class

Question
Regarding the conditions of a race, if a horse wins an Optional Claimer, is the win considered an Allowance or Claiming win?

Answer
It depends on where you're going to use this information. Let's say we're talking about an allowance for non-winners of a race other than maiden, claiming, or starter (NW1M/C), or optional $40,000 claimer. This level, or something like it, is regularly carded at every major racetrack. Whichever horse wins the race, the race will count against him as the winner of that level of allowance class, unless he's won that level already and was entered for the claiming price. So, if the horse had never won at that level and was not entered for the price, he's not eligible anymore unless he runs for the claiming price. If the horse had already won at that level and was entered for the tag, he can keep running for that tag. Does that make sense?

But we're talking about this from the standpoint of the owner and trainer. If you're talking about the standpoint of a handicapper, there are many ways to look at it. If your handicapping approach requires you to place some value on the class, I would look at whether or not the horse was actually entered for the claiming price or not (if you have that info), considering it a claimer for those entered for the tag, and as an allowance for those that were not. If you can't tell and don't have the chart, I would suggest using it as an allowance win.

Personally, I calculate class based on the rating earned by the winner of the race. But I only know one publication that lists that info and I do the ratings for them (so I'm not going to name it). Sometimes, this info can be especially valuable. For example, in the 9th race at Santa Anita yesterday, the par rating for winners at that class was 89 (a maiden claimer for $20,000). But two entrants were exiting a race that had earned a rating of 104. One (the 2) was 26-1 and one (the 13) was 75-1. The 13 won the race and paid $152.80. So I always take a long look at horses exiting the highest-rated race.

I hope this helps.