Page 22 - The Game February 2006

22 The Game, February 2006 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
The Claim Game
EMMA-JAYNE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21
By Peter Gross
There were about 1500 races at Woodbine in 2005. According to Racing Secretary Steve Lym, some 800 of those races were of the claiming variety. The word “claim‚” to some, suggests cheap or inferior horses, but most trainers feel that without claiming races, the sport would grow stagnant.
Scott Fairlie, 41 has been conditioning horses for 20 years, and dipping into the claiming races is part of his yearly strategy.
“It’s very important because it puts a value on your horse,” says Fairlie, “In this game if you hang on to the same horses and then nobody moves stock, then the game is going to die.”
The typical bettor gambles by placing $10 or $20 on a horse. For an owner or trainer, putting in
a claim is a much greater risk.
When it works out, it’s both
gratifying and profitable.
“You have to wait 30 days before you drop him back in for his original price.”
Abraham (Eddie) Katryan has been training for 7 years and finds the whole concept of claiming a horse quite exciting.
“When you claim a horse you acquire a new animal,” he says, “Something you can try to do better with. You want to do your best to improve that horse. A horse can benefit from going to a new trainer. There’s a different style of training, a different method of doing things.”
One of Katryan’s first claims was a very pleasant experience. “I claimed a horse called Uncle Woger for $32,000 about five
“My best claim was a horse called Mr. Epperson,” recalls Fairlie “I claimed him for $50,000 in 1999 and he won over $800,000. He won the Nearctic, then the Play the King, then the Highlander. He won the Sovereign Award in 2001 as Champion Sprinter. I owned him with my father Robert Fairlie and Ron Marlow and Brian Brolley.”
Things also went well last year for Fairlie when he picked Tracey’s Tonka Toy out of a race.
“That was a claim for $12,500 and he ended up winning a couple of $20,000 races, then just got beat half a length in a starter allowance on the last day.”
Fairlie has also experienced the other side of the equation - when a claimed horse stops bringing home the cheques.
“Out at Home I claimed for $16,000 and I ran her for $20,000 and she won,” he says “Then she hurt herself . She whacked her sesamoid and suffered infection to the bone. She may not race again.”
Trainer Scott Fairlie and Mr. Epperson - 2003 photo
years ago and it won my first
stakes race - the Kennedy Road - in those days the purse was $75- $80,000,” says Katryan cheerfully. “The following year, the horse broke the record for 5 1/ 2 furlongs: 102 and change.”
Uncle Woger won about $300,000 while in Katryan’s care. Vice N’ Friendly was another Katryan claim that worked out very well.
“I claimed Vice N’ Friendly for $32,000,” says Katryan, “And he ended up winning about three stakes and a lot of allowances and he won over $300,000.”
At the end of the day, winning races is the fundamental point and Katryan says claiming is a way to wear a path to the winner’s circle.
“If you want a higher number of wins, it only makes sense to turn over the stock, he says, “If you have the same stock and you run out of conditions and if your horses are not of stakes calibre, you won’t chalk the numbers up.”
Claim races can very often be the most enticing ones on the card to the bettor. They tend to have the biggest fields and by virtue of the fact that all the horses are pretty close in value, the guy clutching his twenty-dollar bill feels he has lots of options. Lym points out though, that many owners and trainers may not
The plan is to make Out at
Home a broodmare, and Fairlie
recognizes that means more than two years in which the horse eats free hay.
want to drop their animals from condition or allowance races into a heat that might cost them their horse.
“That’s why we’ve brought in Allowance ‘B’ races,” says Lym, “Allowance ‘B’ is a race that you cannot claim a horse out of but the purse is equivalent a $32,000 claim race. So this protects the individual with a pretty good animal who is reluctant to risk losing the horse.”
