Why claim this horse?

[ultracapper]

This is why I love this forum. A great place to pose this type of question.

4yo homebred gelding debuts in May and wins MSW. Then isn't seen for a year when he runs a very uninteresting race in OCN1x company. Returns a month later (June of 5yo season) under same OCN1x conditions, but unprotected, and Peter Miller puts down the $40k to purchase him.

Why? $40K for a 5yo gelding with, maybe, soundness issues.


Supreme Venture in the 2nd race at Santa Anita Saturday 9/30/17

[ultracapper]

Well, to answer my own questions, they must feel the horse can, at minimum, work through the 2 alw conditions that are commonly written in SoCal. That's the only thing I can figure. They run so many race-for-age at that claiming level in California though, that I would think if I had $40K to spend that way, I'd be looking for a promising 3yo that has proven soundness and maybe even won a race or 2 after the maiden breaker.

That's what I would do anyway.

[fiveouttasix]

I have no idea why they claimed him. I just did a search for Trainer Peter Miller
2nd off the claim and layoff of 46 to 90 days.....9 starts 0 wins and only 1 ITM last 5 years

[ultracapper]

I think he'll be 0-10 after this one. It looks like, for all intensive purposes, he can compete with this field, and he's been rigorously trained since last start, but lots of reasons not to put your money on him. I wonder if he and the other Miller in the race trained in company with one another the last 2 works.

[onefast99]

Yes there are always "better" claims out there but they elected to take this one and maybe they saw something in the breeding like turf or distance that could make them their investment back.

[ultracapper]

No doubt they're thinking something. $40K is a healthy red tag.

[MPRanger]

Originally Posted by ultracapper

This is why I love this forum. A great place to pose this type of question.

4yo homebred gelding debuts in May and wins MSW. Then isn't seen for a year when he runs a very uninteresting race in OCN1x company. Returns a month later (June of 5yo season) under same OCN1x conditions, but unprotected, and Peter Miller puts down the $40k to purchase him.

Why? $40K for a 5yo gelding with, maybe, soundness issues.


Supreme Venture in the 2nd race at Santa Anita Saturday 9/30/17

Looks like a reasonable claim.

He's 2nd favorite in the morning line today.
Favorite last time out at todays class level Str 50000nw2
He's eligible to run under nw 1 restrictions.

He could earn a good chunk of that claiming price back today
with the rest of the meet to chalk up a profit.

[ultracapper]

Originally Posted by MPRanger

Looks like a reasonable claim.

He's 2nd favorite in the morning line today.
Favorite last time out at todays class level Str 50000nw2
He's eligible to run under nw 1 restrictions.

He could earn a good chunk of that claiming price back today
with the rest of the meet to chalk up a profit.

The layoff lines and the late start to his career are the things that make me wonder. I actually like the other Miller, Handful of Stripes, better in this race. The horse was ultimate mis-handled by Mulhall, and he was taken away from her. He beat Lord Simba back in the day, an extremely fast Baffert, ran a pretty even comebacker in last, and put in a real nice work a week ago, maybe in the company of our subject horse, which Handful of Stripes outfinished by 5 lengths.

[ultracapper]

I bet Bolster in his maiden breaker in last. He was running with some real nice horses on the east coast, then came to Cali and took advantage of his statebred condition, and just waxed them. He could be tough right back, but I'll stick with Miller's Handful of Stripes.

[ultracapper]

They're both dogs.