Kings Plate Aluminium:
Why Pakistan's Race Horses
Are Running on the Wrong Shoes

There is a problem in Pakistan's racing world that nobody talks about at the track. Trainers whisper about it in the paddock. Farriers have always suspected it. And the horses — if they could speak — would have been complaining for years. The problem is not training. It is not feed. It is not even the bloodline. It is what is nailed to the bottom of the horse's foot on race day.

For most of Pakistan's racing history, the choice of race plate has been an afterthought — whatever was locally available, whatever was cheapest, whatever the farrier had in his bag. This is understandable. When a sport develops in relative isolation, the standard quietly sets itself. Nobody questions it because nobody has seen anything different.

Z-Stables did see something different. And what followed changed the standard.

Why the Shoe Matters More Than You Think

Before we talk about any specific horseshoe, it helps to understand what a race plate actually does — and what it does to a horse when it gets that job wrong.

A thoroughbred racehorse travelling at full gallop hits the ground with roughly three times its own bodyweight in impact force. That force travels up through the hoof, the leg, and into joints that a horse will use every single day of its racing career. The shoe sitting between the hoof and the track is not decorative. It governs how that impact is distributed, how fast the hoof breaks over and leaves the ground again, and whether the bones and tendons above are working with the horse or quietly working against it.

Breakover is the term farriers use for the moment when the heel lifts and the toe pivots — the final phase of each stride before the hoof leaves the ground. A shoe that forces an unnatural breakover point makes the horse work harder for every single stride. Multiply that across a race, across a season, across years, and the cumulative effect on a horse's soundness is significant. A well-designed shoe places the breakover at exactly the right point for that horse's conformation. The difference in effort — and in seconds — is not theoretical. It is measurable.

A Factory in the Netherlands. A Standard Across the World.

The Royal Kerckhaert Horseshoe Factory has been making horseshoes in the Netherlands since 1906. What began as a family forge is now the largest independent horseshoe manufacturer on earth — 101 distinct shoe styles, sold in over 60 countries, worn by thoroughbreds on every major racing circuit in the world.

The Kings Plate Extra Sound is Kerckhaert's best-selling race plate globally. Kerckhaert themselves state it dominates every legendary podium. That is not marketing language written in isolation. It reflects a reality that top farriers on the Kentucky circuit, in Newmarket, in Dubai, in Sydney, and in Hong Kong all arrived at independently: this is the shoe that works.

The Kings Plate Extra Sound: What Makes It Different

The Extra Sound was designed around a simple observation: most race plates were built to a minimum, and horses' feet were suffering for it. Kerckhaert's farrier network fed back the same complaints year after year — inadequate cover at the heel, difficult nail placement on problem feet, unforgiving breakover. The Extra Sound was built in direct response.

The toe is designed a little flatter to keep it short when fitting — which naturally improves breakover without any additional work from the farrier. The nail holes are positioned coarser than the standard Kings Plate to produce strong, secure nailing. The seating out is increased and extends forward toward the back of the clip to eliminate sole pressure and bruising. That is why it is called Extra Sound.

And Then There Is the Super Sound

The Extra Sound is an exceptional shoe. The Super Sound is what happened when Kerckhaert's engineers asked: what if we could do even more?

Slightly wider than the Extra Sound, the Super Sound offers superior cover and support — a design that, in Kerckhaert's own testing, eliminates sore heels. The toe geometry has been evolved specifically to improve breakover further, while the patented sole relief continues to protect against sole pressure and bruising.

What separates the Super Sound from the Extra Sound is the Blue Bond: a specially engineered polyurethane polymer bonded to the shoe at the heel section only. This is not padding in the casual sense. It is an anti-concussion material placed exactly where impact is most concentrated — at the moment the heel strikes the ground. The aluminium at the front half of the plate ensures the shoe does not shift or move under performance loads. The polymer at the heel absorbs what the aluminium cannot.

Feature	Extra Sound	Super Sound Blue Bond
Material	Full aluminium	Aluminium + polyurethane heel
Weight	Lighter	Marginally heavier
Shock absorption	Sole relief	Sole relief + Blue Bond cushion
Breakover	Improved vs standard plate	Further evolved toe geometry
Best use	Race day, sound feet, good ground	Training, firm ground, sensitive heels
Sizes (Pakistan)	3, 4, 5, 6	3, 4, 5, 6

Champions That Run on Them

The Kings Plate family has been present on racetracks at the highest level of the sport for decades. Kerckhaert is among the go-to brands for farriers at elite level globally — their logos stamped into the edge of each shoe carry genuine weight in serious racing circles.

Horses like Winx — the mare who won 33 consecutive Group 1 races in Australia — were shod under the supervision of farriers who treated every gram on the foot, and every degree of breakover angle, as a strategic decision. American Pharoah, the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, ran under the care of a team for whom shoe selection was never an afterthought. Enable, the dual Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner, was handled by Newmarket farriers for whom the Kings Plate range was a professional standard, not a last resort.

These horses won at the very top of the sport. The farriers who shod them did not guess. They made deliberate choices — and Kerckhaert's Extra Sound family was consistently among them.

How It Arrived in Pakistan

Roughly two decades ago, the team at Z-Stables — whose relationship with thoroughbred racing at Lahore Race Club stretched back to 1969 — faced a problem that was becoming difficult to ignore. The horses were sound. The training was disciplined. The bloodlines were credible. But something was not adding up on the track.

The answer, when it finally presented itself, came from the Netherlands. Z-Stables imported the first shipment of Kerckhaert Kings Plate Extra Sound into Pakistan not as a commercial venture — not initially — but for the horses in their own stable. The results were not subtle. The farriers noticed first: the shoe fitted cleanly, with minimal adjustment. The horses moved differently. The heels stayed healthier through a racing season. Times, quietly, began to improve.

Word travels fast in a racing stable. And faster still between stables sharing the same track. Other trainers began asking questions. Other farriers wanted to try them. Within a few seasons, what had started as a private decision for Z-Stables' own string had become something Lahore's racing community was taking seriously.

Z-Stables formally became Pakistan's exclusive Kerckhaert distributor. Today, the Kings Plate Extra Sound is the shoe of choice at the leading racing stables in Lahore — not because anyone was told to use it, but because the stables that tried it did not go back.

What This Means for Your Horse

The Kings Plate Extra Sound and Super Sound are available through Z-Stables in sizes 3 through 6, covering the full range of thoroughbred front and hind feet found on Pakistani tracks. The choice between the two is not complicated. For race day on good ground with a sound horse, the Extra Sound is the lighter, cleaner option. For training, for firm tracks, for any horse with a history of bruised soles or sore heels, the Super Sound's Blue Bond polymer changes the conversation about what a race plate can do for a horse's long-term soundness.

Twenty years ago, Z-Stables imported the first pair for their own horses. The rest of Lahore's racing community eventually drew the same conclusion. If your stable has not yet had that conversation, it is worth starting.