The one guy who pulled off the best claims in 2005 is Sid Attard. The knowledgeable Attard grabbed Seattlespectacular in August for $40,000 and that horse went on to win the Chief Bearheart Stakes and the Valedictory on closing day. Those two races alone swelled Seattlespectacular’s bankroll by almost $150,000. Attard also claimed Miss Concerto for $50,000 on July 31. Just over four months later, Miss Concerto stunned the bettors on December 4, winning the Bessarabian at odds of 30-1 in the excellent time of 1:25. Ka-ching, ka-ching was the sound of $103,000 that Miss Concerto won for the Tucci Stables that day and owner Lou Tucci had high praise for his trainer.
“Time and time again, we claim horses with Sid,” Tucci enthused, “And what does he do? He improves them. Nobody does it better.”
Or so the man claims.
“It’s like paying rent on a condo at the Harbour Castle,” jokes Fairlie, “And having nobody live there.”
To the racing novice, the concept of a claim race is hard to explain. Just imagine, for example, going to a Maple Leafs hockey game and finding out that the Ottawa Senators had the right to take any player on the Leafs’ roster simply by submitting a form and a cheque.
Of course, at the track, there are strict rules under which horses can change hands.
“If you’re an owner, you have to have already run a horse in your name at that meet,” says Secretary Lym, “For example, to claim a horse in the second race on opening day, you have to run a horse in the first. If you claim a horse, you can’t take those papers away for 90 days - you have to run that horse at Woodbine.”
To discourage trainers from playing too many games, there’s a built in incentive to race the newly bought horse in a stronger field. It’s called being in jail.
“In jail means if you claim a horse you have to run him back for 25% more of the claiming price in 30 days,” explains Lym,
Trainer Abraham Katryan at Woodbine - 2003 photo
......he would have soared to the top of the voters’ list for male athlete of the year. In defense of the voting, all of the women who attracted more votes than Wilson competed successfully on an International stage. For example, Mary Ann Lapointe, who finished tenth with just one first place vote, won the U. S. Mid- Amateur Golf Championship and is the first person outside the U.S. to pull off such an upset. As well, six of the top ten vote getters (two speed skaters, three skiers and a hockey player) excelled in winter sports so maybe the voters were
thinking of this year’s Winter Olympics. But, actually, Wilson has just been acclaimed on an international basis. Just before this issue of The Game went to press, the Eclipse Award for Best Apprentice Jockey in North America was given to her and it wasn’t exactly a nail- biting outcome. Wilson received 185 votes; all the other candidates combined got only 59. Even the American-based experts could see clearly that Emma-Jayne Wilson had an incredible season on the backs of thoroughbred horses. Have to think that if the Eclipse Awards had been announced before the Bobby Rosenfeld Award, some of the voters in the latter cat- egory might have reconsidered their checkmarks. American voters considered her the best on the continent. Not one Canadian voter gave her a first place
thought.
Historically, voters across Canada have
recognized horse racing. Sandy Hawley won the Lou Marsh award as best male athlete in 1973 and 1976. In ‘73 he became the first jockey to win more than 500 races and many of those were at American tracks. It is worth noting, however, that he won the award even though he raced exclusively against his own gender.
So here’s our Emma-Jayne project for 2006. Assuming this brilliant woman has another cracker jack year, we must write, e-mail, call and otherwise harass our local sports editors and remind them that there’s this awesome woman, riding fearlessly, giving thousands of sports fans endless thrills and beating the men on a daily basis.
Let’s not let this injustice repeat itself next year.
Did You Know...
That the “First Lady of Racing” Penny Chenery, owner of 1973 Triple Crown Winner, Secretariat, was honoured with the Eclipse Award of Merit for a lifetime of outstanding achievement in Thoroughbred racing at the awards ceremony held Jan 23, 2006.
She was quoted as saying, “The greatest sight in racing is seeing your horse with your silks on coming down the stretch in the lead. The second greatest thing is seeing a foal born. That’s God’s gift to us.”
The Game’s Health & Nutrition Special Section Publishing March 2006 - Deadline February 22 For advertising Info call 905-338-0544