STAKES
AND HANDICAPS
Lower Grade open stakes, for three year olds and up.
FORM:
Has raced within
six weeks, sharp regular workouts since; latest races among best efforts.
DISTANCE:
If four or older,
has won at exact distance; if three, has won at exact distance or
related distance.
(During the
first four months of the season the above requirements and preferences
below apply also to races for four-year-olds and up.)
HANDICAPPERS
PREFER:
1. A horse that
has won a Grade I or Grade II stakes within the past three months.
2. Horses that recently won an open listed stakes having a purse value
similar to or better than today's.
3. Any three-year-old that won an open stakes powerfully when entered
against its own age group.
IN
THE ABSENCE OF THE ABOVE, PREFER:
4. Recent runners-up
in listed graded or open stakes, especially horses that have won a
classified allowance race easily since.
5. Highly consistent, higher-priced claiming horses provided they
remain in peak form, are perfectly suited to the distance and footing,
and will be favored by the probable early pace.
REGULAR
ELIMINATIONS:
1. Horses four-and-up
that do not compete at least occasionally and satisfactorily in open
stakes and handicaps.
2. Horses five-and-up that have never won a stakes.
3. Three-year-olds that have been unable to win an open stakes when
so entered against their own age group.
4. Horses four-and-up that won a conditioned stakes at age two or
three but since have not finished in-the-money of an open stakes open
to older runners.
5. Three-year-olds that are stakes winners against that age group
but have been unable to finish fourth or better in open stakes open
to older runners.
6. Foreign-raced horses that have not won a Group II or Group III
stakes overseas.
7. Inconsistent allowance horses, unexceptional claiming horses.
EXTRA
ADDED ATTRACTIONS:
1. Won a stakes
race last out.
2. Highest earnings by comfortable margin.
3. Coming up to peak effort today.
4. Third or fourth outing for previous stakes winner following lengthy
layoff, notably if comeback race was a good but losing effort under
classified allowance conditions at wrong distance or on wrong footing.
5. Previous losing race designed as a prep for today's major stakes
objective.
SPECIAL
CONDITIONS:
Purse of less than
$100,OO0 and none of the preferred profiles can be found, prefer:
1. Multiple winners
of classified allowance purses this season.
2. Any horse whose recent consistency (two wins in latest six races)
indicates best form of its career.
ON
TURF, PREFER:
1. Previous stakes
winner on turf.
2. Impressive classified winners on turf.
3. Still-improving three or four-year-olds whose latest race, on turf,
was best yet, by large margin.
An in-the-money
finish in a conditioned stakes does not qualify three-year-olds for
consideration in an open stakes open to older runners.
