Saratoga Race Two

[Cholly]

Racing’s stratification has become so specific that we now need a category for $150K maiden claimers? There’s a population of horses not good enough for special weights but too good for $50K claiming races?

Weird…

I voted with my feet on that one.

[toussaud]

no, they just do that to make the owners there feel super duper special.


those are probably at the end of the day 40-50k claimers, if that, unless someone is trying to pull a mountain town or something

[DigitalDownsJoe]

I think its a way for the owner/trainer to put these horses who may be good but not great at a sale price where they can get back what they put into the horse, and place the risk on someone elses head. On the other end, its a chance for a claim to be made on a horse with good pedigree and potential..Im sure it was something that the trainers lobbied for..

[Linny]

In general all 2yo's are overvalued. Sure some 2yo claimers go on to be Blind Luck, but most of the time owners have stars in their eyes about the true worth of their babies.

[Robert Fischer]

I think its a way for the owner/trainer to put these horses who may be good but not great at a sale price where they can get back what they put into the horse, and place the risk on someone elses head. On the other end, its a chance for a claim to be made on a horse with good pedigree and potential..Im sure it was something that the trainers lobbied for..

EXACTLY DDJ

no one here turned out to be a 150k horse

some interesting happenings though

AlyDarla- interesting mini-story chapman wants to train/own and has done ok with this one :ThmbUp:. He took a gamble. Here he had a 2yo filly with precocious speed, and good breeding. She was NOT a cream of the crop type horse. So his decision was pretty easy - Run her @ Toga and be the Trainer. However another owner would have really considered bringing her along slowly and run as a 3yo. Getting her to a High% trainer, getting some muscle-weight on her and schooling her on things like changing leads. - Of course he runs the risk she ends up a high claimer and she gets claimed- With Owner/Trainer/TogacomingUp it was easy - First Time start she runs 6f in the Schuylerville! worse yet Prado is up:D She runs about 6.5 furlongs OVERLAND:mad: before even reaching the stretch lol... ASKED HARD on the turn... not surprisingly lugs in badly in that race... So FRIDAY she runs back - gets a great trip and with good energy entering the stretch is going to be slow to change leads - Nakatani "rights" her strongly and he did a good job (Dominguez had been stalking and the move by Nakatani prevented him from diving Inside, and allowed Alydarla to momentarily open up)... Unfortunately once Nakatani proceeded to strongly handle the reigns and whip right handed, Alydarla quits (she still runs 2nd, but she responded VERY POORLY to the strong handling)-not Nakatani's fault - some just respond very poorly to handling and/or whip and are as a rule poor bet-backs

The winner Singlet was OK... Tony D. did a good job having her well schooled and PRIMED UP first time. He's only 17% FTS last 180starts - but hey this is Toga, and this is a maiden claimer. Dominguez up. well meant. Easy race setup. OK horse

The 6 was cool because ridden by GOTO the japanese jockey. This guy can ride. He looked like he wanted to prove he could ride from the gate in the States, and in a short sprint like this - he did a good job of proving it. Then after the horse didn't have the (outside)speed he saved all the ground. good ride.

The 3 got a great ride (probably not what the betting public who made her favorite will say!) but this first-time-starter may have been the best horse and should be ready to roll now.

[the little guy]

There is next to no chance a horse would be claimed out of this race.

It's an opportunity for trainers with talented, but not top class, 2YOs to maybe win a race and not have to worry about meeting the next Uncle Mo. The MSW races at Saratoga can be very intimidating.

[sandpit]

If anyone has a program from the inaugural Breeders' Cup at Hollywood Park, I believe there is a claiming race for older horses with a price of $1 million down to $500K. I may be completely wrong about this, because it's been a long time since I saw that program.