[For The Lead]

Bill has it.

Look, read the basic type of race. I'm not going to list all of them, but here are a few standard types:

Graded
Stakes
Allowance
Claiming
Maiden Special weight
Maiden Claiming

Maiden Special Weight and Maiden Claiming don't have conditions, they have restrictions, such as restricted to "STATE BREDS".

When you get to claiming races you start finding a bunch of different conditions. Some are standard, like NW2L, NW3L, NW4L, NW16M, NW26M, NW1Y, NW2Y and so on. Others are actually "made up". An example would be "for horses that have not been in the money at the current meet". Some don't even apply to the horses, like "for trainers that have not won a race at the current meet". You'll find these types of conditions at tracks like Turf Paradise , Finger Lakes and other very low level tracks.

When you get to Allowance races you can find a NW2L condition. Mostly at cheaper tracks. Once you get away from those low level tracks the most common condition for horses entering the Allowance ranks is "non-winners of a race other than maiden, claiming, or state bred". Another entry level condition is "non winners of $ (a stated amount of money) one time other than maiden, claiming or state bred. These conditions escalate from non winners of "a" race to non winners of "2" races and so on. A successful horse will eventually run out of conditions, at which point they enter the "Stakes and Graded" class levels.

Ok, so now to answer your specific question. Start by reading the race type. "Allowance Optional Claiming". That in itself tells you something about the condition of the race. What it means is, the race will be run under allowance conditions, such as the ones I mentioned above. Once you reach the end of the allowance condition of the race your will see "OR" which means there is another "option" to be eligible to enter the race. That "option" is that you may enter you horse as long as it is eligible to be claimed for whatever the specific claiming price is. The race is basically an allowance race, but in hopes of "filling" the race so it will go, the option to be claimed is added. This is similar to a claiming race with a NW26M condition that also allows NW3L to enter so the race will fill.

Hope this helps.