The Claiming Crown, a showcase for former claiming horses, returns Nov. 16 to Churchill Downs, featuring eight starter races worth $1.1 million, topped by the $200,000 Claiming Crown Jewel.
Many of the races are overdrawn, including the Jewel. Twelve horses are in the body of the Jewel, the richest Claiming Crown race. Another two entrants are on the also-eligible list.
Counting those in three non-Claiming Crown events, 120 horses and 28 also-eligibles are entered for Saturday’s stacked 11-race program.
The Jewel is for 3-year-olds and upward which have started for a claiming price of $35,000 in 2023-24. Other races are for horses that raced for lower claiming tags and are contested over various distances. Three of the eight races are carded for the turf.
Dry weather is in the long-term forecast, a welcome relief after two consecutive years of wet conditions and sloppy tracks for the Claiming Crown.
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Though the Claiming Crown competitors may have once been claiming horses, some have risen to stakes heights since those days, particularly those in the Jewel. One example is Money Supply , a $35,000 claim by owner Jordan Wycoff and a horse who became a grade 3 winner for trainer Joe Sharp. He won last year’s Jewel.
Six of his eight career wins have come for his current connections, highlighted by victories in the Mineshaft Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots and Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial Stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis. The 5-year-old son of Practical Joke has proven versatile enough to handle both turf and dirt.
He failed to fire in two starts after the Schuster in a pair of demanding turf races, finishing sixth in the Fourstardave Handicap (G1T) at Saratoga Race Course and ninth in a $481,200 handicap at Kentucky Downs. He lost those two races by a combined margin of 30 3/4 lengths.
Tyler Gaffalione will be aboard in the Claiming Crown Jewel from post 3.
Money Supply carries a co-high weight of 126 pounds, spotting some of his rivals as much as six pounds. Also carrying top weight are the Greg Compton-trained Auto Glide and David Jacobson-trained Laughing Boy , who both return from layoffs.
Auto Glide, owned by his trainer with Mark Dean and Mike Cohea, won the July 7 Battery Park Stakes at Delaware Park before a third-place finish in his most recent start in the July 28 Deputed Testamony Stakes at Laurel Park.
The Jacobson and Lawrence Roman-owned Laughing Boy has been out of action longer. He won the March 30 Excelsior Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack before going to the sidelines after running eighth in the April 20 Ben Ali Stakes (G3) at Keeneland.
Hurry Hurry , Bourbon Day , and Surface to Air are other contenders that bring sharp recent form into the Jewel.
A partnership between the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, the Claiming Crown, inaugurated in 1999, will have its 26th running Nov. 16 and its second renewal at Churchill Downs. Held primarily at Canterbury Park and later Gulfstream Park for its first 23 years, it was first run at Churchill in 2022. Last year, the Churchill Downs Inc.-owned Fair Grounds hosted the Claiming Crown for the second time.
