I’ve read about these in books but I don’t really understand them. Will someone who knows about them please explain them?
In the simplest of terms: claiming races keep racing fair. The fact that horses running in a claiming race can be purchased ensures that better class horses (bound to win) don’t run against lessor class horses.
However, sometimes a trainer will take chance on running a better class horse in lessor class ‘claiming’ race in order to get a win AND not lose the horse-- strategy is that the better class horse will be seen by potential claimers as having something wrong / a soundness issue and the trainer is hoping someone will claim it. But in fact the horse is not unsound at all. Outcome is that horse wins and is not claimed. Hope I explained that clearly.
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Do be aware that to claim a horse one must be a licensed trainer at the venue --or that was the rule when my husband, who had a bit too much to drink, saw a horse at a race track that he thought I would like to have. He was considerably up on winnings, more than enough to buy the horse and have it taken to our farm not far from the track, and thought it would be a nice surprise for his young wife who loved horses (we have now been married 46 years). He was told no, he could not claim the horse unless he had a trainer’s license in IL. He came home and told me about how he wanted to give me a horse as a surprise --that was so sweet! Eventually we did find a horse --and many more followed --in hindsight --I’m not sure what I would have done with a fresh off the track Thoroughbred —my only riding experience was an old mare I’d had as a kid. On the other hand, might have made a good Disney movie . . .
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Danacat’s explanation is good. You have to drop the slip 10 minutes before the race so usually do not get a chance to see the horse in the post parade. After the race the successful claimant picks up the horse either in the paddock or after the horse exits the test barn. It used to be that the horse is yours after you drop the slip whether he is dead or alive but most if not all jurisdictions have changed that.
Generally speaking, if you run a horse where they belong they do relatively well and do not get claimed. If you have a $20k horse and run him for $5k you have a very good shot of winning but are all but guaranteed to lose them for $5k. If you run that horse against other $20k horses the race is more competitive and you will likely take that horse back to your barn to run again next time. Now back when the racino’s first started jacking up the purses people would run their $20k horses for $5k because the purses were so big they didn’t care that they lost the horse. Those days are pretty much over but it will be interesting to see if people are so desperate to earn some cash and/or get a horse off their payroll that they are dropping their horses way down after shuttered tracks open back up.
No surprise racehorse for you, but what a wonderful story! :lol:
I don’t understand. How does running a horse in a claiming race make racing fair? Or unfair, for that matter? How does a horse being available for purchase ensure that better-class horses don’t run again lesser-class horses?
I can’ understand an owner running a horse in a claiming race in order to make money if he’s broke. I’ve read about that in novels. I don’t understand why someone would risk their horse being claimed unless they needed the money.
Can someone please give me a very basic explanation?
I didn’t understand a word of danacat’s post. Sorry! 
What does “drop the slip” mean? What is a slip and where do you drop it?
When you say “run him for $5K,” do you mean the purse is $5,000? Or he can be claimed for $5,000? Or every horse in the race is worth $5,000?
I do think I understand your last sentence; as I said, I’ve read about people running a horse in a claiming race, hoping someone will claim him so they can get the money for him because they can’t afford to keep him anymore.
Is that how a claiming race keeps racing fair? Because people who can’t afford their horses anymore can still race them, with the objective of having them claimed by someone else and then they can claim the money put up by the person who claims the horse?
That makes sense to me, if that’s the object.
I’ll try again about the fair part :):
Think little pond with a big fish in it. No one would want to run their lessor horses in races where proven stakes winners were entered. The lesssor horses wouldn’t stand a chance of winning, thus their trainers wouldn’t want to enter them. What would be the point?
It’s almost like the unfairness of a ringer being put on a team against the little guys.
BUT if the race had the stipulation that ANY horse in the race could be purchased (claimed), then the big fish trainer is probaby not going to enter his coveted staked horse because someone will legally be able to purchase it out from under him at a price that is less than what the horse is worth.
Keep in mind as @Laurierace said, that there are cheap claiming races and pricey claiming races. All these different price tags (claiming prices) are in place to keep like horses running against like horses. Prevents the big fish in little pond scenario …
…and keeps the betting public betting on races. No one wants to bet on races where the winner is obvious every single time. It would be a one horse race with the real race being between those lower class horses in the rest of the field.
