The second claiming period has come and gone, and the news is a little less exciting this time around.  Shared Belief was a pretty obvious horse to attempt to drop, since he has been declared off the Kentucky Derby trail. I decided that everyone else in my stable was still promising enough to hang onto through the April round of preps.

Since your list of horses you attempt to claim had to be the same length as the list of horses you were willing to drop, this left me able to try to claim only one horse.  I thought of quite a few, both colts and fillies, but kept coming back to one horse: Kid Cruz.  He’s bred for distance, he impressed me on paper before the Private Terms, and blew me away on the track during that race.  His connections were pointing him toward the Wood, and even though there are a lot of other talented horses pointed there as well, I relished the chance to put in my lot with Kid Cruz there, and hope for another dynamite closing run.

Another stable outbid me for Kid Cruz.

So, the roster of my stable remains the same.  The silver lining is that I have the most Monopoly money left in my claiming reserve for the April, May, and June claiming periods, so hopefully I can snipe someone good going into the truly huge races.

Furthermore, Steve Haskin revealed last night (after the league claiming deadline) that Kid Cruz won’t be running in the Wood after all, due to a “minor setback”.  Here’s hoping Haskin is right in that he will be okay, and if it’s truly minor maybe we’ll get to see him run in some other preps pointing toward the Preakness or Belmont.  Leaguewise, I feel like I dodged a bullet not losing some of my reserve claiming a horse who may or may not even run in preps now.  As a horse racing fan, especially as a fan who loves closers and loves distance races?  I wish him a speedy recovery, and hope to see him on the track soon, because he’s one promising colt!