Why do they run $62,500 Maiden Claiming races?
What makes anyone think a horse so slow, an owner is willing to get rid of it straight away because the feed bill will eclipse the purse money, will get claimed away?
Is it vanity? Do tracks card these races so owners have something to point to? Why would anyone keep a horse in training if it can't get out of its own way?
If, class will tell, and maiden claimers are ostensibly the bottom of the barrel, why would anyone pay that much money for a horse which almost certainly will never come close to recouping its cost?
The Handicapper's Condition Book warns bettors away from any horse running in a maiden claimer in its first start. Why? Because odds are it cannot win.
If the bettor is unwilling to risk his capital on the horse, why is an owner willing to do just that? Do they hope the horse will get claimed away by a greater fool and save them from the colossal mistake they made by trying to make this horse a runner? Is it just that?
I understand there are games played within the claiming game, the darkening of form of a quality horse and so on but those are the exceptions and not the norm. Most maiden claimers are slow and without ability. That is not to say they should not be running but what sense does it make for anyone to think a 62.5 Mcl could compete against Lava Man who ran for a 50k tag? Charismatic, who ran for 62.5?
Try explaining to a first time race goer why the horse that is offered for $62.5k is not even close in quality to the horse running in an open $35k claimer. WTF is that?
I read a post on Gallop France where she discusses the progression of horses across the pond. The lowest level are the claiming races and then they move to handicaps, which are, as I understand it, a version of our Allowance races but require a certain performance within prior races in order to qualify for the next one. The weights assigned in those races are determined by the prior performance.
This is not the most pressing issue in our game today but I think there is too much ambiguity in the racing quality out there and the presentation of it to the public. If the industry doesn't understand its own product, how can they be expected to present it to the consumer?
How many runners work their way through their allowances before tackling stakes company? Guadalcanal ran in the Belmont last year as a maiden.
If the grading of races was designed to select the best horses for the purposes of breeding, how does it serve that purpose if a GI race could, in theory, be filled with straight maidens?
Sure, it's nice to enter your horse in the Belmont and hope that every horse in the race dwells at the gate so you have a shot at the money but that shouldn't be the way it works.
Why not have a minimum criteria in order to qualify for graded races?
If we are going to have a progression, let's at least have it mean something.
13 January 2009
Progression
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The Bid
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4 comments:
A stakes race full of maidens is more than just theroy. Last year's Jamestown Stakes at Colonial Downs (2 y/o fillies) had 11 horses in it...all maidens.
I don't agree that the industry doesn't understand its product, at least as regards claiming horses. The horses are priced the way they are to (more or less) reflect perceived earning power. A horse that's a maiden has all his allowance and claiming conditions -- the easiest available money -- in front of him, while, say, Lava Man was already out of conditions. As a result, the horse with conditions still has lots of easy opportunities still available -- and therefore greater earning potential, and thus is more expensive.
Gordon-I heard Santa Anita considered carding a similar race their first week but declined to do it because it would have stolen all the horses from Hollywood Park.
Frank- Agreed. I had switched gears in my head and failed to type it out. My question regarding the MdnClm for 62.5 was, are any of those horses, if claimed, going to come back and turn a profit for their new owners? The horses are in there, usually, for a reason and not a good one.
The rule of thumb, as I understand it, is to take a Mdn Clm winner and run him in company half as much as what you claimed him for. Would a 62.5 mdnclm really stand a chance against open 30k, or N2l even? And what are the purses for those races? And if you run them for 30k then they get claimed, you just lost 30k from what you paid.
It just seems a little far fetched that a horse running in the mdnclm ranks is ever going to amount to much and spending real money for something like that seems counterintuitive.
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