Sim Magic – Claiming Strategies

Sim Magic – Claiming Strategies

A Happy New Year everyone,

As always, with the new year their begins a new countdown to the Bluegrass Derby in the Sim, but while those that have a contender for the big race can count themself lucky, most of us already know we have no shot, or will find out soon.

For those, like me, there are still a few exciting things remaining in the sim, while currently breeding keeps me heavily active, I wanna focus on something else, claiming strategies. This means, what to look for, when claiming a horse.

Obviously the main reason to claim a horse, is to fill one more stable space with a lot of hope,

But what are the recipies to a good claim, or better said, what is a good claim.

The main aspect, first of all is, do you look for immediate BP or do you have time on your side, for those running BP Earning Stables, the main goal will be to find a horse, that can win at the level he is running at, I call this strategy Immediate Success – (One and out).

and mainly already has proven it, this means, it even can be a one and out claimer, for such horses I’d not spent more than 7,500$, for obvious reasons, if it can win at the class it currently runs in, it’s likely you’ll not keep it for long, so it’s likely it’s a one and out claim, which in the end, can mean a 50 BP – Claiming BP earn, so if it cost 5,000$ and 10 BP, and wins back at the same track, first time out, you gained 40 BP with the claim, and gain a new open space to do the same again.

For Example, see my runner this week Don’t be Badd

http://www.simulatedsports.net/hr/runtime/prettyhorse.asp?hossnum=3973

when I made the claim for him, with my current stable, he had a 2^nd and a 3^rd place at the level I claimed him, I put a little up on him and ran him for 7,5K, but I was ready to loose him, luckily I didn’t, but I’ll soon likely.

Another example see my claim Lord Protector:

http://www.derbyfever.com/hr/runtime/prettyhorse.asp?hossnum=111050

Claimed for 2000$, I ran him back at 5000$, got the win, saw him get claimed, and collected the 50 BP minus 4 BP invested. This claim was even trickier, I made 3000$ with it, plus claimed him back with one of my other stables, so now I can bring him back in a 5000$ race in 3 weeks, and as I see he can win with his speeds at that class collect another 50 BP,

To maximize this, it’s useful to bid for a race back at the same track, which costs usually 25 credits, if you don’t have credits, you can still get 40 BP in the first win, if you can travel at 0 BP cost.

This example even showed another form of claiming, the Protective Claiming,

Protective Claiming means you run your horse in a claimer, but thinking it is running at the right price, you take a shot at him with another stable. This of course only works, when managing multi-stables and having open spaces. I tworks even better, if the other stable has a runner at the same track.

Another example for Protective Claiming:

http://www.simulatedsports.net/hr/runtime/prettyhorse.asp?hossnum=117681

A Bit Beeg now has been a Immediate Success Claim for two of my stables, producing lots of BP.

But back to immediate success claiming, it can get even better see Robynhood, I sneaked him through the first race unclaimed, so could bring him back for a 2^nd race, and get a 2^nd win:

http://www.derbyfever.com/hr/runtime/prettyhorse.asp?hossnum=27367

Of course you can also end up with the race running a duck and getting claimed, which leaves you empty handed, but if you time your claim right, and see that the horse has already won or finished in the Top 3 at the same class and distance it will work. Important, finishing in the Top 3 in the first race I’d rate succesful, as you’ll easily gain Bps that way. If claiming a horse here, and it runs not in the Top 3, think about dropping it into the auction, after 2 or 3 unsuccesful races, as it missed it’s target, and uses stable space without earning BP.

A claiming strategy very near to this is to claim for going up, you spot a horse, that can win at the class it currently runs at, but you think it can even win at a higher class, your goal is obvious, work it up through the classes and earn BP, without it getting claimed, let’s call it:

Working the classes up

This means you’ll claim a horse for let’s say 5000$, and think it is worth much more, so you kind of protect it first time out, by upping it’s class tag:

For example:

http://www.derbyfever.com/hr/runtime/prettyhorse.asp?hossnum=136631

I claimed the horse at 2500$, it had finished in the Top 3 in a 7500 and a 30000$ claimer, so I was pretty sure it was better than the 2500, and wanted to protect it in his first race for my stable, well it didn’t work out that well, he finished only 5^th, but well, now I was safe to bring it back down, and finally led it to success later by switching surfaces, which brings me to:

Another possible claiming strategy is to look for horses, that have been mishandled, or not been tried out at certain distances, for example, if a horse has only run on dirt, or only on turf, or has never been routed, don’t fear anything, if it’s the right price, go ahead and claim it, let’s call this strategy: Looking for the unknown

This can work especially well, when looking for younger horses and then giving it time to develop, this claiming strategy often leads the horse into Starter Allowance races, and is a strategy I like to use very often early on for 3yos, as often people give up on the horse to quick,

For example take Emerald Hindi:

http://www.derbyfever.com/hr/runtime/prettyhorse.asp?hossnum=147633

I claimed her for 20K, and the fact she never ran longer than 8f made me pretty confident she had a lot of possibilities, with only 2 turf races at that time, and the 2K tag from it’s race before she was something well spotted, look what she has returned me, an ALW winner at 12f now 4 years old, and perhaps still developing, but she was already worth much more than those 20K I got her for.

