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[thespaah]

Originally Posted by v j stauffer

In a claiming race for winners there are three designations to tell us about the conditions.

The first is most self explanatory. N2L, N3L means Haven't won 2 or 3 in their life.

Next is N2X. This is what's called a "clause race" In the condition book it will say "which have not won 2 races" But in this type race there's more to the story. At the bottom of the condition explanation it will say something like "races where entered for $4000 or less not considered. That means a horse could have 10 lifetime wins for $4000 but those races don't matter for today's eligibility.

Finally the lower case "b" stands for a beaten race. What beaten means is to be eligible there are time passed conditions. For example it will say "non winners of a race since March 7 2020 (six months) or September 7 2019 (year). Sometimes they'll even do two years to give real beetles a chance.

It's those races where handicappers have to be careful. A big win can be deceiving in that the winner could have defeated a group that was really awful and helpless. When you see the "b" go back in the charts and check how long the time restriction was. In theory the shorter the tougher the race.

"Beetles".....