Can Maidens run in Graded Stakes?

Dave Shields · Post by **Dave Shields** » 18 years ago

I know this is a dumb question, mainly because I did enter one of my maidens (although she does have a "place" to her name) into a graded stakes race without problems or error message. But I wanted some feedback from someone who knows more about this than me, and that would be just about all of you! LOL! What I really mean is, is this a stupid thing to do? Do Maidens have to win a Maiden race before they can run in Graded stakes (or Allowance races)?

I am sure the Steward is sick of my endless questions, so I'll give her a break on this one. Plus she went to bed a while ago...

I am as green as the turf course

Laura Ferguson · Post by **Laura Ferguson** » 18 years ago

You can run maidens in graded stakes, but usually, they're at a disadvantage. I wouldn't run a maiden in a graded stakes unless (1) it is in one of the early 2yo stakes (in which case nearly every horse in the race is making its first start), or (2) the stakes is not drawing a lot of entries and I think I can pick up a nice check for finishing third, fourth, etc with a not so great horse that I'm not afraid of ruining.

This game depends a lot on the horse's confidence. Run the horse over his or her head, and he/she can get discouraged. Unlike some other games, you can wreck a horse here by mismanagement.

Eric Nalbone · Post by **Eric Nalbone** » 18 years ago

Laura's right; I'm not sure which of your horses you're testing in graded company, but generally the horses in graded stakes are there because they're the cream of their crop, the best of their age group. Its asking a lot of a horse that has never won a race to run aganst that type of competition.

The horse is better off 99% of the time in a maiden race. Even if they win by 15 lengths and would have been in the money in the graded race, an easy race for some money and a free win never hurts. There's plenty of time coming up for testing graded races, and you're a lot less likely to ruin a horse if you run it through maiden and allowance conditions before jumping to graded stakes.

-Eric

Dave Shields · Post by **Dave Shields** » 18 years ago

Thanks for the advice Laura and Eric. I don't want to have sulky horses so I think I will probably scratch and enter into something more like a maiden race. The specific horse is Break Away, not sure if that makes a difference or not.