Three Derby horses with a hitch in their giddyup

They are all 3 years old and male and horses for the 145th Kentucky Derby, but about there, the similarities end. They are chestnut and bay and gray. They were born as close as Kentucky or as far away as Japan, and they come into the Derby off prep races around the globe. They are handled by first-time Derby trainers and by Hall of Fame veterans of the race; they run the gamut from homebreds by six-figure stallions to former claimers. Even their shared age is not a true commonality, as they were foaled anywhere from Feb. 11 to May 23.

Every horse is an individual – and for a few, that’s even seen in their manner of walking or running.

Vekoma’s unconventional action is easy to spot when he’s in full flight for the wire. The Blue Grass Stakes winner has odd front-end action, with his front left leg paddling out as he reaches out and occasionally in – but that’s just him.

“It’s just the way he goes,” trainer George Weaver said. “He’s always moved like that. I guess you would think it’s less-than-ideal action, but he’s always been a real sound horse and he covers a lot of ground. That’s just the way he runs. You wouldn’t know it watching him walk. Perhaps he just moves that way out of his shoulders.”

Grade 2-winning juvenile Signalman, who currently needs two defections to make the Derby field, runs normally, but his walk inspires a double take. The colt shows signs of classic stringhalt, an abnormal gait in which a hind leg shows sudden and exaggerated flexion, with the leg lifting higher than normal and perhaps hanging for a millisecond before dropping back down.

One form of stringhalt, known as Australian stringhalt, can be traced to the consumption of toxic plants, and thus can be resolved when the agent is removed. However, the other form, classic stringhalt, is due to unknown causes and can develop seemingly overnight. The condition is one that has consistently perplexed veterinarians. Although there is no standard treatment for the condition, it is also not considered to be lameness – it is not caused by pain avoidance, as typical lameness is.

“He’s always done that,” trainer Ken McPeek said, when a fan noted Signalman’s odd action while paddock schooling prior to his third-place finish in the Blue Grass. “Stringhalt affects only one rear limb. The limb will suddenly jerk upward, with a spasmodic motion toward the belly, usually when the horse is asked to move. The cause is unknown. The condition is usually persistent and does not resolve. It isn’t painful.”

Multiple graded stakes winner War of Will also occasionally lifts his hind legs suddenly and strangely high. The colt has been training at Keeneland since his mishap in the Louisiana Derby on March 23, in which he appeared to lose action in his hind end shortly after breaking from the starting gate, and never got into contention after that while finishing ninth as the favorite. He was reported to be off back at the barn, but was much improved the next day, and was cleared to resume training after extensive precautionary diagnostics, with trainer Mark Casse theorizing that the colt caught his patella at the start.

“We were never really worried about it,” assistant trainer David Carroll said of the colt’s action at the walk after he turned in his second consecutive bullet work at Keeneland. “He’s always had a little bit of a gait behind, and after the race, after the Louisiana Derby, it was more accentuated, and then he went back to his normal [action]. We did a full examination of him, and once we got a clean bill of health, our conscience was clear, and then we moved on to train him just like we would normally.”

Whatever their quirks, each colt’s action has served him well. Between them, these three have won five graded stakes and placed in five others, and at least two of them are assured of the chance to line up in the Kentucky Derby starting gate.

“There has been a lot of talk about it,” Weaver said of Vekoma’s action, “but I’d rather have a horse that moves like him, and can run like him, than a horse that moves perfectly but can’t run.”