It’s time to turn Harness Racing upside down. Well, maybe just on its side. I want to revamp the condition sheet for every track in North America. While it is a drastic change, my plan is actually quite simple – Claiming Races; lots of them. I know, we already have claiming races at every track, but we don’t have nearly enough of them. What we need is to get rid of many of the money-based conditioned races and replace them with claimers. My reasoning is just as simple as the plan . . . claiming races promote action during races. Why? Every time you send your horse to the track in a claiming race you may lose them. If your horse is in for a fair price, there is a chance they’ll be claimed. If you race the horse above its proper level, they won’t make money. Having almost exclusively claiming races will cause owners and trainers to place their horses were they can win. It will also force drivers to be aggressive because every start could be the last start for their current ownership group. There will be no more hiding a horse in a Non-winners-of-$15,000-in-last-5 race as the connections wait for the horse to lose enough races to fall down to Non-winners of $10,000. If you show up to race, you better race to earn your share of the purse. Think about it, you just won a $20,000 claimer. Do you raise your horse to the $30,000 level where he may not get more than a small check or keep him in for $20,000 and risk being claimed; decisions, decisions. Currently there aren’t many decisions; win for NW5000 and you go into NW8000 (or similar) until you can get back into NW5000. Obviously we can’t get rid of every conditioned race. I’d propose to keep races for younger horses – Non-winners of 1-8 races lifetime – as well as upper conditions like Preferred or Opens. So, at a track like Meadowlands, Yonkers, Pocono, etc., here is what the condition sheet may look like (obviously we could have trot/pace divisions as well as separate races for mares/horses & geldings): $5,000 claiming                 NW1            Preferred $7,500 claiming                 NW2            Open $10,000 claiming              NW3 $15,000 claiming              NW4 $20,000 claiming              NW5 $30,000 claiming              NW6 $50,000 claiming              NW7 $75,000 claiming              NW8 $100,000 claiming $150,000 claiming $200,000 claiming $300,000 claiming $500,000 claiming $1,000,000 claiming   Now I understand that it is hard to fill races and I’m not opposed to combining any of the claiming or conditioned classes above to fill out races. Any combination would result in a handicap where the lower class draws for inside post positions. No more than two classes should be permitted to be combined on the conditioned races and three classes maximum on the claiming races. While I didn’t list it on my hypothetical condition sheet, we could also have 3 and/or 4-year-old Open races for horses that clear the NW1-8 classes. If those don’t fill they could be combined with the Preferred or Open. That is where a returning star or budding talent should compete, not written into a NW10000 where he jumps off the page. If you want an easy race, qualify your horse. I will admit that there are certain special circumstances. What do we do with a horse like Foiled Again? If he was entered for a $500,000 claiming tag, could someone pluck him away from his current ownership just to say they own the richest horse of all-time even though the result would be a huge net loss? I guess that is a risk you would have to take when entering. Choose your claiming price wisely or risk losing your horse. Even better, most of the horses at every track would be in for a price tag. You want to get involved in the sport? Go shopping at your local track. A new owner can now get involved at any level. If you want a top horse, you no longer need to try to buy them privately. Show up at the track with your $500,000 certified check and the horse is yours! There is no doubt that the above system would have a learning curve for all the participants in our sport. Ultimately it should create action in races, induce more turnover of horses and create additional evenly matched fields. I’m on board for that. What do you think? Shoot me an email at dgiwner@drf.com and we’ll print any responses in our newsletter.