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Originally Posted by NeedForSpeed
As a new member in the first week I've jumped in with both feet. I downloaded and registered RDSS and am using it with all the DB examples. I have read as many posts as I can to get a good handle on things. One thing struck me in particular. FTL mentioned the importance of understanding race conditions when deciding to use or pass a race. I also saw how he was able to use that to understand PP's and how a horse moves through conditions. FTL (or anyone) are there readings you suggest to get educated in this area? Thanks.
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NeedForSpeed,
Thank you for your inquiry. Unfortunately I don’t know any publication(s) on this subject. That is not how I learned it. When I first started back in the mid ‘60’s, an old guy told me the “key” to handicapping was the conditions. Why? Because in those days the conditions were NOT a part of the PP’s as we know them today. When you would be handicapping a race the DRF (or Morning Telegraph back then) did not tell you the condition of the prior races. You just knew it was a maiden race, a claiming race, an Allowance race, etc. The only way to know the conditions of prior races was to keep old DRF’s.. If you wanted to look up a condition, you went to the stack of DRF’s and searched for the date, then the race. There you could find the condition for the race in its’ entirety. Of course you didn’t have to keep the racing form, you could just write the conditions down in a notebook and keep that handy when handicapping. It was a lot easier. Naturally, if you missed a day or days, you didn’t have those conditions in your notebook.
Keep in mind that although there are “basic” conditions, a racing secretary at a given track can “make up” conditions to suit the horses on his grounds in order to fill races.
Although “Maiden Claiming” and “Maiden Special Weight” races don’t have conditions, they can have restrictions. Those restrictions will be for horses bred in the state where the track is located.
In claiming races, the “bottom” conditions are;
Non winners of 2 races lifetime (NW2L)
Non winners of 3 races lifetime (NW3L)
Non winners of 4 races lifetime (NW4L)
These can be at any claiming price level.
After the above, the next group of conditions are generally the following;
Non winners of one, two or three races in the past 6 months. These read as “NWx6M”.Now these get a little tricky for this reason. Let’s say today’s race is a $10,000 claiming race. As part of the condition, races for lower claiming prices can be excluded from consideration. So you might find a horse with a few wins in the last 6 months, but they must have been in races lower than the stipulated claiming price. Where this additional condition is present, the condition will have an “X” at the end of the abbreviated condition and look like this…”NWx6MX”.
The same is true for the next type of condition, which is non winners of one, two or three races in a year. I should have mentioned this above, but the conditions DO NOT state “six months ”or“ a “year”. They use a date that corresponds to six months or a year. At any rate, this one is fairly straight forward.
Then there are those claiming races that do not have a condition. They are called “open” races, which mean any horse can enter as long as the horse’s connections are willing to lose the horse (by way of a claim) for the claiming price stipulated for the race. These are the best of the claiming price races at any level be it $5,000 claimers or $50,000 claimers.
In more recent years “Starter Allowance” races have become popular because they are for claiming horses and the horse’s connections can run their horse in this type of race without fear of the horse being claimed. The conditions associated with these races can be anything, so make sure you read them.
When it comes to Allowance races, they can be based on either number of wins or money earned. For an example, you might find races with a condition that says,” for non winners of A RACE other than maiden or claiming". You may also find a condition that says “for non winners of TWO RACES other than maiden or claiming” or “non winners of THREE RACES other than maiden or claiming”. The conditions will look like this "NW1X, NW2X or NW3X". The "X" stands for "other than". Although the basic race is for horses that have never beat anything except maidens, you can also have a claiming horse with 20 wins in the race. Remember, the condition says "other than maiden or claiming", so multiple wins in claiming races is allowed.
In what is referred to as “money allowance” races, there is a specified amount of money involved. For an example, “non winners of $10,000 other than maiden or claiming”. You might also find “non winners of $10,000 TWICE other than maiden or claiming” or “non winners of $10,000 THREE TIMES other than maiden or claiming”. The amount of money will change based on the track and the horses at that track. These conditions will look like this "NW$X", "NW$2X", "NW$3X". Here again, the "X" represents "other than" as it did in the above condition.
You may also see some conditions that expand on the two conditions noted above. This expansion is at the racing secretary’s discretion.
I’m going to stop here and just say that your responsibility is to learn about these various races and conditions. Ask yourself, “ which condition is more difficult than the other?” And you have to do this as you handicap the race. Why did a horse run bad after running good? Was it the condition? I think you will find that it is easier than you might think.