Stradbroke Handicap favourite Think About It will race with synthetic hoof filler for the first time but Joe Pride says the star horse is 100 percent sound and there’s no dramas.
Pride said it was merely to help the farrier shod his horse who is going for seven consecutive wins when racing in Saturday’s $3m Group 1 Stradbroke at Eagle Farm.
Pride says one of the exciting rising stars of Australian racing is “100 percent sound.”
“The horse is 100 percent sound and there are dramas at all,” Pride told Racenet on Thursday morning.
“I knew this question would be asked.
“The horse has been in work for a long time so you start to lose a little bit of the integrity in the foot just from wear and tear.
“It’s basically just so the farrier has a bit more to get the nails into.
“It’s on both sides around to the side of his foot, on the right front.”
Think About It’s trainer Joe Pride. Picture: Getty Images.
Many horses race with synthetic hoof filler at some stage, mainly towards the end of a preparation when the hoof starts to get a little brittle.
Winx famously raced with synthetic hoof filler in the 2017 Queen Elizabeth Stakes and brained her opposition that day by more than five lengths.
Think About It stamped himself as a worthy Stradbroke favourite when scoring the Kingsford Smith Cup last start at his first go in Group 1 company.
Pride is seeking his first Stradbroke Handicap after his galloper Private Eye finished an unlucky second behind Alligator Blood last year.