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I remember when Sam Nati took over Harness Racing NSW , he spoke that he would put a lot more emphasis of having more claiming races throughout the state.
Don't have time to follow all meetings , but I really don't remember seeing many at all being run. Does anyone have any insight into this?
I love claiming races... I'll explain after I've fed my horse unless someone beats me to it!! :)
Hi ozninja
Horse's have a price placed on them by the owner as a requisite to entry of the race and that if anyone lodges a claim form before the race on a horse in the race (agrees to pay the price place on the horse a bit like lodging a tender) will at the end of the race own the horse he has lodged a claim for win loose or draw. Most times horse's are handicapped on what price is placed upon them the lowest inside draw highest outside barrier if more than one claim is lodged for the same horse the new owner will be draw out of a hat. In most cases horse in claiming race are horses that have gone as far as they can go normally Free For All ranks but are not up to the level required to win a metropolitan FFA race because for a multitude of issues. Thus the game starts when racing in these events to win without loosing your horse or looking for that horse in these event that you think can be improved
sorry
Flashing Red
I like claiming races but on the other hand they don't run open FFA's to often in Vic country and that's disappointing because if you wont to see FFA horses you have to go to Melton or the trials a little show casing can go a long way at times
Sorry Ozninja, I am in the middle of my exam block and have been swamped - I simply forgot to reply!!
Mango provided an excellent summary, I would like to take it one step further... the reason why I love claiming races so much, more to the point North American claiming races, is because you really get to know your horses "class". In NA they have the horse pool to do this, but claimers only race like priced horses. They have 4k, 6k, 8k, 10k, 12.5k, 15k, 20k, 25k, 30k, 40k, 50k, 75k, 100k and 150k claimers over there. Each claiming rank gets gradually harder. What is great about this system, is that you "know" what your horse is. It will race the same sort of horses week in week out. If they horse is a 40k claimer and going well, you may put him into the 50k claimer and see how he goes. If he is competitive you keep him there. If not, you drop him back to 40k. If he seems to have lost a bit of form, you may drop him back to 30k. It is such an excellent system. I would say (rough estimate) 2/3rds of the races in NA are claimers. The rest are non winners classes (as in non winners of X amount in the last 5 or 6 races), ie NW 2,500 L6, NW 5,000 L5, NW 25,000 L6 etc. Preferreds are called winners over and then you have opens (FFAs). If you don't want to tag (put a price on) the horse, you enter them in the condition or non-winner of X races. Sometimes a horse may be in a 40k claimer week in week out, hasn't won in a few starts and then fits a non winners of 12,000 last 6 - you can put him in that because it is easier than the 40k claimer and he won't get claimed that week. One then gets to know the condition races and their claiming equivalents when trying to judge where to fit their horse that week - claimer or condition. A horse that can win the non winners of 25k last 6 at Yonkers will be competitive in their 75k claimer etc. Further, claimers are great because if you need to get rid of a horse, you just keep dropping it until someone takes it. In NA before every race the gear lady or man comes around and measures your hobbles and records all the equipment the horse is racing on. While I'm not sure if I agree with this (I think a good trainer should be able to rig a horse up themselves) for NA this is handy because some horses go to new homes each and every single week so it enables owners to claim a horse, know what gear it wears and have a chance of earning money without any fiddling around 7 days later. With so many claiming races I guess it would be unfair not to have the horse's gear recorded for the next trainer.
I like the claimers in NSW because people don't seem to claim there! lol! You can drop a nice horse in pretty cheaply ($10,000 - $12,500 etc) in a race it will be super, super competitive in because people don't seem to claim there. Queensland claimers are quite tough, as our Free For Alls are quite strong, the only option these other horses have is to go in claimers, so you literally (especially on a Saturday if they fill) have a bunch of horses better than the M0-M2s that can't hack it in the FFAs. I also don't quite like putting multiple prices in the one race, I don't think its fair for a number of reasons, namely the cheap horses always get a good run and regardless, the higher priced ones seem more oftern than not to win simply because they are much better. There is quite a difference between the ability of 2k claimers and 5k claimers etc just like there is a big difference between 10k claimers and 15k claimers yet oftern these horses race against each other.
I could just go on and on why I love claimers so much, but I think you'll get the point! I also think they're good for punters, because similar horse race each other each week and it is easier to do form etc.
Hi Flashing Red
It was Nat who provided the excellent summary as i don't know a great deal about the claiming ranks, but after reading Nat's and your posts it explains a few thing's i have often wondered about.
Sorry Nat and no props Ozninja :)