In horse racing,what is the meaning of a claimed horse?

Question

In horse racing,what is the meaning of a claimed horse?

Answer 1

All of the above answers are correct.

At the "Premiere" meets going on right now ( Del Mar and Saratoga come Wednesday) you can watch the claiming races that run from 50K - 100K range. You will see high dollar horses going for a lot less than originally paid for, these are usually horses from the "Power" barns like Amoss, Asmussen etc.

Trainers will drop the horses in for a tag, in hopes of getting them a win. These are usually horses that have not performed up to expectations. The owner may have forked out hundreds of thousands of dollars in hopes of finding a Derby horse, and when that didn't happen they want to get as much back as possible.

Answer 2

The horse has been entered in a race where he may be claimed by another owner for a specified price. Any registered owner may claim such a horse by meeting the asked price and dropping a notification of claim in the designated starter's box prior to the start of the race. Once the race is over, any and all claims against any of the horses that ran in the race will be announced.

Answer 3

If The Colt, Filly, Mare, Gelding or Stallion is in a claims race is means he or she can be bought at anytime of the race.

Answer 4

This means the horse was bought in a claiming race. A claiming race is a race where any of the horses entered can be claimed for a set fee. The claim is made by placing a form in a box before the race is run. After the race, the horse belongs to that person.

Answer 5

Correct.  A horse is put into a race where one of the conditions is a price for purchase (claim).  The race has a price set for all horses (i.e. $12,000 claiming price for all horses in the race).  There are some races that have a range of prices ($10,000 - $12,000) where there is a weight allowance for each $1,000 less than the max price.

The next question is usually why would an owner do this or why does it exist?  This is done to keep the "playing field" level so that very expensive, quality horses don't come in and run against inferior, lesser horse just to pick up a quick paycheck.  I've seen stakes horses with morning workouts of 6 furlongs faster than some of the cheaper horse races in the afternoon.  This stops that stakes horse having a workout in the afternoon and getting paid for it.  It's a tough game at the lower levels.  We were a one horse stable and lost our filly to a claim.  She was racing at the right level for competition but the claiming rules allowed her to be purchased by someone else and put us out of business for awhile.