The nomination schedule and forms for the 2011 running of the
$500,000 Claiming Crown are now available on the newly redesigned
claimingcrown.com
website, and nominations are now being accepted by Claiming Crown Ltd.
The 13th renewal of the Claiming Crown will be held on December 3 at
Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
The 2011 Claiming Crown will consist of six stakes races with starter
allowance conditions for horses that have started for a claiming price
since January 1, 2010, in a race restricted to Thoroughbreds at a
recognized North American racetrack. Each race is associated with a
specific claiming level, and to be eligible for that event, a horse must
have started at the associated claiming level or lower at least once
since January 1, 2010.
The 2010 Claiming Crown races will be (associated claiming level in
parenthesis):
dirt ($7,500)
($7,500)
going six furlongs on the dirt ($16,000)
the dirt ($16,000)
turf ($25,000)
dirt ($35,000)
Regular ($100) and open ($250) nominations for the 2011 Claiming Crown close
on August 26, while $500 nominations close on October 21. Also on October 21,
nominators must identify the horses they made eligible through any open
nominations. Supplemental nominations (5 percent of the race’s purse) will be
accepted through November 18.
Patterned after the Breeders’ Cup, Claiming Crown was designed to reward
Thoroughbred racing’s “blue-collar” horses and offer races at varying distances
on both dirt and turf. This will mark the first time Fair Grounds has hosted the
event, which debuted at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minnesota, in 1999.
Canterbury has hosted 10 of the first 12 renewals of the event. The Claiming
Crown was held at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, in 2002 and at Ellis
Park in Henderson, Kentucky, in 2007.
For more information about the Claiming Crown please visit
www.claimingcrown.com.