CLASS HANDICAPPING GLOSSARY

ADDED-MONEY
The portion of the purse in a stakes race paid to the first several finishers by the race track.

ALLOWANCE RACE
A graduated series of non-claiming races, increasingly more testing as to distance and level of competition, in which the horses are granted weight allowances (two pounds off the prescribed weight, or three pounds off, et. al.) according to their recent records; for non-winners once other than maiden or claiming (NW1X) limits eligibility to horses that have won a maiden race and maybe claiming races but have not won even one allowance race.

CLAIMING RACE
The horses are classified according to selling prices at which they have run well in the past or which their owners and trainers judge to be fair value in relation to the horse's abilities; horses can be purchased out of the race for the.

CLASS
The attributes of speed, stamina, and determination, expressed in combination in actual competition.

CLASS OF THE FIELD
An expression indicating a horse has demonstrated a level of ability clearly superior to other horses eligible for this kind of race.

CLASS STANDOUT
A horse which has persistently run faster against better horses than it faces today.

CONDITIONS OF ELIGIBILITY
The conditions, restrictions, and allowances that prescribe and determine which horses can be entered in a particular race.

CONSISTENCY
An aspect of class that refers to the win percentage; among better horses recent consistency means the horse has won two of its past six races; claiming consistency means 20 percent wins.

GRADED STAKES
A hierarchy of the best stakes races from Grade I to Grade 3, as determined by a committee of racing secretaries known as the North American Graded Stakes Committee.

GROUP RACES
The graded stakes of Europe, as determined by the International Select Group Pattern Committee.

STAKES RACE
Races among the most talented horses whose owners pay nomination, entry, and starting fees, all of which is awarded to the owner of the winning horse; a relatively large purse is added to the owners' fees by the race track and this added-money is awarded to the first several finishers according to the state's regulations.

STARTER RACES
Races limited to horses that have starter for a designated claiming price since a specified date, perhaps with other restrictions, such as horses that have starter for a $12,500 claiming race in the past six months and since starting for that price have not won a race exceeding that claiming price.