I’ve heard over the years that in order to keep racing, TBs have to break maiden by either 4yo or 5yo. Is that still true, and if so, what age? Thanks!
Not true. I watched a 10YO break her maiden this past January. That takes dedication!
It depends upon the track/state. I remember many years ago Penn National had a rule where they had to break their maiden by the time they turned six. One horse had broken her maiden three times over the years and gotten a bad test each time. She finally won and passed the test barn in December of her five year old year! Later on they changed that rule and became the home of Zippy Chippy, the world’s most famous maiden after he was not allowed to race on surrounding states due to his age.
At most tracks the cutoff age is six, so their last chance is Dec 31 of their five year old year. If a 6+ year old does break it’s maiden at one of the tracks that does allow it, then they can go on and compete at any track, unless it is a fair track, but even some of those count.
As others have said it depends track by track. We have a mare that is still a maiden at age 6. She’s come within a nose of winning many times but just hasn’t gotten there. She’s needed to be laid up a few times as well which has also kept her from breaking her maiden.
Where we are (Monmouth Park) maidens that are six years old or older require permission from the stewards to race. Our mare will be ready for a start at the end of this month most likely so we’ll be contacting the stewards soon. That is if everything goes right. Gotta love this sport. Have a filly in Friday for her first start of the year. Very tough on herself, was a dead runaway last year on every rider that got on her. Made herself all sorts of sore. I spent all winter working with her and she’s been going beautiful, Monday she galloped so nice, we felt she was sitting on a big race. Yesterday she had to break from the gate to start since she hadn’t run in over 6 months. She’s notorious for kicking herself, part of her issues last year were she gave herself a hematoma on the back of her fetlock from smacking herself. She goes in open front boots and they have worked wonders, she even races in them. Took her to the gate, broke like a shot. She came out and it sounded like a gun went off, she wailed herself. Comes back fine but once she’s put up the back of her fetlock starts swelling. Did her up in poultice. Come in this morning pull the bandages and the lump looks okay but started blowing up within minutes and ended up the size of my fist and very painful upon palpation. So needless to say she won’t be running any time soon. Horses! They’ll break your heart!
Okay that totally got off topic, haha sorry!
“in order to keep racing, TBs have to break maiden by either 4yo or 5yo”
What is the reasoning/thinking behind this rule? Thanks.
[QUOTE=sonomacounty;7608933]
“in order to keep racing, TBs have to break maiden by either 4yo or 5yo”
What is the reasoning/thinking behind this rule? Thanks.[/QUOTE]
The safety and health of that maiden and the other horses - why keep running if he/she doesn’t win? Also, a chronic maiden can do funny things to the odds.
[QUOTE=WhiteCamry;7611162]
The safety and health of that maiden and the other horses - why keep running if he/she doesn’t win? Also, a chronic maiden can do funny things to the odds.[/QUOTE]
Why would you assume the horse is not safer or healthier than another horse? Just because it doesn’t finish in first place doesn’t mean it doesn’t race well and earn its way. I’ll bet if you look at a maiden who has been racing for years, you will find it actually earned quite a lot in place money. A talented horse who can always finish next to the winner would be exactly the horse that a trainer would keep trying to tweak to figure out how to get it to want to win. Or the trainer might just throw up her hands and accept that the horse is going to consistently earn good money finishing second or third.