The fair part has nothing to do with afforability – unless a trainer and his owners are so down and out that they want to be out of business – hope to get all their horses claimed out of races until none are left in their barn…
…or at least that one lousy horse they’d like to see gone. Sometimes this lousy horse (after it’s claimed) does better under a different trainer, is a diamond in the rough that blossoms.
I’m not appreciating the tone of your last comment but I’ll be nice.
First, a “slip” is the document one must fill out to enter a claim. It’s dropped into a box outside the racing office where they’re collected and reviewed for validity.
Second, and which has been explained by many others, concerns the reason horses are entered into claiming races. Your premise that “they can’t afford to keep him anymore” is probably the last, if ever, reason someone runs a horse for a claiming price. First and foremost, horses are placed in claiming races to ensure that they’re running against horses of similar ability. That premise has been accurately explained by several others here. Another reason that a horse may be entered for a claiming price (tag) is that they no longer fit the objectives of an owner or training outfit. Trainers such as Todd Pletcher, Bill Mott, and Christophe Clement typically deal with owners who want to compete at the highest levels. If a horse simply doesn’t have that sort of ability, it may be entered in a claiming race to give others a chance to have that horse in their barn. What may be a failed horse for Todd Pletcher may be the best horse in a claiming trainer’s barn. Instead of having to spend time beating the bushes for a buyer, a horse can be offered for sale to a multitude of buyers by entering it for a claiming price.
Another valid reason, as has been mentioned, is to liquidate the racing operation of an owner or dissolve a partnership. Again, claiming races can put a horse up for sale in front of more buyers than simply trying to network in private. Nothing nefarious about that at all.
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Imagine McLain Ward riding one of his Grand Prix horses in a crossrails class or whatever the highest level of your discipline competing against whatever the lowest level of your discipline is and you can understand the fair/competitive better. They don’t allow Olympians to ride against walk trot riders.
The slip is the piece of paper a licensed trainer fills out in order to place a claim. The claim box you drop it in is mechanized so it closes on it’s own. If your slip isn’t in there before it closes you didn’t claim the horse. If you misspell anything or leave an part blank your claim will be voided. We can get into what happens if more than one person drops a slip on the same horse if you are interested.
When I mentioned 5k and 20k I was referring to the claiming price. You never refer to a race by it’s purse since they vary widely from track to track for the exact same claiming price.
Thank you for the explanation: claiming has always been a mystery to me and now I think I understand it better.
This side of the pond, with a team of expert handicappers who cover all UK racing and working under a single jurisdiction, a horse is given an official rating number on its third ever race. One rating point is worth one pound of weight such that an official rating of 115 means the horse carries five pounds more than a horse rated 110. Races are put on for horses rated within certain bands to ensure not very good horses run races against other not very good horses and can still have an interesting, competitive race and their owners can have fun. The majority of races are therefore handicaps.
A bit of perspective.
Yesterday at Gulfstream Park there were 9 claiming races; 3 Claiming, 3 Maiden Claiming (non winners all eligible to be claimed), 3 Allowance Optional Claiming (some horses allowed to be claimed, while others are not). Of those 5 races, 2 horses were actually claimed. The rest went back to the barn they came from.
At Oaklawn, 3 Claiming, 1 Waiver Maiden Claiming, 1 Waiver Claiming, 1 Allowance Optional Claiming. A personal guess is that the Waiver races are maybe similar to Gulfstream’s Optional but maybe someone more knowledgable could please set me straight In those 6 races, a total of 5 horses were claimed.
So, it’s also not a guarantee that if you put a horse in a claiming race that you won’t go home with them.
Some trainers like to pick up claimers and often do well with the horses after the claim.
Can someone explain to me why, in a claiming race, the Claiming Price as shown in Equibase may be a range; for example $12,500 - $10,500?
I also assume that if there are multiple claims on single horse, that the first time stamp is the new trainer/owner?
Every track has their own condition book so you would have to read that for the exact explanation. The condition books are available on the track’s websites as well as on equibase if you are interested. But generally waiver claiming races tend to be ones where you can race a horse coming off a layoff for example once or twice to give them a race where they are unable to be claimed despite it being a claiming race. Sometimes maiden races are waiver claimers for the first start or two for the same reason.
As to the second question, you can opt to run your horse for the lower end of the claiming range in exchange for carrying a pound or two less than the top of the range.
Good questions!
