Claiming races" function just like the maiden claiming races, but at the higher level of competition. In a claiming race, the horse may be purchased out of the race by another person for the price stated in the race conditions. (Obviously, an owner will not enter a horse in a claiming race unless he would be pleased to sell the horse.)

At this level, every horse has won at least one race. In setting the race conditions, the Racing Secretary tries to put together a group of horses at more or less the same level. Some of them will be coming up from maiden, and others may have been around for a while. Still others may be on their way down from higher levels. The way the body of the race is constructed relates to such things as gender, or single winners only, or horses having won no more than some other number of races (usually 2, 3 or 4). The conditions might say the race is for non-winners of a race since [a certain date]. The objective in any case is to make for a close and exciting race. Many horses never go past this level of competition. They are referred to as "claimers." It may be obvious that the longer a horse stays in the claimer category, the less likely it is that it will ever be claimed.