NYRA to no longer accept entries from horses who ran <14 days ago

[ScottJ]

Originally Posted by parsixfarms

As for "open" claimers, I think raising the bottom would have a significant effect. A few years ago, when the first rash of inner track fatalities occurred, the bottom claiming level for the winter meet was $7500, and there were many Finger Lakes horses wintering here. NYRA raised the bottom to $12,500 last winter, and few of those horses were here last winter. If NYRA were to raise the bottom to $20,000, will there be some horsemen running their horses over their heads? Sure. But the difference in New York between $20,000 and $10,000 is far greater than the difference between, for example, $5,000 and $8,000 at a track like Tampa.

Looking at this weekend's action, if the bottom level was set at $20,000, Sunday's card would have only presented five races unless some of those in the $10,000 and $16,000 claiming levels (from the remaining 52) agreed to "play up" ... and if that were the case, what would have been the difference? NYRA is not putting $10,000 claimers on the oval and holding back an eight-horse $20-$25,000 claimer.

Remember that the original task force report capped claimers to run for a purse at twice their claiming price. Taking a true $10,000 claimer and putting that horse into a $20,000 claimer to run for a $40,000 purse was a secondary problem that originally existed; perhaps a clause is required at your $20,000 baseline that says "only horses that finished in the top four at $16,000 may enter"?

Putting in a claiming floor as suggested will have a huge impact on Winter Racing in that you might not only lose the three races already sacrificed on Wednesdays through Friday, but you might lose another six to eight races per week in their entirety.