After Churchill Downs Rule Change, Horse Racing Community Witnessed Maggi Moss’s Takes On New Challenges

Claiming races are the most popular races in the country. These races are of benefit to all the parties involved -horse owners, horses, and the horse racing industry. In these horses run for sale, the owner declares a claiming price on the horse before the race. The owners get the opportunity to sell and buy champions, and the industry ensures the supply of new horses, keeping the racing game competitive.

The claiming was considered a vital and basic part of horse racing. But with the passage of time, it has evolved and has become more regulated. Veterinary pre-race checks and medication restrictions led to better welfare of horses and made the race more competitive for owners. However, there have been talks on significant changes in the rulebook, on which Maggie Moss, the claiming race veteran, shared her views.

Horse Racing witness Moss’s views on ‘Claiming Jail’

Maggie Moss has been in the game for decades and her prime focus was claiming races. According to Paulickreport, speaking to Ray Paulick, she said that for her claiming race was one-time, resourceful, and profitable. She was not interested in breeding and therefore focused on the claiming race. In light of Churchill Downs’s recent decision to impose house rules to cover the absence of claiming jail regulations, Moss was asked on the issue with similar demands arising in Kentucky where she runs most of her horses. Claiming jail is the term given to restrictions that were imposed on outside-state trainers and owners on sending claiming horses outside the state to other tracks.

Moss said the purpose of the rule is to protect the horse population of the state. However, the shrinking foal crop and shortage of horses may affect the racing tracks of the state. She gave statistical figures mentioning in 2022 719 horses were claimed in Kentucky out of which 412 left the state. Moss also shared the need for an alternative to claiming to protect small barns and horse owners and also for welfare issues. She has been in the claiming race for a long time and wants to see a change in it.

About Maggie Moss’s Horse Racing Career

Maggie Moss entered the horse racing industry in 2000 when she became the owner of a horse. The former attorney has won more than a dozen graded stakes races but her prime focus was the claiming races. In her racing career, she reached several milestones. In the year 2006, she became the first woman after 1945 to lead all owners with the most wins in North America with 211 wins. She has also been among the top ten by wins among the owners eighteen times. In her overall career, she had 9154 starts of which she won 2,433 and earned more than $50 million in earnings to date.

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Maggie Moss advocates for the claiming jail rule in the state to protect the horse population of the state and keep the racing industry working in it. For the welfare of the horse and horse owners, she also shares the need for change in claiming race structure and purpose.

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