Tip of the Week: Crown-ing Achievement

The Claiming Crown is one of those grand opportunities for horses with humble roots to savor the rarified air of stakes competition. It’s a series in which horses that have raced for a claiming price can race for a six-figure purse just like graded stakes winners.
It also presents a great opportunity for savvy handicappers to cash a winning ticket.
Due to those inflated purses, horses that turned in solid efforts in the Claiming Crown often own a class edge over their rivals when they return to the claiming ranks.
El Botas serves as an excellent example of a Claiming Crown runner feasting on weaker competition. He ran on Dec. 5 at Gulfstream Park in the $100,000 Claiming Crown Canterbury Stakes, which was scheduled for five furlongs on turf but was shifted to the main track.
Though El Botas finished sixth, he finished just 2 ¾ lengths behind the winner on a sloppy track. It was his third try on a wet track and he has yet to finish in the top three in any of them.
El Botas surely would have preferred racing on turf over mud, which had to raise some eyebrows when he was entered in a $25,000 claiming race at Gulfstream on Dec. 19 in another dirt race.
Prior to his Claiming Crown race, El Botas had run in 11 straight turf races. It seemed logical that he would return to turf after the Claiming Crown, but instead he was pointed to a dirt race.
Why?
Perhaps it was El Botas’ career record on a dirt track labeled as fast. In six races over that kind of surface, he had four wins as well as a second and a third.
With that kind of record, as long as the sun came out, El Botas seemed an intriguing possibility in that race – especially at a morning-line price of 8-1.
Handicappers clearly picked up on El Botas’ class edge – and his affinity for a dry track – as he was hammered down to a 2-1 favorite on a fast track and then proceeded to cruise to a decisive 5 ½-length victory, paying $6.40 to win.
THE LESSON: Horses that turn in good efforts in tough Claiming Crown races often have a class edge when they return to the claiming ranks.