Types of Races
In addition to races of various distances and races for certain kinds of horses (races for mares only, races for horses that have never won before – called maiden races, or races only for two-year-olds or for three-year-olds), there are four basic kinds of races: claiming races, allowance races, handicap races, and stakes races.
Claiming Races
Most races are claiming races. An owner who puts a horse into a claiming race is, in effect, putting the horse up for sale. Registered persons can claim the horse for a price equal to the purse of the race. The claimers must present cash or a certified check to a race official before the race starts. If two or more persons claim the same horse, a roll of the dice decides who purchases the horse. The ownership of the horse changes when the race begins; however, the old owner retains the purse for the race if the horse is a winner. Claiming races are a mechanism for selling horses that have not met the expectations of their owners. The prices received for the horses are generally below those that are exchanged in horse auctions.
Allowance Races
Allowance races are usually a step above claiming races in quality. The track secretary accepts applications for entry and then balances the qualifying horses by adding or subtracting weights carried by individual horses. For horses that have performed well in the past, winning races and bigger purses, weights are added to the saddles, making the horse have to work harder in the race. Horses that have not won or have won only maiden races or claiming races might be able to take weight loads off. The weights are assigned by a specific formula. There could be as much as a ten-pound difference or more between the horses with the best and worst records.
Handicap Races
As in allowance races, the track secretary assigns extra weights to favored horses in handicap races. The weights, however, are assigned not according to a fixed formula but in accordance with how the secretary feels the horse would perform without extra weights. The secretary is seeking to truly make the contest “a horse race”, that is, a race in which all horses stand relatively the same chances for reaching the finish wire in the lead. In handicap races, the trainers and jockeys know that the racing secretary is seeking to have a balanced race. Therefore, if they gain a very large lead in the race, they tend to adopt a strategy of holding back somewhat so their victory will not appear as large as it otherwise could be. By winning closely instead of running away with the race, they win favor with the secretary, who may not assign as much weight to them in the next race run by the horse.
Stakes Races
The most important races are stakes races. In these races the owners pay a set of fees beginning at the time they apply to enter a horse in the race, then another fee when the track secretary accepts their entry, and a subsequent fee or fees when they appear at the track on the day of the race. All the fees are added into the purse. The leading stakes race in the United States is the Kentucky Derby; other races such as in the Breeder’s Cup series have large fees. The entrant to the Kentucky Derby may incur fees as large as several hundred thousand dollars. The track may also add money into the purse for a stakes race. These races attract the best horses, and they all run carrying the same weights. Most run all out and seek to win by the biggest margins possible. Strong wins in stakes races can be translated into very good prices if the owners wish to sell the horse and also for stud services if the horse is retired.
In all the races mares are given a five-pound discount – that is, they run with a weight load five pounds lighter than all the other horses in stakes races or claiming races, or five pounds less than they would otherwise carry in allowance or handicap races. There are special races just for mares; however, there are no races that are exclusively for stallions.
Racing Participants
Owners
Owners of horses purchase horses and cover all costs for their maintenance and training, as well as track entry fees for stakes races. Although owners may be serious businesspeople who see racing as a way of accumulating wealth, few owners can actually make money in horse racing. Costs for maintaining a racehorse approximate $30,000 a year, whereas the average racehorse achieves winnings that are below $10,000. In the past, racing attracted many moderately successful businesspeople who calculated the excitement of being in the “racing game” and assumed there would be losses but that the losses could be subtracted from their business income for tax advantages. The 1986 tax reforms made such write-offs much more difficult; hence many otherwise willing businesspeople moved out of racing. Racing also attracts the rich, who wish to be in the game without serious qualms about losses they might incur because their horses cannot win races. Some of these owners willingly pay the very high fees to have their horses in the major stakes races, thus giving the best fields of horses several “sure losers”, running against odds of 50–1, 60–1, 70–1, or even greater. But then, maybe one out of seventy times their horses can score a major upset. The winning owners are given 80 percent of the purse of the race if their horses are winners. In most cases, to be a winner – of some of the purse – the horse must finish in one of the first four spots. In major races, part of the purse may go to the fifth-place horse. One of the major jobs of the owner is to select a trainer for the horse.
Trainers
The trainer is in charge of the horse twenty-four hours a day, every day. He or she has been called the “Captain of the Stable”. The trainer is responsible for doing everything that gets the horse ready to come to the track and race, makes decisions regarding the races in which the horse will run, and advises owners when to sell the horse or when to buy horses. Of course, in these decisions – and the decision to put a horse into a claiming race – he or she must have the approval and confidence of the owner. Usually if there is not a good relationship when these major decisions are made, the trainer will refuse to work for the owner. The trainer picks the facilities for training and keeping the horse and also makes another big decision: He or she chooses the jockey for the races. A trainer receives 10 percent of the purses won by the horses he or she has trained, as well as fees from the horse owner for the activities involved.
Placing Judges
Three judges watch the finish line and independently declare which horse finishes first, second, third, and fourth (or fifth if that spot is “in the money”). If they do not have a unanimous agreement, they request a photo of the finish. They also seek photos if the race is close for any of the four positions.
Track Veterinarians
There are veterinarians at each track. The official one must certify that each horse is physically able to compete in the race. He determines that no illegal drugs have been put into the system of the horses if he suspects they might have been.