LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dornoch has dealt with a foot issue known as a quarter crack through most of his career. Given his race record – three wins and two seconds from six starts – it has not been an impediment to success. Noted farrier Ian McKinlay has examined Dornoch before each of his last three races – starting with the Grade 2 Remsen last December, which he won – and has done whatever work necessary to have the foot in racing condition. On Wednesday, McKinlay was at Churchill Downs where he laced, with wires, the top part of the crack, which is on the right front foot. “It’s like putting sutures on any cut,” McKinlay explained. “It pulls it together, it doesn’t allow that crack to expand and contract. It’s a very safe way to do it. When he comes to New York we’ll take the wires out, reset them and patch it over.” Danny Gargan, trainer of Dornoch, said the horse trained in a three-quarter shoe both Tuesday and Wednesday and will likely wear one on Thursday as well. He will wear a full shoe in Saturday’s 150th Kentucky Derby. Neither McKinlay nor Gargan believe the quarter crack should be an issue when Dornoch runs in Derby, hoping to pull the same upset that his full brother Mage did a year ago. Gargan said the on-site veterinarians have looked at Dornoch several mornings. “He’s super sound and the vets love him,” Gargan said. :: DRF Kentucky Derby Package: Save on PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. Dornoch, the only horse to beat Sierra Leone – which he did by a nose in the Remsen – is coming into the race off a fourth-place finish to Sierra Leone in the Blue Grass Stakes. Dornoch tried to come from off the pace that day. Saturday, it is Gargan’s intent to have Luis Saez put the horse on the front end, the style he used to win his maiden at Keeneland last October, the Remsen, and the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. “I just want him sharp on race day,” Gargan said. “I want him to come out running.” In an effort to have Dornoch sitting on go, Gargan planned to do very little with the horse in the mornings leading up to the race. Dornoch jogged Wednesday and, most likely, was to do the same Thursday. He will walk in his shed row on Friday. Gargan said he started walking Dornoch a day, or a few days, before a race before the horse won his maiden at Keeneland. He said he shipped the horse from New York to Kentucky and didn’t have an exercise rider. “He was a little tardy leaving the gate before,” Gargan said. “Ever since we started doing this, he’s come out of the gate running.” When it comes to his other Derby starter, Wood Memorial runner-up Society Man, Gargan takes a different tack. That horse comes from off the pace, so he will gallop him through the week. “Society Man will train a little more because we want him to relax and come running,” Gargan said. “They’re totally different running styles, and I train them totally different coming into a race.” Beckman out of hospital, back at the barn While most people are focused on the health and well being of the horses Derby week, there was one trainer whose health wasn’t that well and he wound up being in the hospital. Whit Beckman, trainer of Honor Marie, was hospitalized for five days – Friday through Tuesday – and was diagnosed with the potentially serious condition rhabdomyolysis, where damaged muscle tissue can release proteins into the blood. “Friday morning my legs were numb and I couldn’t walk,” Beckman said. “I tried to stand up and move and I just buckled. My kidneys were not filtering anything, I had a blood infection. They ran fluids through the me last five days and got my levels down.” Beckman spoke Wednesday morning as he walked from his barn to the track, adding “I can’t feel anything in my thighs, but at least I can walk.” :: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.  Beckman, 42, said this is a wake-up call to take better care of himself. He credited his barn staff, led by assistant Maurilio Garcia, with keeping things running smoothly. While Beckman may not pass a veterinarian examination, Beckman is confident his Derby starter Honor Marie will, even though Beckman admits “he’s never been a really fluid-type mover. He’ll have his good days good and bad and everything in between.” Most of his days in the afternoon have been good. Honor Marie won the Kentucky Jockey Club here at 2 and was a good second to Catching Freedom in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby in March. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.