TurfPedia - The Horse Racing Encyclopedia

MAIDEN THREE-YEAR-OLDS

Any racehorse that reaches the summer of its four-year-old campaign winless is scarcely an attractive proposition today. Three-year-olds should be strongly preferred in maiden races for 3up, almost without exception.

In winter, when older maiden races are restricted to 4up, invoking similar logic, prefer only four-year-olds.

The logic does not extend to maiden-claiming races. Now age is irrelevant. The horses are not only winless, but also classless. If a five-year-old has run faster than the others, prefer the five-year-old.
Alw, NW1X2XMC three-year-olds

The preliminary nonwinners allowance races are dominated by better nonclaiming three-year-olds en route to the stakes. These young tigers should be expected to maul older horses that have not yet won one or two allowance races, and do.

Toward the end of the year, mid-fall and later, the most talented three-year-olds will have progressed to advanced conditions. Leftover three-year-olds are less talented. Four-year-olds that have defeated older claiming horses at medium to high selling prices on the local schedules might revisit the preliminary nonwinners allowances, and succeed.
Alw, NW3X4XMC better three-year-olds

The advanced nonwinners allowances require an extra dimension of class, ideally the well-connected, lightly raced, nicely bred three-year-old that has done everything asked of it, and might be any kind.

Handicappers' credit the three-year-olds that already have annexed an open stakes, or finished close in any graded stakes. They discount any horse that has been entered for a claim. If the lightly raced, impressively improving three-year olds are absent, prefer four-year-olds of the same description.