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I'm a believer in reading comment sections - often there is some very useful information. You don't know the identity or veracity of the commenter, but my experience over the years is that there are a lot of honest and informed remarks there to be mined. Not just with regard to horse racing. Here are the remarks to the underlying article from someone posting with the handle "Young Bloke", who certainly gives the impression of knowing what he's talking about. I'll leave it to others here to tell us if he's full of it, as I have no clue about shoeing horses.
No one on the track carries front-toe grabs. They are no longer carried at most(I have not been to all) farrier stores. A front-toe grab would be a special order item, and that would have been obvious in the paddock. These are most likely xts which are made as a wear plate that sits at 2mm and are usually worn down on shoes by 4 weeks. Need to edit the article. That being said they are breaking the rules by wearing xts on the fronts. It looks like(looking at the nail pattern) he may have lost a shoe and whomever worked on him tacked on an xt to his front left.
Then:
toe grabs of 4mm are allowed on dirt surfaces on rear limbs. The current HISA regualtions ask for queens(Flat shoes) all the way around on turf. On dirt they ask for queens infront and no traction device larger than 4mm. So, the options are a 4 mm rim which is not made by any of the horse shoe companies, and a regular grab which sits between 5.5-6mm which most guys grind down a touch to fit HISA regulation. Some outfits will stay with flats, and some with xts.
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