Omaha Beach had only a minor hiccup in his training while dealing with a quarter crack earlier this year - as was reported by colleague Jay Privman in his Derby Watch feature on trainer Richard Mandella back in March: https://www.drf.com/news/preview/derby-watch-mandella-rarely-derby-fray-has-two-prospects-progressing

But while it's not a new issue, the attention was turned up as the racing world begins to descend on Churchill Downs. With the Kentucky Derby just 13 days away, the Rebel and Arkansas Derby winner had a new patch put on the quarter crack as a matter of course - the patches wear out as the hoof grows, with the crack itself gradually healing as part of normal hoof growth. The colt then got a new set of shoes nailed on before going out for a routine gallop. The mood around the barn was one of ease, as Mandella's farrier Ben Craft treated the colt at the end of the shedrow in plain view and Mandella was nonchalant discussing the patch change.

"We patched [the quarter crack], and since that, he's won the Rebel and the Arkansas Derby. It's now a little more than two months old, that patch - he was due to reset it. Put new shoes on him, we're ready to go."

Craft treated the quarter crack when it first appeared and was flown in by Mandella to handle the colt on Sunday. Here's what Craft had to say about the science of repairing quarter cracks:

"It's called a quarter crack because it's usually in the back quarter of the hoof. And the laminae (the hoof wall) will actually crack all the way through to the sensitive [area]. You have sensitive laminae on the inside, and insensitive laminae on the outside - like if your fingernail went all the way around your finger, but thicker. Every time a horse loads the foot with so many thousands of pounds per square inch, the foot around the crack moves, and it'll open, and that's where the pain comes from.

"We patch them. I use a method, a lacing method, where we actually drill holes through the side of the crack in the hoof wall and then lace or tie them together and pull that crack together. That holds it tight, and then we put some of this amazing two-part epoxy glue that we have - it's really changed things, we glue shoes on with it and everything else. It holds it together. And if you can hold it together to where that doesn't move as a horse loads his foot, it'll heal and the horse won't be in any pain, almost immediately. The biggest key is prepping the quarter crack - that there's no infection and it's all dried out. Then you put that patch on, and they can go right out. They're fine."

On Omaha Beach's old, healing crack being a non-issue: "Oh yeah. It's not an issue. Not an issue at all. Pure maintenance. This is an old quarter crack, and it's just routine maintenance. We're not taking any chances here."