STARTER RACES

The trainer's purpose is to enter a horse that has won for a claiming price above the starting price, but still remains eligible. The trainer knows the horse might outclass the others near the starting price and might dominate the races repeatedly. Aware handicappers simply play along.

Repeated victories or at least one victory under the conditions characterize the past performances. That horse is obviously a major contender.

To combat this tendency, racing secretaries alter the conditions of starter races in various ways. Some of the races will be carded under handicap conditions. The racing secretary can assign punishing weights to repetitive winners.

The distance and footing can be altered. One might go on the turf.

None of this does much to deter the wily claiming trainer. As best he can, the trainer merely maneuvers a hard-knocking versatile runner into the series. The results remain predictable.

Another automatic contender in a starter race is any horse that was dropped precipitously to the starting price last out. Even if the horse blew the race on the drop, it warrants close inspection in the starter race. Many racegoers interpret the class drop negatively, as a sign of decline, but the situation instead encompasses a positive trainer maneuver. If the dropdown has beaten better open competition in the past four months or so, it's a contender.

If handicappers approach starter races as a kind of cat-and-mouse game between racing secretaries and trainers, which they are, with clever trainers presiding by obtaining eligibility for solid, versatile, higher-priced claiming horses - which they do - the paths to the major contenders will have been cleared.

All that is left is identifying the best horse in sharp form today.