Wide range of competitors line up for Claiming Crown
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The Claiming Crown cuts through a broad swath of the actively racing Thoroughbred population in North America. You can find a horse like Two Hearted, trained by Gene Sandrowski and third last out in a $5,000 starter race at Fairmount Park. And you can find a horse like Unit Economics, trained by Eclipse Award winner Chad Brown for the mighty Klaravich Stable.
Nine Claiming Crown races complete a 12-race Churchill Downs card on Saturday, and it will take you a good long while to go through them. Those nine races drew 112 entrants, an average of more than 11 per race, and many came up wildly competitive.
At 6-5, Unit Economics is the co-shortest-priced morning-line favorite in the Claiming Crown contests, which are starter allowance races on steroids. Unit Economics runs in the Emerald, which offers a $175,000 purse and is open to horses who have run for a $25,000 claiming tag sometime during 2025 and 2026.
The Emerald, run over 1 1/16 miles on grass, drew 16 entrants, four more than can start, and Unit Economics, unsurprisingly, is Brown’s lone runner on the card. Brown, after all, does not run a claiming barn, and in fact has sent out only two horses in open claiming races during 2026.
Unit Economics was one of them. A budding graded stakes horse early in 2025, Unit Economics didn’t start between the Fair Grounds Stakes in February of 2025 and a Saratoga allowance race this past June. After the tepid comeback sixth, Brown dropped the horse into a $25,000 claimer, which Unit Economics won while becoming eligible for this race. Brown ran him back in a $55,000 starter at Belmont on Oct. 16, and Unit Economics won that race, too, but he faces a much larger and considerably stronger field Saturday.
Joe Sharp trains two live entrants. Westside Tide and Funny Uncle finished one-two in a Colonial Downs handicap in August, and both merit a look in the Emerald. Westside Tide ran back from the Colonial win at Kentucky Downs, didn’t love that quirky course, and since has been aimed toward Saturday’s contest, Sharp said. Funny Uncle had a tougher trip than Westside Tide at Colonial and makes his first start in blinkers.
The Emerald is the second-richest starter race on the card behind the $200,000 Jewel, carded for 1 1/8 miles on dirt and open to horses who ran for a $35,000 claiming tag sometime in the last two calendar years. This year’s renewal drew only nine entrants, did not come up especially strong, and like the Emerald could have a New York shipper as the favorite.
Trainer Linda Rice sends Papa Yo from her Belmont base, and Papa Yo has run the three best races of his 25-start career since Rice took over his training earlier this year. Papa Yo dominated a 1 1/8-mile starter race at Saratoga in his first start for Rice, was third with a demanding inside trip in a salty nine-furlong Saratoga first-level allowance in September, and last out cleared his first allowance condition at Belmont. Papa Yo got up very late to win by a half-length, but that one-turn 1 1/16-mile contest doesn’t suit him as well as two turns and 1 1/8 miles.
Expect the Best, who has been in great form since the Ron Moquett barn claimed him for $30,000 about a year ago, is listed as the 3-1 morning-line favorite, but sneaky 10-1 shot Urban Planner beat him at Churchill in June.
Ready’s Rocket
The $100,000 Ready’s Rocket is only an $8,000 starter race, but it attracted the winning-most horse in North America so far this year. And Kerness K not only has won 11 times during 2026, he has won 11 in a row.
His streak began in March, when trainer Brittany Russell dropped Kerness K into a $7,500 “beaten” claimer at Laurel Park. Trainer Jamie Ness snapped him up, and Kerness K has neither lost nor seen a claiming tag since. His winning streak runs through four racetracks and three distances, and perhaps the only thing more surprising than a Kerness K defeat Saturday would be him going to post as high as his 3-1 morning-line odds.
◗ Three 2025 Claiming Crown winners return Saturday, but Shape Note stands a better chance in the Canterbury Tom Metzen Memorial than Concrete Glory in the Ready’s Rocket and Nation in the Rapid Transit.
Shape Note, trained by Mike Maker, has gone 4-2-1-1 since rallying from seventh to win the Rapid Transit last year in his lone start over the Churchill grass course. He since has cleared his second allowance condition, and while Shape Note has led in recent starts, his Rapid Transit win shows he’s capable of coming from off the pace – of which there is a decided surplus in this year’s Rapid Transit.
◗ Nerazurri has earned almost $600,000 this season alone, the most accomplished horse in this year’s Claiming Crown, but Nerazurri is a dirt horse in a turf race. Her Mark Casse-trained stablemate Smiling Ellie is very much a grass horse, and at a longer price could be the right one for the $150,000 Tiara.
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