Non Time Restricted Starter Alw races
 

Presque Isle is starting to run these.

They have one tomorrow for horses who've run for a 12.5K tag.

Hero's Reward has not raced for a tag in five years - and he's won 3 Graded Stakes races - yet here he is allowed to enter a starter.

Lava Man could have entered under these conditions - he ran for a 12.5K tag in his debut.

Pretty nifty I suppose.

I suppose it might be worthwhile for Lava Man if the purse was sufficient.

31K is all the purse is ... but still.

They've got one horse in there who's earned over $1.1 million another who's earned over 900K. Both haven't seen a starter race in ages.

There's a horse-for-course in there who has won 6 races in a row over the track ... his last 3 at odds of 3/1, 7/1, and 8/1 - and I didn't even pick him in my top 3.





Note how that horse is also 0-for-6 away from PID.


Rapid Redux VS Bartletts is a likely summer rivalry for the Non Time Restricted 5K starters if they go with them next year.

Who would win in a flat mile turf race between a perfectly fit, sound and healthy UM vs Frankel?

Pippy says Frankel.

The trainer or the horse?

Frankel (the horse) would kill him.

Uncle Mo would kill him (the dead trainer)

I would guess the challenge will be when horsemen bail because they realize they're up against one or two really salty entrants.

Whenever we talked about starter races here, the racing secretary always would come back with the idea that a really good horse always enters and usually just scares the the rest away.

We tried them anyway, and sure enough, he was right. And this is all with the time restriction - the non-time restriction would probably make it worse.

Yeah ... Rapid Redux would be an example - he's currently won 14 races in a row ...




I think the non-time restricted thing was probably pushed by some trainers who wanted to exploit the NYRA starter conditions.

Hero's Reward just ran 3rd in a Graded Stakes race a few weeks ago - and after he runs here tomorrow - he will have 2+ years of starter conditions in NY even though he hasn't competed for a tag since '06.

Explain please

I thought I read somewhere that if you run in a starter alw race of 15K or less - it qualifies you for the 16K starters in New York just the same as running for a tag would have.

Not sure though - I'm not familar with the exact conditions of these type of races in NY.

If Rapid Redux wins six more in a row, does he become the greatest horse ever, or does that only count if you are undefeated?

Nah, I think you have to run for a claiming price.

A good handicap starter series can be interesting during a long meet. You have to do it right and start out the series sprinting on the dirt and end it with a turf marathon. Looziana Downs had a pretty good one some years back. It was called something like the Sundowner Starter Series.