It can get complicated but it truly is a horse-by-horse case of which end you want to go in and what you want accomplished.

Once scenario is that you might not want to "blow" the non-winner of one allowance condition for the horse. For example if you were running at Turfway Park where the purses are small you might want to try to save the allowance condition for the horse when you run it at a track where the purses are good. The only problem there is that the competition is usually better.

Secondly your horse may have "run out" their allowance condition and in order to get in the race you have to go the optional-claim route and hope your horse is not claimed (if that is the case or vice-versa)

The best advice I ever got though was a few years back when I had the pleasure of having dinner with Ms Cherny and she told me "son, good luck in the business and remember that conditions win races".

Good Luck to you.