American Pharoah will keep special foot plate in Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – American Pharoah has been racing and training with a plate covering part of the sole of his left front foot, and on Saturday, trainer Bob Baffert said he would keep that plate in place for the Kentucky Derby, in which American Pharoah is expected to be the favorite.

“I was going to take it off to run him, but he’s had it there so long I don’t want to change,” Baffert said from California. “He’s traveling so well with it.”

Baffert said he started using the plate after American Pharoah bruised the frog on the left front foot earlier this year.

“It protects the frog,” he said.

The frog is on the sole and acts as a shock absorber when a horse’s foot hits the ground. Baffert said the bruise happened several weeks before American Pharoah’s first 2015 start in the Rebel Stakes.

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American Pharoah has worn the plate since. It goes under the horseshoe, and covers just a portion of the sole, closer to the heel than the toe. Baffert said American Pharoah was shod that way for the Rebel Stakes and the Arkansas Derby. He won both in runaway style.

In the Rebel, American Pharoah lost his right front shoe during the race. This issue is with his opposite foot. The right front foot has no special shoeing or plate.

What has encouraged Baffert to keep American Pharoah shod this way for the Kentucky Derby is how he performed in the Rebel and the Arkansas Derby.

“He’s even won on a muddy track with it,” Baffert said, referring to the Rebel.

American Pharoah certainly has shown no signs of being compromised by being shod in such a manner. He has won both his starts this year, has worked strongly between races, and has traveled over the Churchill Downs surface in recent days just as he did at Santa Anita.

“At this point, I’m afraid to take it off,” Baffert said.

Baffert was fully expecting more attention to be placed on the plate after American Pharoah works Sunday and through the upcoming week, when American Pharoah gets the scrutiny all Derby favorites come under.

“It’s Plate-Gate,” he said.