I never understood the ridiculousness of making the bottom level claiming price for turf races so high.
Even still, in a lot of different parts of the country, there are so many times where a cheap horse has a pedigree slanted strongly to turf racing...but the trainer would rather run him for $5,000 to $10,000 tags where he's barely even competitive, than try him on turf for $16,000 to $25,000 tags at the bottom.
Like you said:
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For example, it is not that long ago that the bottom claiming price on turf was $35,000; it was dropped to $25,000 (with essentially the same horses),
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There is also less incentive to claim a turf horse in the East and Mid-West, because you don't have year-round turf racing ... and, in those eight months out of a year when you do have turf racing, you get rained off the turf sometimes.