Bob Baffert described Arrogate as “super cherry” for the Pegasus tomorrow. This despite Daily Racing Form’s Jay Privman reporting the colt has a small abscess in his right hind foot.
Arrogate is fitted with a 3/4 right hind shoe to prevent the abscess from becoming a quarter crack. Shared Belief ran with a similar issue for a large part of his career. His career wasn’t very long though like Arrogate; he was brilliant on the racetrack and also defeated war horse California Chrome.
Interestingly, Unbridled’s Song, Arrogate’s sire was plagued with quarter cracks through most of his career. It likely kept us from seeing how brilliant he really was.
The questions that come to mind are:
- When did the abscess occur? I’d say likely after The Breeders’ Cup Classic. You’d think that would have come out and been reported if it occurred sooner.
- How long has he been wearing the 3/4 right hind shoe? Reportedly for at least his last two works. I thought his work two back was not as impressive as what I had seen previously. That said I thought his last work was excellent and in person the horse just looks like a boss without a care in the world.
- Will it affect him in the race? I am not a yes man. If Bob says no, I say no.
Whenever you have something like this, especially over a racetrack new to the horse, it creates a question mark and is less than the perfect scenario you want. Arrogate is a highly valuable commodity. I heard they turned down $40 million for him recently. I just do not see Bob Baffert running this or any horse in a race like this that isn’t 100%. I do not think Juddmonte, his owner, would either. I’d sooner think they would scratch before running at less than 100%.
Nonetheless horses have fooled the best of us and it does create that nagging question mark. Bob hasn’t won at Gulfstream Park since Captain Steve took the 2001 Donn, which coincidentally The Pegasus replaces. No shot he comes in with this horse unless he knows he is fine. So we ask will it affect him. See question 3.
