The 9 horse scratched. That’s a little bit of luck for us right there, as he was the 2nd favorite and beat us last time out.
woo! woo! woo!
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Great job, Chasing Time!
Well he just snuck right in there, didn’t he? Good boy!
Congrats to @LaurieB!
I am very sad that @Where_sMyWhite is not here to see him win. She would have been tickled pink.
Good ride by Joel Rosario.
Replay;https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/race/usa/op/2023/2/25/9/race-9-aoc-at-op-on-2-25-23
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Wow, he looked great. Probably helped by fast early pace, first quarter in 21 /4/5, half in 45 1/4, but split horses, game. Final time good, 1:10 2/5 on a sloppy track.
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He broke well.
I think it was a $50,000 claimer. If so, was Chasing Time claimed?
Optional Claiming, I doubt he was entered eligible to be claimed.
Only 2 of the horses were running for a “tag” (the ability to be claimed).
The way optional claimers work is the race is written for certain conditions. This race was for 4 year olds and up who have never won more than $23,000 twice in non-restricted company OR never won 3 races. If you don’t meet either of those conditions, you can still run in the race for a claiming price of $50,000. But if you meet the conditions you are not eligible to be claimed.
Next time out, Chasing Time would no longer meet the conditions of this race. If we wanted to run him against similar horses in similar conditions, he would have a tag. But he is a good enough horse to move back into stakes company where he won’t have those conditions. Or they can try to find him an allowance without those conditions, but there aren’t a lot of those written.
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Thanks for the explanation. I am still learning. 
Everyone has to learn somewhere. 
Sorry if it was overly didactic, I figure someone out there reading probably never thought about how race conditions work.
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I have read that the secret of top trainers’ success is being able to read the condition book and find good races for their horses.
Does anyone know what sort of system Equibase uses that seem similar to Beyer, but is not the same? When I look at Results on Equibase, there is a box with an E in it to the left of the race chart that seems to have something to do with the quality of the horse’s effort.
According to MyRacehorse, Chasing Time got an 89 Beyer figure for his last race. The boxed E for his race is 103.
I can’t speak in any depth but they are just different methods of doing the same thing. Any type of speed rating assigns an “average” speed for each distance based on the conditions. They assign an arbitrary number to represent that average. Then they add or subtract points depending on how much faster or slower the horse was compared to the average.
I don’t know exactly why, but Equibase’s E speed figures are based on a higher numerical scale than DRF’s Beyers. It’s just the number scale, though- it’s not that Equibase is saying a horse is faster than DRF. They will always be about 10-15 points apart.
Thank you! I thought it might be something like that.
I always take speed figures with a large grain of salt anyway.
You know, typing that out had me questioning how much Beyers and E speed figs vary on average. I just learned something new. On at least one occasion, Chasing Time actually got a higher Beyer than E speed fig. In the Woody Stephens he got a 79 Beyer but a 76 E speed figure. That is the first time I ever noticed a horse getting a higher Beyer than E speed figure. Clearly it must happen often enough. In other races, like the Chick Lang, you see what I would consider a more normal spread: 84 Beyer, 97 speed fig.
Like you said, they are numbers to take with a grain of salt. They are helpful but are only a small part of the picture.
The phrase I’ve seen often is “keep yourself in the best possible company and your horses in the worst”.
Update
Chasing Time breezed a half mile in 52.60 (38/43) this morning over a muddy Oaklawn Park main track. The 4-year-old colt remains on track for the previously mentioned allowance race on Mar. 25 and will likely have one additional breeze leading up to that race. Entries are drawn on Monday, Mar. 20.
