Ferdinand Had Bad Hoof but No Excuses

Ferdinand raced with a crack in his hoof in Sunday’s Santa Anita Handicap, but trainer Charlie Whittingham is not using that as an excuse for his half-length defeat to Alysheba in the $1-million race.

“It’s not something new, and it didn’t have anything to do with the way he ran,” Whittingham said Monday. “We had a patch on it, and it’s almost completely grown out.”

The injury, which is on Ferdinand’s right front hoof, is known among horsemen as a quarter crack. It is a crack in the wall of the hoof that usually runs up to the top.

“It’s like a split fingernail,” Whittingham said. “He’s had it for some time, all the way back to when we were back at Hollywood Park (after the Breeders’ Cup in November). It’s caused by constant running on hard tracks.”

When Slew o’ Gold developed two quarter cracks shortly before the Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park in 1984, his owners brought in a blacksmith from Kansas City to patch them. Slew o’ Gold, a horse-of-the-year candidate who eventually lost a close vote to John Henry for the title, finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and was moved up to second on a disqualification.

“Horses run with quarter cracks all the time,” Whittingham said. “Ferdinand had another one longer than this one, in the left front. That Honest Pleasure horse (Bedside Promise), the one that died on the track in San Francisco, had hoof problems. He raced with three or four quarter cracks.”

Ferdinand beat Alysheba by a nose in their first meeting, in the $3-million Breeders’ Cup last November. In that race, Ferdinand made the lead in the stretch and then held off Alysheba. On Sunday, however, jockey Chris McCarron shot Alysheba to the lead on the far turn, and Ferdinand, who was running last in the four-horse field, also moved up under Bill Shoemaker, but not with the quickness of Alysheba.

In analyzing the race Monday, Whittingham said: “I think that when Alysheba moved out first at that point, that turned out to be the difference.”

Whittingham reported that Ferdinand came out of the Big ‘Cap in good condition. “He didn’t miss an oat,” the trainer said.

Ferdinand, who won last year’s horse-of-the-year title without leaving California, will probably stay here for at least his next two races. Whittingham has in mind the $250,000 San Bernardino Handicap, at 1 1/8 miles April 17. And that may be followed by the Hollywood Gold Cup, a race Ferdinand won last year.

Alysheba is likely to make his next start out of town. The decision will be made by trainer Jack Van Berg after he discusses the situation with the horse’s owners--Clarence and Dorothy Scharbauer and their daughter, Pamela.

“We’d like to give the people around the United States a chance to see this horse,” Van Berg said.

Racing fans have already had the opportunity to do that. Sunday was the first time Alysheba won more than one race at the same track. Besides his two wins this year at Santa Anita, he’s won the Kentucky Derby and one other race in Kentucky, the Preakness in Maryland and the Super Derby in Louisiana.

One race that’s been mentioned for Alysheba is the $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap in Arkansas on April 16.

“If the East Coast biggies don’t come after us, we’ll go after them,” Clarence Scharbauer said.