Venue 11/16 Churchill Downs

[Real Quiet]

Saturday lets go to Churchill for the Claiming Crown races. Races 1 to 11, the whole card to start our new year.

[JolyB]

Love to watch those Claiming Crown races for the hard-knocking "bread and butter" horses that provide the backbone of so many race cards and seldom get any headlines. These races include mostly horses who like to win, otherwise they wouldn't qualify. Unfortunately for me, my record in figuring which of the runners might be the best on this day has been spotty at best, but when one is fortunate enough to pick a winner, you can count on getting rewarded for it.

Should be a fun day.

[JolyB]

In looking through the pp's for some of the runners in the Claiming Crown races, it is intriguing to see how well managed many of the top contenders have been.

While we call these races for claiming horses, many of the entrants have been running in optional claimers, allowance races and even stakes races. For example, Dana's Beauty figures to be the fairly heavy favorite in race 5. If you get her pp's that only have 10 lines of past races, you will not find a claiming race listed. She has won stakes races at Remington, Lone Star and Turfway Park and even ran in the Grade 2 Nassau at Woodbine. Yet she remains eligible for today's race because in September 2023 she was entered in a $25,000 claiming race at Presque Isle, and the condition of race 5 is for "fillies and mares... which have started for a claiming price of $25,000 or less in 2023-24." The condition of the race fits her like a glove.

This story of horses who have not run in claiming races for the last year or so but are still eligible today to compete in a race with a $150,000 purse is repeated numerous times through the pp's.

It would be unfair to call any such runners "ringers", since they all meet the conditions of eligibility of the races. However, it does show that astute trainers can plan far in advance by either entering a quality horse in a claiming race and risk the claim, or by picking up a quality horse at the claiming box and then protecting it by running in the races where it belongs up until the Claiming Crown.

[Real Quiet]

It looks like a good day for wagering. Even with some big favorites that slipped into these races, the 12 horse fields should offer some values if you dig deep enough.

[JolyB]

Wholeheartedly agree with you RQ. While some of the favorites exude class, the depth of quality in each of these races runs very deep. Many of them have a habit of winning their races no matter the level at which they are entered.

Suspect that there will be a number of generous prices to reward those who do the digging.