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Something that hasn’t been mentioned is that the reason many horses are entered in claiming races is because that’s all they’re eligible for after “running through their conditions”.
A horse starts as a maiden. Once it wins one race (if it looks like it has some ability) it moves on to allowance company. The allowance races all have conditions, for example, “non-winners of one race other than maiden or claiming”. So as soon as your horse wins his first allowance race, you can’t race at that level again. Now you must enter “non-winners of 2 races other than…” and then “3 Other Than”. Most tracks run many first level allowance races, and a couple second level races. Finding third level (non winners of 3 other than…) is usually pretty hard to do.
There are lots of sound, useful horses that aren’t good enough to compete in stakes company who end up in claiming races because that’s all their owners can find to enter them in after they have run through their conditions. It often surprises non-racetrack people to know that many owners don’t want to run their horses in claiming races because they don’t want to risk losing them–however, their only other option is to move them up to stakes company (where they will be over-faced) or retire them.
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Claiming races sometimes have a range of prices because it makes those races easier to fill. Because you are then asking horses that are at different levels (worth different amounts of money) to run against each other, the lesser horses will receive a break in the amount of weight they carry, usually 2-3 pounds.
If there are multiple claims on a horse, that produces “a shake”. The claim slips are literally put in a big cup (sorry, blanking on the actual name) which is then shaken and one claim slip is drawn out. That person gets the horse. The shake almost always takes place in front of all the trainers who have dropped a claim for that horse (or their representatives.)
At tracks like Keeneland and Saratoga where owners will often drop a good horse in for a tag because they want the prestige of getting a win there, it’s not surprising to have as many as a dozen trainers on one shake.
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@Laurierace thanks for the answers! Sounds like Waiver and Optional may be similar in terms of when a horse is edible to be claimed or not, just depending on the state.
I was too lazy to want to dig up the condition books for either Gulfstream or Oaklawn to read the exact conditions. I really do appreciate that for at least most tracks, they publish their condition books online so you don’t have to go hunting to find them… just have to wade through them.
Interesting that a trainer/owner can “buy” a slight weight advantage by means other than using an apprentice jockey
I would comment that yes, there is good information in the condition books that often explain some interesting minutiae of racing.
Optional claimers are a little different in that they are usually allowance races but they let horses who don’t meet the allowance conditions anymore to still race in it but for a claiming price instead of the allowance. The claimers in those optional races tend to be the better horses in the race since they have already won the allowances.
Interesting. I would have guessed that the trainer first to the claim box would get the horse. Random draw is not what I would have guessed.
NB. Race 10 yesterday at Gulfstream was Claiming for 3YO and up which have never won 3 races + other conditions. Eight horses went to the gate, 6 eligible to be claimed all for $35,000. Second place horse, Vegas Kitten was claimed by Mark Casse from Michael Maker. Claiming races aren’t just for horses that are the bottom of the bucket and yes, sometimes horses do get claimed away for not cheap tags.
Another thing that must be emphasized is that entering a horse for a tag means that the horse can be claimed, not that the horse will be claimed.
So there are more efficient ways to get rid of a horse than through the claim box. Horses are bought privately on the backstretch in part because you can vet them out which never happens with a claiming horse.
The main reason for the tag is that it keeps people honest. No sells a $100,000 horse for $35,000 and if you try to drop just for a win, someone will relieve you of the horse.
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At most of the bigger tracks, you rarely find claiming races for very cheap tags. Claiming $25,000 to $62,500 is more the norm. I had someone yell at me on Facebook when a colt of ours broke his maiden at Santa Anita because eek! eek! we had run him in a claiming race and surely the next step would be sending him to slaughter!!!
The race the horse had won was Maiden Claiming 50K and he had not been claimed–though the price was about right for his value so although I was happy not to have lost him, I wouldn’t have been distraught if things had gone the other way. No matter what I said, I could not make the woman understand that claiming races are not the same thing as animal abuse. She was determined that the horse needed to be rescued from my care. Finally I told her she could have him for his claiming price of $50,000 which was enough to make her stop and think. Or at least stop complaining. 
Fwiw, last fall at Keeneland we ran a filly in a Maiden Claiming 150k race. It’s rare for horses (especially maidens) to be claimed at that level–which is what we were banking on. As my trainer said, “It’s Keeneland. At least the tag will keep you from running against most of the Tapits and Medaglia d’Oros.”
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