Pletcher hopes Dunkirk can lift his Kentucky Derby daze

Quality Road missed a planned breeze at Belmont Park on Monday, and Jerkens, along with the colt’s owner, Edward Evans, said that Quality Road might now aim for the Preakness Stakes on May 16 and Belmont Stakes on June 6, depending on how quickly he recovers from a quarter crack, or split hoof wall, in his right front foot. “It’s not terribly bad; it’s just not right,” Jerkens said.

“I don’t know if I’d ever get another horse into the Derby with his credentials,” he said.

The quarter crack was the second for Quality Road; he developed the first one, in his right rear hoof, while winning the Florida Derby.

The hoof specialist Ian McKinlay said that the split in the front hoof was more severe.

Quality Road, who has been troubled by foot problems since running away with the Florida Derby on March 28, will miss the Kentucky Derby, his trainer, Jimmy Jerkens, said Monday morning.

“He’s tender in the heel; it never went away,” said McKinlay, who worked on a similar injury sustained by Big Brown before the Belmont Stakes. “As big as he is, he is aggravating it because of how hard he hits the ground.”

McKinlay fitted Quality Road with a three-quarters shoe on Monday and expected him to be on his way to recovery by the weekend.