Horse Racing Tips Understanding Maiden Races

Submitted by: Chris Ortiz

Knowing how to pick winners is the key to making money at the races. Contrary to what most people think, you don’t need a crystal ball in order to accurately predict the winner.

Many people dream of becoming professional gamblers and making a living ‘playing the ponies’. While it’s a very difficult profession – no more than 5% of all horse players earn their livelihood at the race track – it is not impossible. You can beat the races. The key, of course, is knowing how to pick winners.

The process of handicapping a horse race is rather time consuming and, depending on the handicapper, can be extremely complex and detail oriented. Horse race handicapping, in its simplest form, is the process of correctly assigning attributes to each individual horse. Some attributes will be positive and some will be negative, and each will carry its own weight when the handicapper finally draws a conclusion. There are a few tell-tale signs of potential winners. Some are obvious while some are not. Likewise, there are tell-tale signs of potential losers. Let’s talk about some of the indicators for maiden horses.

A maiden race is a race where none of the entrants have won a race. There are two class levels: maiden claiming and maiden special weight.

In Maiden Claiming races, all of the entrants are up for sale at the stated claiming price. Would you like to own a race horse? It’s easy: show up at a race track where there are claiming races, connect with a licensed trainer, and drop a claim form in the claim box for the horse you want to purchase before the race starts. After the race starts, you own the horse. However, if the horse happens to win the race or earn any money during that start, the earnings go to the connections that owned the horse before the race started. Once the race ends, you’ll need to either let your trainer keep the horse in one of his stalls at the track (or at a barn off-site), or you can take the horse home with you.

The other type of maiden race is called a Maiden Special Weight. In these races, the horses are not up for sale. Thus, a trainer doesn’t risk losing a horse by entering it into a Maiden Special Weight race. Maiden Claiming races usually have the cheapest and least talented horses whereas Maiden Special Weight races typically have the highest caliber horses.

When handicapping a maiden race – whether it is a claiming race or a maiden special weight – it’s important that you take note of which horses came from the highest class races. For example, if Horse A comes from a $50,000 Maiden Claiming race and Horse B comes from a $50,000 Maiden Special Weight race, Horse B raced in a more competitive race in its last start.

Other than Maiden Special Weight races being superior to Maiden Claiming Races, the purse value and/or the claiming price is also an indicator of the caliber of horses. For example, let’s say there are four horses in an upcoming race:

Horse A previously raced in a $50,000 claiming race.

Horse B previously raced in a $12,000 claiming race.

Horse C previously raced in a $50,000 Maiden Special Weight race.

Horse D previously raced in a $60,000 Maiden Special Weight race.

Which horse came from the most competitive race? Answer: Horse D.

Knowing the class level of a horses previous start is very important to narrowing down the list of potential winners. Most often, horses dropping from higher class races give much better performances than in their previous start.

The next element you must consider when analyzing a maiden race is the current class level. For example, let’s say the above horses are competing in a $60,000 Maiden Special Weight race. By comparing the class level of their previous race, we can acknowledge the following:

Horse A is moving UP in class from a $50,000 claimer to a $50,000 Maiden Special Weight.

Horse B is moving UP in class from a $12,000 claimer to a $50,000 Maiden Special Weight.

Horse C is moving UP in class from a $50,000 Maiden Special Weight to a $60,000 Maiden Special Weight.

Horse D is racing at an EQUAL or SAME class level as its previous race.

With that information in hand, we can assume the trainers for horses A, B, and C think their horse is improving and might be able to win at the higher class level. They are moving their horses up in class.

If the same horses were now racing in a $12,000 maiden claiming race, we could acknowledge that Horses B, C, and D are dropping significantly in class while Horse A is racing at the same class level. Based on the knowledge that three of the horses are dropping significantly in class and two of them (Horse C and D) are ‘up for sale’ for a $12,000 price tag, we have to wonder if there is something potentially wrong with either of the two horses now up for sale. Maybe one of them has a career-ending injury and the trainer is trying to get rid of the horse by having another trainer claim it?

If a maiden horse is dropping significantly in class, you should analyze its previous races at the higher class levels. If the horse never performed decently at the higher class level, then the trainer might simply be dropping the horse to a more appropriate class level. However, if the horse gave solid performances at much higher class levels and is now suddenly entered into a very low level claiming race, you should consider the class drop as a warning sign as there might be something wrong with the horse. In such a situation, it might be best to not wager on the race at all because any horse that takes a significant class drop is going to bet down heavily by the public, which means the payoffs would be terrible even if the horse wins.

While there are many other factors to consider when handicapping a maiden race, understanding class levels is one of the most important aspects to learn.

About the Author: Chris Ortiz, also known as Christian Blake, is a professional handicapper and author of several horse racing books. You can learn more about his insights into the game of horse racing at his site:

woodbine horse racing

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