Another example of claiming the unknown, which in the end led into a horse winning multiple STRs, before being claimed for a higher tag, than I got him for:

http://www.simulatedsports.net/hr/runtime/prettyhorse.asp?hossnum=14931

when I claimed him, the horses longest race was 9.5f, I stretched him from there, making him a useful 14f STR horse, obviously he has no ALW class, so his first step to claimers resulted in a claim.

So, what you should do, when going out for claiming a horse next week, is spot those 3yo races, often you’ll find horses not having routed, closing at 8f, or not having been tried on both surfaces, if this combined even with an above average pedigree, go ahead and get yourself a nice new years present.

Speaking about pedigrees, this leads me to another strategy, claiming to breed, I don’t do this very often, but there are some geniuses spotting a Storm Cat or a Seeking the Gold running for 5K, if you own one, never drop her that low, if you spot one in a claimer, go ahead, if it’s a filly, you have a Mare for years to come, because as proven, racing success is not that much related to breeding success, it helps, but there are Retired Mares out there, that breed succesful, with no racing success, of course, claiming a good Hemare can also be valuable,

The important part: Never run it back in a claimer, either keep it in STR or ALW races, or breed it right away.

I can’t really give you a good example, but this one is a little bit of claiming to breed:

http://www.derbyfever.com/hr/runtime/prettyhorse.asp?hossnum=152172

Getting a Kingmambo x Alydar for 2K, you should scream the claim in, this even has a lot of racing talent developing lately, but I’ll make sure I’ll never put it in a claimer again, and breed it, when it can’t get it done on the track anymore.

Another strategy is to go for First time Claimers:

A horse had rather mixed success at ALW level, and now the old owner got frustrated, and drops it to the claimers, often this horses usually dropped to the 10 to 20K level can be rather succesful claimers, sometimes even in the 50K plus categories, so you can get a horse, that has rather longterm success, as those horses at 50K plus are not claimed very often, let me give you an example:

http://www.derbyfever.com/hr/runtime/prettyhorse.asp?hossnum=112555

Mick Schnitzel is a rather good example here, he was dropped to 25K, and well, was worth every cent, he was a proven ALW winner that has gotten a little rusty, but now running in 50K plus claimers has earned tons of BP, if you want to get him, well, do so, he is expensive, and worth a big 100BP to claim him now, not sure if you’ll get the reward, at 25K and 50 BP, my claim paid off.

Another useful strategy, which involves something of all of these is Claim the Favourites,

This is rather the way you look at a claimer, and is a lot like Immediate success, as usually the favourite has shown success at the class he runs in, or is just being dropped from ALWs, but be careful, when looking at longer races, you may not get the best horse, but a horse, that has run fast speeds at shorter distances, but for those with not a lot of time, it may proof succesful.

Another thing I’d always do is make claims behind a claimer you think will be claimed, you don’t understand what i mean? Well let’s make it clearer:

Let’s say in race 6310 you have a 2/1 favourite running in a 5K claimer, I’d say his chances of not gettin claimed are slim, so instead of waiting for the stable space to be open next week, go ahead and claim horses in Races 6311-6316, if you have runners at higher tracks, go ahead and make more Replacement Claims. For a BP earning stable making Replacement claims in the week you loose the horse, instead of waiting one week can make a lot of difference.

Let’s imagine you run your claimers every 3 weeks, so within 15 weeks you’d have a horse running 5 times(week 3,6,9,12 and 15), now, if the horse get’s claimed in week 3, and you wait till week 4, to re-claim a replacement, it will run next time week  7, imagine it claimed now again, so it’s week 11 till you can run again, and then week 15, so instead of 5 races this stable space only got 4 races. Costing you a possible 50 BP within 15 weeks, quite a lot.

Now go ahead and choose your own styleof claiming, I for myself, usually take a mix of all strtegies, depending on the stable I claim for, and the BP I have to use, when opening a new stable, I’d suggest going for the Immediate Success tactic, as these often will win you BP quick and allow you to build up your stable, once you have an established stable, you can go either for First Time Claimers or if you like to experiment, go for the Unknown, which is one of my favourite strategies, but be ready to have no success with this one, as sometimes, the unknown is even worse than the known. In all cases, never forget Replacement Claims, and if you have multiple stables, don’t be shy to make protective claims at the right spots.

And now, as you go out and claim next week, think about what you want……