NEW YORK — There is nothing ailing Big Brown that a good pedicure won't fix. Think of that crack in his left front hoof as the equivalent of a hangnail for a human.

"It's a little confusing for people who don't understand it, but it is a very common situation," said Dr. Rick Arthur, a veterinarian and equine medical director to the California Horse Racing Board. "We deal with it on a daily basis."

Several veterinarians said racing in tomorrow's grueling 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes — with the Triple Crown on the line — shouldn't pose an additional risk to the strapping bay colt.

They characterized the quarter crack as an innocuous injury, and the minor irritation it causes as an occupational hazard of heavy training.

"It's all healed," trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. said yesterday. "We could run him the way he is."

Not exactly. Today, hoof specialist Ian McKinlay will apply an acrylic and fiberglass patch to the cracked area. It sets in five minutes and is "stronger than the hoof itself," he said.

That's certainly encouraging news for a sport still on edge after the death of Eight Belles on the track moments after her second-place finish at the Kentucky Derby.

Even Dutrow's normally unshakable confidence was dented when he first saw the crack.

"Naturally, we had to worry about it," he said.

A quarter crack is a vertical crack in the hoof wall between the toe and heel, usually extending into the coronary band, where the hoof meets the skin of the leg. Healing time can range from a few days to a few months, depending on the severity of the crack.

Dr. Larry Bramlage, a veterinarian with Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., said the cracks are common in race horses because they quickly wear out their shoes and their hoofs need trimming more often than an average horse.

"The hooves tend to be a little shorter than what the average horse would have," Bramlage said. "That increases the load on the heels. They don't get the opportunity to keep ahead of the hoof growth like a show horse."

Bramlage said a colt typically doesn't even know anything is wrong with the hoof when there's a quarter crack.

"Hopefully this will be something we all talk about now and by Sunday we're talking about the Triple Crown," he said.

In the end, whether Big Brown races isn't up to Dutrow and the colt's owners. Verderosa said the entire field is examined daily in a secure barn by New York Racing Association vets.

Yesterday, Dutrow said Big Brown will not get another treatment of steroids before his bid to become the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years.

Dutrow created a stir before the Preakness when he said all the horses in his stable, including Big Brown, received a monthly shot of Winstrol.

"It's just too much for three races in five weeks," Dutrow said. "He's doing absolutely fabulous."

Winstrol, an anabolic steroid known to increase appetite and weight, is legal in New York. Winstrol is the same steroid for which Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when he was stripped of his gold medal. More recently, Roger Clemens' former trainer, Brian McNamee, said he injected the pitcher with Winstrol in 1998.

Dutrow also reduced Big Brown's dose of electrolytes.