Claiming Crown: “This is a big deal for us”

The Breeders’ Cup is over for another year. The fireworks of $5 million broodmares and $2.2 million weanlings sold at auction have concluded. Now it’s time for the real world for the vast majority of horsemen.

Saturday’s Claiming Crown at Churchill Downs, with $1.1 million in purses spread over eight events, was created to give American racing’s everyday workhorses — and their owners and trainers — a day in the spotlight.

“It’s reality for most people in horse racing,” said trainer Tom Van Berg, who will try to win his third Claiming Crown race with Dance Some Mo in the $200,000 Claiming Crown Jewel. “Most people don’t deal in the $2.2 million weanlings, the $5.6 million broodmares. It’s not feasible for most people.”

“Only a small percentage of owners and trainers are blessed with having a horse qualify for the Breeders’ Cup or Triple Crown,” echoed National HBPA CEO Eric Hamelback. “But the majority of horsemen have a shot to someday be in the Claiming Crown, providing that big-day experience for their owners. Even trainers with considerable Grade 1 experience strive to participate in the Claiming Crown.”

The Claiming Crown was created in 1999 by the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA). Churchill Downs is the Claiming Crown’s host track for the third time in four years. Registered Kentucky-bred horses will race for an additional $130,000 from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, with the per-race supplement ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.

The eight races are conducted under starter-allowance conditions, with race specifications requiring participants to have competed for a certain claiming price or cheaper within a designated time period.

Saturday’s card provides one of the best betting cards of the fall, or even the year. The fewest entries for a Claiming Crown race were 10 horses. One race drew a capacity 14, with the stewards giving permission to run three of the races with 14 instead of the usual maximum of 12. Six races drew overflow fields, whether limited to 12 or 14. Churchill Downs publicist Kevin Kerstein counted 54 different jockeys and 110 trainers in Saturday’s entries.

First post is 1 p.m., with the Claiming Crown on races 4-11. The 11-race program also includes the Grade 3, $300,000 Chilukki Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile, carded as race 3.

TwinSpires is conducting an online, $500 buy-in handicapping contest on the Claiming Crown card, with two seats to the 2026 National Horseplayers Championship and prize money up for grabs in the live-money tournament.

“For claiming people doing what we’re doing, this is a big deal for us,” said Jeff Hiles, trainer and co-owner of Time for Trouble, an $8,000 claim in 2021 who seeks a record third victory in the $100,000 Iron Horse Kent Stirling Memorial. “It gives the small guy who claims a horse for $8,000, and the horse gets good, a chance to have the shine on them for a little bit. A lot of people don’t have the clientele to go out and buy high-end yearlings and get the breeding. But you can pick one out that has been running, claim it and hopefully the change of scenery helps it. A couple good races in them, they might get their confidence built up and they might turn out like him.”

Kelly Breen, based in New Jersey and Florida, won the 2011 Belmont Stakes with 24-1 shot Ruler on Ice. He’s been in the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup. Now he’s looking forward to trying to get his first Claiming Crown win with Cadet Corps in the $200,000 Jewel and Speed Figures in the $150,000 Canterbury Tom Metzen Memorial.

Breen owns both horses with the Kenwood Racing partnership. If the idea is to get owners excited, mission accomplished.

“We’re going to have 20 people coming,” Breen said. “There are people flying in from the East Coast. My people are making an event of it. They’re going to go out to eat there, spend money. It’s a good vibe for horsemen.”

Referencing the durability of owners as well as the horses, he continued: “One of the races is the Iron Horse. This is the Iron Horse for owners. Your meat and potatoes of horse racing are your claiming horses. Here they are having a special day for it.”

The Claiming Crown is populated with good horses at their level, much as college football players in NAIA or Division-III programs are good, if not as gifted as those in D-I.

“This rewards those people who have paid their dues all year,” said trainer Joe Sharp, who has horses in six Claiming Crown races Saturday, including Gilded Craken and Alternate Reality in the $200,000 Jewel. “It costs the same to feed a claimer as it does a stakes horse. Churchill Downs does a great job hosting the venue. It’s really nice to showcase those horses and those owners. They’re the bread and butter, the backbone of racing Wednesday through Friday.”

Besides Kentucky, horses are coming from Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, with others stopping by Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Arkansas, West Virginia and Colorado on their way to Churchill Downs.

Just in the $100,000, six-furlong Ready’s Rocket Express, half the field possesses at least 10 career victories, including Sharp Warning (18) and 2024 winner Concrete Glory (16). In fact, Sharp Warning’s 10 wins out of 15 starts for owner-trainer Kayla Warren in 2025 lead North America.

Michael Friedman’s Ohio-based Sadie the Goat brings a six-race win streak (by a combined 34 lengths) into the $100,000 Glass Slipper for fillies and mares at a mile.

Dewaine Loy’s Happy Strike, a $6,000 yearling, has won seven of 14 careers, earning $168,161 as he takes four straight victories at Iowa’s Prairie Meadows into the $200,000 Jewel.

The late-running Risk Manager, one of the favorites in the $175,000 Emerald at 1 1/16 miles on turf, is an 11-time winner and $582,669-earner. The 7-year-old horse has won at least one race in each of his seven years of competition, mostly spent with Mike Maker, the Claiming Crown’s all-time leading trainer.

Maker’s 22 wins and 129 prior Claiming Crown starters dwarf anyone else, as do his seconds (17), thirds (12) and purse earnings ($2,241,654). He is in three races Saturday.

With seven Claiming Crown mounts — including on last year’s Emerald winner Echo Lane for trainer Crichton Rohan — Luis Saez has a chance to cut into the absent Paco Lopez’s all-time lead with 16 wins. Saez has 13 Claiming Crown victories. Brothers Jose and Irad Ortiz, both now making Kentucky their spring and fall base, are named to ride in all eight Claiming Crown races, putting them in a great position to tack on to two prior wins apiece. Tyler Gaffalione has seven mounts.

Brian Hernandez Jr., the 2024 Kentucky Oaks and Derby-winning jockey, is scheduled to resume riding Wednesday after sustaining fractured ribs, a collapsed lung and a lacerated liver in a Sept. 21 spill. He is named on three Claiming Crown horses: 11-time winner Keen Cat in the Rapid Transit for Randy Morse and Alternate Reality (Jewel) and Mercy Warren (among the favorites for the Glass Slipper) for Sharp.

Claiming Crown 2025 is presented by the National HBPA and Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association in conjunction with Churchill Downs and the Kentucky HBPA.

— story by Jennie Rees

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