How does the #1 horse qualify to race in this field?

[For The Lead]

Originally Posted by Bill Lyster

Bud:

I did not have a problem with the fact that Rhythm Queen was entered TODAY for $50,000, I just read the conditions as restricting who could race based on what happened BEFORE today.

If this horse had won a $40,000 claimer after its maiden win or several races at claiming prices less than $30,000 I could understand how it qualified for this race.

The horse had run 4 races in its career before this race. RQ's 1st two races were MSW races, then NW1X, then OC where it could be claimed for $75,000. So in my interpretation this horse has not started in a race with a claiming tag of $50,000 or less (again unless you count today's race). The "AND" part of the condition seems to have been violated as well, since the horse won the NW1X race where the stated purse was $30,000. I looked up that chart and the purse value for non Florida breds was really $25,000.

The parenthetical comment after the claiming price says "Races entered for $30,000 or less not considered". I read that as being entered for a claiming price of $30,000, not purse value. Is that correct? If they mean purse value it puts an entirely different meaning to the words I have been interpreting for a long time.

Bill

Bill,

Perhaps the problem is my lack of communicating the explanation of these conditions in a manner that is more easily understood, so I am going to try again.


What is an "Optional Claiming" race?
Obviously the race has some kind of "option" or "choice", otherwise why would it get that name?
So what are the "options" or "choices"?
Here they are....

1- a horse can enter the race under the traditional Allowance conditions, i.e., non-winners of a race OTHER THAN maiden, claiming (or any other type of race the racing secretary deems appropriate). For horses that enter the race under "THIS OPTION", it matters what they have done in the past.

OR, that's OR

2 - you can enter your horse for a claiming price that is stipulated in the conditions. In this race, that claiming price was $50,000. In the #1 horse's previous race the claiming price was $75,000.

IF you enter the horse for a claiming price then you are entering the horse like the race is a typical "open" claiming race for the stipulated price. It does NOT matter what the horse has done previously, just like any other claiming race that is "open", "open" meaning without any "restriction" such as NW2L or NW16M or etc. As the owner of the horse, your only possible concern would be, that someone might claim your horse for $50,000 and you lose it. THAT is the chance the owner takes by entering the horse for a claiming price. Other horses in the same race that HAVE NOT been entered for a claiming price (choosing the other "option") DO NOT run the risk of being claimed and that's the reason their owners chose NOT to enter for a claiming price.

So, an "Optional Claiming" race has two separate components.
1 - run your horse under the allowance conditions, OR
2 - run your horse as though the race was a typical "open" claiming race.

Is this any clearer???

[Ted Craven]

It’s too bad that the conditions can’t be written in a standard ‘logical’ expression notation which makes explicitly clear the meaning, as it would be in programming code or any high school math class (although in former days, and likely even today more often than not, many trainers and handicappers can’t even do basic math let alone logic).

As originally stated, the conditions read as follows, with no order of precedence between ‘logical clauses’ (which are shown in parenthesis):

(Fillies 3YO) AND (started for Claiming <= $50K) AND (NOT won 1 race other than Maiden or Claiming) OR (Claiming price today of $50K)

As several people have pointed out, that notation is ambiguous! The following notation, as FTL helpfully explained, is unambiguous:

(Fillies 3YO) AND ( EITHER (started for Claiming <= $50K AND NOT won 1 race other than Maiden or Claiming) OR (Claiming price of $50K) )

If you work out the logic values (i.e. TRUE or FALSE) within the parenthesis first, it becomes clearer.



Ted

[Bill Lyster]

Many thanks for taking the time to splain this do me. I think I finally understand it.

So the net result of this was that it really looks like the race was written for this horse. In my handicapping the only other horse that came close to the accomplishments of RQ was the 9 and they finished 1-2.

Again, many thanks,

Bill

[Dorianmode]

Congrats on the win. I never bet on 3 year olds in January.
They can easily be two year olds, unless you look up their actual birthday.
Maybe I should rethink that. Hmm ?