LOL! Unfortunately, I know this one intimately. I currently have a chestnut with ‘chrome’ and he has chronic scratches, all 4 legs, every damn summer. Luckily for me, not to the point of lameness. But what a maintenance nightmare he is.
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My experience differs and I’ve had many years of it. Handled properly with the right medication it can clear up in a week.
Sign me:Too much tall dewy grass.
Horse Racing Nation article said he wasn’t lame.
True!!! :lol:
FWIW, I had a chestnut mare (TB) with white on her legs and never saw an issue with scratches 
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This makes a lot more sense to me.
https://www.horseracingnation.com/news/Reports_Kentucky_Derby_winner_Justify_found_to_have_heel_bruise_123#
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Got dem scratches cleared up fast!
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I wasn’t going to armchair quarterback, but yeah, I think most of us were thinking it…
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Well, duh! 
I was going to weigh in here and say it looks very much like a hoof bruise (if not a brewing abscess), I did share that opinion on Facebook – but yes, that makes a heck of a lot more sense than a case of scratches.
IME I’ve never seen scratches result in a horse reluctant to bear weight on the toe of the foot, that is a classic bruise or abscess symptom.
Glad they cleared that up, and cleared the air!
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Exactly. Because you know more than Baffert when it comes to horses. Baffert just hasn’t been around horses that long, so please forgive him for making a rookie mistake.
If Bob keeps doing what he’s doing, he may be able to be mentioned in the same breath as you someday!
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The old gray gelding I used to take care of was really, really sensitive and would be lame (more stiff like and some tripping) from the smallest bout of scratches…
So it was plausible to me.
But the heel soreness is evidently more common.
Let’s hope he’ll have enough time to recover.
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You joined this forum just to post something snarky?
Bob did look like an idiot talking about how great the horse was doing when it was hopping lame. In his defense, he was looking at the people he was talking to and had his back to the horse, and not paying a whole lot of attention to the horse. Had he been standing back and looking at the horse like we were, I’m sure he would have noticed it.
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A TB racing trainer friend of mine said he caught part of an interview with BB about Justify on NPR – and that injury was a ‘cracked heel’ as in skin split open, back of pastern between/close to heel bulbs from being too wet. That’s how my friend translated it from what he heard Baffert say. So Justify was not lame as in more serious type of injury, just very ouchy due to split/crack.
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This quote from Laurierace’s link is interesting to me…But multiple reports Tuesday indicate the colt was examined by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and found to have a bruised heel, the severity of which seems minor.
Is it normal for the RC to get involved? Is this because BB paraded Justify around walking on one toe? I’m glad to hear the horse has nothing serious wrong, but it sure turned into a big deal.
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Professionally speaking, from the field of communications, this whole situation makes me want to scream. I don’t know if y’all noticed or not but now PETA’s throwing in their weighted two cents.
I’m not Baffert’s biggest fan but we know he’s more media savvy than this - seriously, every time I hear him interviewed, I find myself liking him in spite of myself. He’s good. He is also arguably the highest profile trainer in the country. He is the one guy the layman can always identify.
He just won the Kentucky Derby. Again. He’s been down this road. He knows the spotlight is on. He has to know the spotlight is on racing this time of year, period. He has to know the weeds are full of sh*tstirrers waiting to pounce.
I mean really - did we all not learn something from the Asmussen video extravaganza a few years back?
So, the morning after, pull the Derby winner out of the barn for assembled photographers, in the era of cell phone video and insta-social media, and not be hyper aware and then bumble through “it’s scratches… no, it’s a bruise” over the course of 72 hours… just makes me want to go bang my head off the nearest wall.
I am more than a few years removed from being hands-on. But in talking to a family member about the video Sunday afternoon, I recalled turning horses in small circles for vets assessing soundness. I was kind of surprised by the surprise in some quarters (and maybe even to Baffert) – that if you pull a horse out, especially after winning the Derby in off-track conditions, that soreness might be presenting itself while you wheel him around, especially on a gravel-y or uneven surface.
My free advice to trainers operating at this level is to always, always, have a communications plan in place for these scenarios and think it through before wandering in front of the press. There are real problems in this industry and we don’t help ourselves much, stumbling through a situation like this.
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Because PETA… I have to find you a link but if you poke around the racing sites and forums… they made demands. sigh
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As usual, PETA hopped on a train started without them. It gets its base riled up and the more angry they get, the more they might reach into their pocket.
Baffert sure stepped in it. It’s scratches, no it’s a bruise–what will it be tomorrow? Not that this means anything specific to Justify or even to Baffert but it reminds me of a joke that made its way around the backstretch about ten years ago when it seems every high profile horse who missed a workout or a race or a gallop was reported by the press as “coughing”.
“That horse coughed so hard, he hurt his tendon.”
One frustrating thing about the modern world is how many fans with the best of intentions jumped up and down and swore that the horse wasn’t lame and to say otherwise was “fake news”. Sorry but the horse was clearly 3 legged lame. The real question is whether the horse is also hurt and, stay tuned, we will figure that out in the next week or so.
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^^ This. Totally.
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Don’t let PETA near that horse. In their warped minds, a dead horse is happier than a domestic one. Remember when they stole a kid’s pup off the front porth and killed it?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/17/peta-sorry-for-taking-girls-dog-putting-it-down
[I]"A family has settled a lawsuit against People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(Peta) after it took a girl’s unattended dog and put it down. The legal outcome ends an attempt to in effect put Peta on trial for euthanising hundreds of animals each year.
Wilber Zarate from Virginia had sued the group for taking his daughter’s chihuahua from a mobile home park on the state’s eastern shore and euthanising it before the end of a required five-day grace period.
Zarate alleged Peta operated under a broad policy of euthanising animals, including healthy ones, because it “considers pet ownership to be a form of involuntary bondage”."[/I]
Talk about wacko.
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Hi Well Armed. Welcome to COTH.
Please refer back to the second line of my original post (that you omitted in your quote), where it says, “Bob Baffert is 100% capable of discerning lameness.”
I did not, and would never, imply that he made a “rookie mistake.” Nor did I say he hasn’t “been around horses that long.”
However, I stand by my statement that Baffert’s reaction, mannerisms, and comment of, “you better get used to this,” in the video caused me to believe he was simply not anticipating Justify level of discomfort when he walked out of the shedrow and onto the gravel. Not because of inexperience or ignorance (that’s plain foolish), but because of the tricky nature of lamenesses on changing surfaces, especially gravel. They would have never spun that horse around on gravel like that if they knew it would elicit that type of reaction. I DO think he realized what was going on promptly (after the comment), hence the hurried returning of the horse to the barn. Then he proceeded to stay on script with the press.
I stand by this opinion even more since the reports of the state vet’s findings. But you know what they say about opinions… :lol:
Cheers!
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