![Picture](/uploads/2/3/7/0/23705686/1142249.png?465)
Aluminum Racing Plates are the standard shoes used across the country. Even at a small track like Arapahoe Race Park, horses run in aluminum shoes. In 1929, The Victory Racing Plate Company created the first aluminum racing shoe ("The Story”), and have since created dozens of other styles of shoes and hoof care products including the ELITE plate (for off-track competitors), the TRUE FLITE hoof pad and in 2001 they created HOOF-LIFE, a shoe adhesive and hoof repair putty.
Aluminum shoes are lighter than the original steel shoes. A racehorse trainer’s famous saying “an ounce on the hoof equaled a pound on the back” (Erb) could be true. A lighter shoes leads to a faster horse, and a faster horse wins more races and earns more purse money. Aside from the Victory Racing Plate Company, another successful aluminum shoe company is Thoro’bred Inc., established in 1949. You can view their website below. Fifteen individual shoes styles are featured for the front shoes under “traditional styles” with sixteen traditional rear shoe styles. They also feature nine shoes under the Legacy series, which are described as thicker and stronger than the traditional series shoes ("Legacy”). Horses such as Secretariat, John Henry, Alesheba, Affirmed, Sunday Silence and Cigar all raced with Thoro’bred Racing Plates (Kinney). The company has a detailed focus on quality products to improve the performance and prevent injuries for the horses wearing them and to also make their products readily available for any farrier desiring to use them (Kinney). Clearly the aluminum racing plate is the most popular shoe used today on racehorses, with different companies producing their own specialty products, but ultimately the same type of lightweight shoe that is less damaging than the old fashioned steel racing shoe. And while it remains a staple piece of equipment, it’s easy to imagine the next advancement in racing plate technology. Maybe glue-on shoes or Titanium shoes will be the next big thing seen on the future Triple Crown hopefuls in the years to come.
Aluminum shoes are lighter than the original steel shoes. A racehorse trainer’s famous saying “an ounce on the hoof equaled a pound on the back” (Erb) could be true. A lighter shoes leads to a faster horse, and a faster horse wins more races and earns more purse money. Aside from the Victory Racing Plate Company, another successful aluminum shoe company is Thoro’bred Inc., established in 1949. You can view their website below. Fifteen individual shoes styles are featured for the front shoes under “traditional styles” with sixteen traditional rear shoe styles. They also feature nine shoes under the Legacy series, which are described as thicker and stronger than the traditional series shoes ("Legacy”). Horses such as Secretariat, John Henry, Alesheba, Affirmed, Sunday Silence and Cigar all raced with Thoro’bred Racing Plates (Kinney). The company has a detailed focus on quality products to improve the performance and prevent injuries for the horses wearing them and to also make their products readily available for any farrier desiring to use them (Kinney). Clearly the aluminum racing plate is the most popular shoe used today on racehorses, with different companies producing their own specialty products, but ultimately the same type of lightweight shoe that is less damaging than the old fashioned steel racing shoe. And while it remains a staple piece of equipment, it’s easy to imagine the next advancement in racing plate technology. Maybe glue-on shoes or Titanium shoes will be the next big thing seen on the future Triple Crown hopefuls in the years to come.