Lost shoe is Chitu's latest foot problem

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Chitu lost the shoe on his right front foot during his workout on Sunday morning at Churchill Downs, the latest chapter in his saga to overcome issues with that foot emanating from a fungus known as seedy toe.

Chitu worked from the gate on Sunday, in company, and went six furlongs in 1:13.11 according to Mike Welsch of Daily Racing Form. Although neither trainer Bob Baffert nor jockey Martin Garcia was certain when the shoe came off, Welsch said a review of video of the work clearly showed it coming loose only an eighth of a mile into the drill, meaning Chitu went the final five furlongs without it.

“He blew the shoe. You jinxed him,” trainer Baffert said, joking, in reference to a story chronicling Chitu’s foot that appeared online at www.drf.com on Saturday.

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Garcia said he “didn’t feel anything.”

“I thought he worked pretty good,” Garcia said.

Despite the mishap, Baffert said he thought Chitu worked well, and said he still was intending to run Chitu in the Kentucky Derby.

Chitu wore a special corrective shoe for the work, a spider bar, that goes under his regular horseshoe and helps maintain the integrity of the foot. Baffert initially had planned on leaving that shoe on Chitu for the upcoming week of training, and then was going to put a conventional shoe on that foot for the Derby. The timetable of putting on the regular shoe may now be advanced to prevent having to shoe Chitu twice in the next six days.

Seedy toe is a rare but potentially dangerous condition where a fungus gets into the inner hoof wall. Left untreated, it can cause significant problems. Baffert said Chitu had the condition when he arrived in his barn last fall, and it was addressed quickly by his staff. The fungus is gone, but until the damaged area of the hoof wall completely grows down, extra care is necessary.

In addition to the spider bar shoe under the foot, the hoof wall also needs reinforcing, and a common hoof care product, the adhesive Equilox, is applied to the hoof, particularly to the area where the most damage was initially trimmed away by a farrier.

Baffert said similar care was done with Chitu prior to his victory in the Sunland Derby in his last start March 23.

--additional reporting by Mike Welsch