Winners of NY Bred Maiden Claiming Races Need More Options

There are effectively three types of Maiden races for New York bred horses. Maiden claiming $25k or $40k and Maiden Special Weight.  And, there is no Maiden $25k on the grass, only the dirt, so $40k is the bottom level of MCL races on the turf restricted to NY Breds.  If your horse is good enough to win a New York State Maiden Special Weight race then you’re hoping that you’re good enough to go on and win an allowance race. But if you can’t win a maiden special weight and you can only win a maiden claiming … what’s next?  Presently, here are you choices in New York:

1. Allowance race (N1X) restricted to NY Bred horses.
2. Unrestricted Claiming race versus NY Bred horses.
3. Restricted Claiming race (NW2L) versus open company horses.

Allowance race (N1X) restricted to NY Bred horses.

If you can’t win at the maiden special weight class and can only win a maiden claiming race, then what are the chances against allowance company?  I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but it is the exception rather than the rule.

Unrestricted Claiming race versus NY Bred horses.

It’s extremely hard to go into an unrestricted Claiming races vs. NY Breds with a maiden winner because you’re running against older hard-knocking horses that might have won five or twenty five races and have the edge of several years of experience over a younger horse coming off a maiden win.

Restricted Claiming race (NW2L) versus open company horses.

Let’s take a turf horse that can’t win the MSW, but can win the $40k maiden claiming race, the next race this horse can be competitive in most likely is the open company Claiming NW2L for $12.5k or $16k on the dirt.  I think that’s a terrible devaluation of the New York breds.

The only other option left is to send the horse to Finger Lakes or out of the state. For example I have two New York bred grass horses (Unspoken and With Expression) who broke their maiden in New York MCL $40k races, and now they’re running in Maryland, because they can’t compete in any races in New York. Unspoken won a $40k MCL race in NY by 4 lengths on the grass. We tried her in NY in an allowance race and she finished dead last.  So we sent her to Maryland where she won a Clm $15k NW2L race.  Then she went on to win a NW3L for $15k on the grass in Maryland.  That’s an example of a horse we had to send out of state because there was nothing for her here, except for open company Clm $40k N2L, where she can’t compete.  We need a New York bred restricted claiming race for NW2L to keep horses like this running in New York.

I train for a lot of NY breeders and the lack of options for maiden winners makes it difficult for them.  If you breed a horse and the horse isn’t up to allowance standards, then you’re very restricted to where you can run that horse after their maiden win on the NYRA circuit. I think that’s a massive oversight by the racing jurisdiction in New York.  For such a large breeding program as New York, there should be room to accommodate.  If you own a mare, bred the mare, spent the money on a stallion nomination, raise the foal, and take it to the races … and you’re good enough to win a $40k MCL race … shouldn’t you get a chance to win another race in New York?

I’d love to see a division of races written, one for the grass and one for the dirt, one short and one long, Claiming $25k NW2L restricted to NY Breds.  Every time they write the Maiden Claiming $40k, the races overfill.  If there were better options, the winner of these races would remain on the grounds and fill these new races that I’m suggesting.  Also, horses that were good enough to win NY-MSW races, but can’t get a win in the NY-N1X allowance races could drop into these restricted NY Claiming races too.

You should have an opportunity to win a 2^nd race in New York without having to go to Finger Lakes or go out of state.  Then, if they win twice in NY, but they’re not allowance horses, then I think it’s fair enough to have them face the open company horses in claiming races.  And by then, they may have gained enough experience to be competitive.

I think we’re really missing out on an opportunity here.  And I’m not saying that because they’re going to be great races … but, every day I pick up the overnight and there are six horse fields in it, especially during the winter when we’re looking at short fields and small cards at Aqueduct.  I think if they had this race I’m proposing in the middle of the NY Bred division, it would fill and be a competitive race every time they ran it.

It’s all well and good going to the sales and buying a NY Bred for $250,000.  But, you’re not buying this type of horse because it’s a NY Bred, you’re buying it because you think it’s a jolly nice horse. Those aren’t the horses I’m concerned about.  It’s the middle of the road horses that I’m thinking about.

I’m hoping that NYRA will be a little more supportive of the middle of the road horses, not the nice ones, it’s a tremendous program for nice ones … but they can’t all be nice.  And I don’t think we’re showing the support for the breeding program by effectively saying to these guys, “If you’re NY Bred is only a middle of the road horse, you’re going to get to win one race in NY and then you’re out of here.  I think owners, trainers, and breeders would all relish the chance to have this second race (Claiming $25k NW2L restricted to NY Breds) for these type of horses.

– Tom Morley