NEW YORK — Big Brown went for another gallop around Belmont Park today and remains "right on target" for the Belmont Stakes even though the slight crack in his left front hoof has not completely healed.

Nearly a week after the Triple Crown hopeful developed a quarter crack, hoof specialist Ian McKinlay said Big Brown's injury is 70 to 80 percent healed, adding, "the longer we can treat it the better he gets."

McKinlay inserted stainless steel sutures into the area to pull the crack together Monday, and he will patch the area with a methacrylate adhesive a few hours before Big Brown's final workout before the Belmont on June 7. That workout is planned for Monday, weather permitting.

"We're just playing it safe, knowing that we just got to get one more breeze in before the Belmont," trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. said outside Barn 2, where Big Brown was enjoying a sponge bath after his tour over the main track under exercise rider Michelle Nevin. "And we're right on target as far as I'm concerned."

Michael Iavarone, the co-president of IEAH Stables, the majority owner of Big Brown, also was encouraged.

"Our schedule has changed, but I think it changed for the better," he said, adding the original plan was a workout Saturday, followed by a shorter workout the morning of the race next Saturday.

McKinlay marveled at the way Big Brown took to the track in what he called "probably the best day we've seem him so far.

"It was beautiful," he said. "Now I'm starting to get excited. Just being around him, he looks magnificent, like a lion looking over the plains."

The unbeaten Big Brown, who has won all five of his races by a combined 39 lengths, missed three days of training, jogged Tuesday and had his first gallop Wednesday.

A quarter crack is a vertical crack in the hoof wall between the toe and heel of the hoof, usually extending into the coronary band, where the hoof meets the skin of the leg. McKinlay checked the sutures today and left them intact, with the area treated with a solution of iodine and alcohol.

Dutrow believes Big Brown is ahead of schedule in his attempt to become the first Triple Crown champion since Affirmed in 1978.

"When we first saw it Friday, it could have developed into a big mess," Dutrow said. "And it seems like it's completely under control. He's galloped a couple of days and he has no side effects in any kind of way. What we see is it's just getting better and better."