“Wait for the shake.”
One of the things you learn as you go from “it would be fun to own claiming horses” to “what do you mean we didn’t get that horse?” is that claiming is really unlike any other part of a sport one experiences.
You see, any licensed owner can place a claim slip in the claim box before a claiming race at any racetrack. Once the race starts, if there’s at least one owner who agreed to purchase that horse at the predetermined claiming price for that race, they are walking away a few minutes later with that horse. With a red tag around their neck, indicating they have been claimed out of the race they just ran.
The owner who entered the horse in that race wins any purse money from that race. And they’ll get paid quickly for the sale of that horse. But just because you put in a claim, doesn’t mean you’ll get the horse. Even if you are the only one vying for the horse, you might not take them back to your barn.
After each race, a claimed horse is checked by the track veterinarian to make sure that the new owner is getting a healthy claiming horse. Such “voided” claims do not happen often. What is more likely these days, as claiming horses becomes more popular and thus more competitive, is the contest known as “the shake.”
I’ll conclude this post with a quick recap of our shake experience so far with Claim To Fame Racing Club. Sam and Victor, my partners, have done this for years. But for those of us with just a few years under our belts, or our club members who own claimers for the first time, this is a real eye-opener.
Speaking of that, while it is rude, crude and now part of ancient movie comedy history, I’ll share it anyway. This scene from Mel Brooks’ iconic 1981 History Of The World, Part 1 is one I just cannot get out of my brain each time Sam and Victor tell me “we are dropping a claim on horse XYZ in race X at Y track on this date.”
When you win a 13-way shake as we did for Swaggish at Tampa Bay Downs in the early going, as I described in an earlier post, the temptation is to think “we’re gonna win a lot more of these, and soon!” But as one club member keeps reminding us, for every one of those we win, we might lose 12 straight.
And that’s about how it went for us. A dry spell. Not unexpected, but when you find a horse and get yourself pumped up, with a forward-looking plan already being devised if you win the claim, finding out there is a shake is a minor source of pins and needles. Then when you lose them, over and over, and come to realize it is all part of the game, you can finally relax.
That took some of us about 3 months! But now, “waiting for the shake” is much more matter of fact. Over the weeks that followed the April longshot claim win for Swaggish, Sam (our head trainer) and Victor (our operating partner and CPA) scoured upcoming race schedules, analyzed past performances, and identified several runners that fit our budget and athletic criteria. We submitted claim slips on targeted horses, only to get knocked out in draw after draw.
That is the raw, unvarnished reality of building a stable through claiming races. You can do all the research in the world, spot a horse with massive potential, crunch the numbers, and walk away empty-handed because a numbered pill rolled the wrong way in a bottle. It takes patience, emotional discipline, and a willingness to keep showing up.
What if I don’t want to wait for the shake?!
Hey, claiming is how we’re starting Claim To Fame Racing Club. But there are many other ways to acquire a racehorse. Auctions, private sales, and even breeding your own. We’ll discuss all of that here in the coming weeks and months.
In fact, other than Swaggish, we have currently purchased 3 other horses. One was acquired through a claiming race with no shake. No one else had any interest in him. That’s another upcoming post topic.
Yet another was acquired through a private sale. Again, I’ll reserve that story for its own post. It deserves one.
And, earlier this month, after losing shake after shake at racing offices in multiple states, we finally had those racing lords bestow upon us…a win in a 5-way shake! Some would say we got lucky. In our minds, after months of adventure in the claiming game, WE WERE DUE!