This is driving me nuts. Played another season after the Claiming Patch. ZERO races now for my two-year-olds that win their debut race, other than Stakes or allowance or conditions races, which they invariably lose since they are unseasoned and going against the best of the crop. Not a single claiming or handicap races is available to them since they have only one race and no rating yet. Selling races always were my way to tune up the green youngsters, and now they are GONE. Can anyone think of a way I can get my babies some experience without dumping them into the wood chipper for a second race? Help!

I'm pretty new to the game but have you tried handicap races for two year olds?

That's the problem. I can't enter handicaps with my "won first race, and haven't had a second race yet" youngsters. They need a "rating" to be allowed into handicaps, which is where I would like to place them. Right now, if they win their first race, I am forced to enter them in a high-grade race (conditions, allowance or stakes) and NOTHING else. So, second race for my promising youngster- he/she gets destroyed by AI competition. Every time. Same with claiming races- you have to have a rating to enter them, and horses with only a single race can't have a rating. Selling races allowed my one-race-one-win horses to get some experience in. Now they are completely gone.

Does anyone know of a way to roll back the patch so I can get selling races back? I would have saved the exe and other files if I knew this change was about to happen...

Claiming races replaced sellers in the US schedule as this reflects reality but it has caused a lack of opportunities for 2yo horses with a single run. This is probably down to the two run rule and the fact that novice races solve this problem in the UK schedule but are not in the US game. As far as I know there is no comparable race category for the US but I'll look into a solution.

The claiming races aren't implemented correctly unless I'm missing something. When I lived in St Louis I used to go to Fairmount Park once in a while and I was acquainted with a couple owners. For claiming races you place a claim on a horse prior to the race and the amount is listed in the race. For example the race would say "$5,000 claiming 7 furlongs".

I see no option to claim a horse prior to the race and I don't see the amount. I haven't tried it but I wonder if you can bid on your own horse if it is claimed after the race and buy it back. That might be a work around for the op. They appear to work like selling races where the winner is the only horse available to claim. I wonder if they operate the same but just a name change from selling to claiming.

That would be great if you could look into it!

I was wondering why there were no claiming races on the US schedule before, but I just adapted and used the selling races, bought back my horses if they won, and got them a little extra seasoning that way.

I have this one filly midway into her three-year-old season with 9 wins in 10 starts- the single loss was in the conditions race she was forced to enter for her second-ever race since she couldn't enter anything else. :/

I just won a claiming race and I was able to bid on my horse. Others were also bidding but the horse did not get to the claiming price. I can't say for sure but it appears it is similar to a selling race but with a reserve on the horse.