It was our hope to come out of the long weekend with a horse in each barn, however we did not. There were a few reasons for that. The biggest two reasons were budget and quality.
Until we ran Dos Cuernos, Karl was on the sidelines so he wasn’t able to start looking for a couple of weeks.
Additionally, once we lost the horse, our budget for 2 new horses was about $15,000. This means that any claiming race above $10,000 were out and both trainers couldn’t go after $10,000 horses either. The lower level races that were run over this long weekend did not contain anything appealing to either trainer, though Karl had an eye on one yesterday but decided against it. The horse ran poorly so it was a solid pass.
We want the trainer to be comfortable with the horse he brings into his barn as his reputation is on the line every time that horse runs. They are the experts that we pay for their experience and expertise and we need to rely on that – in spite of how very anxious we all are to get back to racing.
Claiming a horse just to have a horse is even a less ideal circumstance than not having a horse at all: claiming a mistake is very pricey in the form of higher vets costs and less racing opportunity.
However Nevada is looking at deciding between a pair he’s already looking at on Friday and Karl is looking forward to Saturday’s draw on Wednesday to go over the entries.
Hopefully we will exit next weekend with a pair of horses and we will have ample opportunity to run the rest of the season.
Canterbury Racing Club 
Was the lack of a claim over the 4-day racing weekend driven by the lack of quality horses to claim or just because of lack of time and priority from the trainers? I imagine that both of them are very busy and “have bigger fish to fry”. On the surface, it seems like there were some value claims available on Sunday.
Irritator in Race 2 on Sunday, for example.
Irritator, if I remember correctly, was dropping from $20,000 to rock bottom. When a sharp, successful trainer like Diodoro dares you to take a horse, there may very well be a reason (or he’s playing poker; or something else entirely). There was only 1 claim on the horse rather than several which indicates that many others felt the same way about such a steep class dropper. Time will tell.
No. We’re a priority for both. Karl was looking at one and decided against it. The horse ended up running poorly.
On average, how long does it take for a horse to race again, after it has been claimed ?
Depending on how quickly the horse can bounce back: 2-3 weeks.