The Racing Biz has been tracking claiming activity in the mid-Atlantic region and reporting on it weekly for the last several months, in our Claimbox report. We continue that, along with our Midlantic Claiming 7 — the trainers who have been busiest over the prior 30 days, ending in this case on March 25, 2014.
For the fifth consecutive week, mid-Atlantic claiming activity rose, with both the number and value of claimed horses up a little bit over last week. And that, in turn led to some change in the Midlantic Claiming 7 list of busiest trainers in the last 30 days, with a new leader and two new names on the list.
Dane Kobiskie, second on the list behind Scott Lake in each of the last two weeks, took over the top spot. Both he and Ronney Brown have claimed nine horses, one more than Lake and Wayne Potts, but the value of Kobiskie’s claims, $121,000 (average: $13,444), easily outpaced Brown’s. Both Brown and Potts were busy in the last week, with Brown adding four horses to get to nine claims in the last month and Potts adding three.
Two trainers entered the list after having been off the prior week. John Locke, who made three claims last week, checked in in fifth spot, with seven claims. And Kieron Magee was sixth, with five claims; the total value of his five claims, $103,000, gave him an average of $20,600, tops among on the leaderboard. Locke and Magee replaced Michael Pino and Patricia Farro.
Ronney Brown led all trainers in net gain of horses during the last month. His nine claims stood against just two claimed away, giving him a net gain of seven, one more than Locke and two more than Kobiskie. On the flip side, Louis Linder, Jr. claimed just one horse in the region during the last 30 days, but he lost six, leaving him with the highest net loss, five, of any trainer in the region. Scott Lake led all trainers in having horses claimed from him, with 10; as a result, his eight claims left him with a net loss of two horses.
For the week…
The last time mid-Atlantic claiming was as busy as this past week was just after last Thanksgiving (November 27-December 3).
In the last week, some 70 horses changed hands via the claimbox, a six percent increase from the prior week. The total value of those claims also rose, to $673,250. The average value of those claims dropped by just shy of four percent, to $9,618.
Laurel Park was once again the region’s busiest track, and 27 horses with a combined value of $250,000 — both top in the region — changed hands there. Parx Racing saw the highest average value of claims, with the 18 claims there, for $232,500, averaging $12,916. Meanwhile, 16 horses were claimed at Penn National and nine at Charles Town.
The claimbox report covers claiming activity at Laurel Park, Parx Racing, Penn National, and Charles Town.
