That grisly shot below is the heel of California Chrome after the Belmont. A common racetrack injury referred to as “grabbing the quarter” where a horse strikes the side or back of its front hoof with its rear hoof. This injury often occurs when horses are accelerating out of the starting gate, but can happen at any point during a stride. In the case of California Chrome, it looks as if his gate neighbor, #3 Matterhorn, may have been the culprit.

This could explain Chrome’s lack of early energy, as jockey Victor Espinoza described after the race. Although, these horses get so geared up to go and adrenaline can carry them through injuries more serious than this, so it’s difficult to rule out that the 1-1/2 miles against these gunning rivals just proved to be too much in the moment (more on all this later).

We’ll never know. And that’s the mystique and the frustration of this game. The silver (or, chrome) lining of course, is Chrome will now get plenty of time off to heal and rest up, and by all accounts, we will see him back on his game before the year is over.