As we mentioned, there were four horses we were looking at as possible claims tonight.  Here is a run-down (names with-held!) of what we found:

Horse 1 – SCRATCHED  So that made it easy to eliminate this one!

Horse 2 – Precipitous class drop made us a little wary.  Horse dropped five class levels but still couldn’t win tonight.  Clay was familiar with the owners and cautioned that they don’t drop a horse like that without a reason.  Obvious there was something not right.

Horse 3 – We hemmed and hawed about this one.  We checked it out in the paddock and the horse had a bit of a bump on its shin, indicative of perhaps having some work done (a potential problem) and was a small horse showing some anxiety in the paddock.  Three strikes and you’re out.  He did hit the board but barely.  Had we claimed this horse we would have overpaid and he probably can’t win at this level.

Horse 4 – In doing the research into this horse Clay discovered that he was a bit of a nut case that required special handling.  This kind of horse can be problematic because if you don’t know its secrets you could really have some issues and its not like after a claim you can go to the old trainer and ask!  Horse finished up the track.

So three horses to look at; two of the three didn’t make it to the “eye test” stage and the one that did failed it.  None of them impressed on the track.

We’re not done this weekend, though, and we’re also looking at a potential private sale.  Tomorrow doesn’t look promising but there are some possibilities on Sunday.

Stay tuned.

All reports on Belle are solid.  As mentioned yesterday, she came out of the race really well and started galloping back again the other day and really impressed her exercise rider with how solid she was after coming off a hard fought win.  We’ll give her a week training and then figure out her next spot!