Horse Racing Types Articles | Horse Betting

By: Richard Bleuze

Horse racing types:

STAKES RACES - These races offer the largest purses. They are races in which the purse consists of nomination, entrance and/or starting fees, plus money added by the track or sponsor. These races generally attract the highest quality horses and are abbreviated by the name of the stakes
Graded races are the premier stakes races. The size of purse, amount of added monies and the historical significance of the race also are determining factors in the grade status. Grade one (G1) is the highest designation.

HANDICAP RACES - These races feature better quality horses in which the Racing Secretary or Track Handicapper assigns weights designed to equalize the winning chances of entrants. The better horses get higher weights to enable a horse with a lesser record to have a chance at winning.

CLAIMING RACES - Claiming races are the most common, constituting approximately 70% of all races run. In these races, horses are entered for a specific price and can be purchased or "claimed" by any licensed owner at the track for that price. This tends to equalize the class or competition in these races. An owner who has a $50,000 horse is not going to put him in a race with a field of $10,000 claimers, for fear that someone would claim his horse at a greatly-reduced value.

ALLOWANCE RACES - An allowance race is a non-claiming race for better quality or more lightly raced horses. These races generally offer higher purses than claiming races. Eligibility requirements and conditions are similar to those of claiming races, and weight allowances are given based on winnings and/or number or type of wins in a given time.

MAIDEN RACES - Maiden (MDN) races are limited to horses who have never won a race.

TRIAL - A trial (TRL) is a race designed primarily to determine the qualifiers for a final based on the fastest qualifying times or order of finish. A trial may be run as a purse race, or it may be run with no purse at all.

SPEED INDEX RACES - Speed index races are limited to horses which have never run faster than the speed index that conditions the race or for horses whose last three speed indexes average less than the speed index that conditions the race. This type of race is rarely utilized at pari-mutuel racetracks.