Is
a Claimer Always a Claimer?
Look at the past performances of these two horses - both of
which were Kentucky Derby participants. One started out his career in top level
competition and then found his way to his competitive level. The other one took
a while to "figure out his job" and started his career in a claiming
race before going on to greatness.
Part of this exercise is
learning to read past performances. Here is a key for the abbreviations used.
This is the first line for
12Ag01 - date of race,
BMF8 - the track was the
Bay Meadows (fair), and it was race #8 that day
T1 1/16 - the race was one
and 1/16 miles long, on the turf course
FM - the condition of the
track was firm
1:43.0 - the winning time
of the race
117 - the
weight carried by
10 - his
finishing position in the race
13 ¾ - how many lengths he was behind
Walsh, K.A. - the name of the trainer
Alw 12500s - the "level" of race (allowance),
or the name of the Stake Race
RR, CL, SR - handicapping analysis tools that we'll look
at later.
