Hoofbeats at the Crossroads

After a maiden race that seemed to reveal no problems, the issue raised by jockey Duman Lai came as a surprise.

The soles of the hooves were too soft—after pointing this out, Duman Lai set down his knife and fork and began explaining further, using gestures to illustrate his point.

"It wasn't all that obvious in training, but during the race, I could feel the soles squishing against the ground like tofu."

"If they stay this soft, losing a shoe during a faster-paced turf race could cause fairly serious damage to the hoof."

Had we been applying hoof oil too often?

Hoof oil, as its name suggested, was oil applied to the hooves.

To prevent dryness and retain moisture, most stables applied hoof oil to their racehorses after training.

In Sawin's case, it was applied both before and after training, and even after every hoof trimming.

It was not just to prevent dryness and cracking. More importantly, it allowed us to promptly spot any minute changes or abnormalities in the hooves, which were a particular focus of attention.

That was why, starting from the training period before entering the stable, Sawin had received more frequent applications than other racehorses.

"The shoes are glued on rather than nailed... but since Mirko says so, how about reducing the frequency of hoof oil applications and observing things for a while?"

After saying that, I turned to Trainer Wada on the other side.

"Sawin did have vulnerable hooves even before the debut, after all. So yes, it would be better to err on the side of caution here."

With a soft exhale, Trainer Wada nodded in agreement.

And so—

Before the next race, Sawin would first enter a phase of gradual adjustments to training while we monitored the condition of those hooves.

Hooves like