets / others in the know here are free to tell me
why I\'m wrong.

[shanahan]

How would we know if the horse is using aluminum pads?  Is this in the form?  A raceday decision?  Is it published?

[RICH]

saw it published on la clouche sat at belmont, she looks interesting, looking forward to the sheets, but those pads, I don\'t like. I\'ll be checking the shoe board at the track sat, if they still have one. They also announce it there, need to see if they were on previously

[sighthound]

Aluminum pads protect the bottom of the foot, the frog and sole, from bruising.  If there\'s a sore frog, a stone bruise on the sole, healing abcess, etc. they can be very helpful to protect bottom of foot.

Some horses just have sorish feet that don\'t handle hard surfaces, and they just do better with pads at certain times.

I wouldn\'t throw out a horse with pads automatically, it depends why the horse is wearing them. Sometimes it\'s for rather innocuous reasons, sometimes more serious stuff.

[Rick B.]

Thanks, Sight. I suspected I didn\'t have 100% of the
information on this.

Absent specific knowledge about why the pads are in use,
however, I guess I\'d pass if I couldn\'t throw out the
\"pads on\" horse(s). Hard enough to win with a horse that
has perfect feet. There are plenty of other races.

[Dick Powell]

Sr. Henry won the ninth race on Wednesday at Belmont by five lengths and paid $15.20 with a pad on. You can check the chart and look for a lower case \"a\" in the equipment line. Wish we had this info at entry time so it would be on the overnight.

[sighthound]

I can\'t disagree with that in the least.  The aluminum pad is there for a reason.

If you can see the horse has been working well in the pad, can see the horse striding out in the paddock (and maybe walking over to the paddock on gravel) with no shortening stride, go with it.  But that\'s hard information to gain.

[FrankD.]

As the old timers say:
No foot; No horse

[Boscar Obarra]

keep in mind this was on the grass, which may be a factor. horse also warmed up well.  if there was pain, prob wouldn\'t see that (good warmup).

[Rick B.]

Just an FYI on equipment changes today:

* Belmont Race 4: #5 Special Action, aluminum pad OFF.

This horse has some numbers he can run back to. Intriguing.

(EDITED to add result: Special Action was forwardly placed
for more than a half, flattened out on the turn for home,
finished DFL. Useful work, but waaaay short today. I\'m no
longer intrigued.)

* Belmont Race 5: #6 Sky Blue Pink, bar shoes OFF; testes OFF.

Trainer Brad Baker has impressive numbers from very few
starters...39 over the last 3 years, with 7 wins, 50+% ITM,
and $240K in earnings. Who is this guy?