a question

[jms62]

Originally Posted by v j stauffer

It is an eligibility term.

When a new meeting starts. The foal certificates "papers" must be on file in the racing office by a certain date.

Usually the first day of entries.

All horses who meet the criteria are equal with regard to consideration in races that "overfill". Overfill means more entries into a race than the starting gate and tote system can accommodate.

This is not uncommon at places like Saratoga where so many owners and trainers wish to run.

Let's say there's a race that will ultimately be a 12 horse field. But 22 horses are entered. The racing office will first determine which of the 22 entries had their papers on file by the cutoff date. They will have a "zero" date. Turns out 18 satisfied that criteria. Of the other 4, two filed their papers a day late. One was 2 days late and 1 was entered with no papers on file.

Well there's your order of preference. The racing official who conducts the draw will announce before the post positions are assigned we have 18 with a zero date. He'll also detail the status of the others. But at that point those connections know they won't have a chance to be in this race.

Now the draw takes place. 12 draw into the body of the race. 4 are also eligible 2 will be excluded. All totally the luck of the draw.

However, the 2 that were excluded retain their zero date status. They still have preference over those who didn't have the original zero.

There's a thousand other interesting scenarios that can come into play with regard to eligibility. Multiple entries in the same race. Preferring one over another. Races that are split. Allowance conditions that can supersede the dates system and many others.

Trainers and agents who are totally on top of those intricacies can have a big edge on entry day.

Thanks for taking the time to provide such a detailed definition.

[Rudeboyelvis]

To Scav's point, I know at Tampa you keep your zero date if you run after the race comes off.

Huge advantage considering the lower level of turf racing available that time of year. A big reason why the conditioned turf routes rarely have many defections, and even the open 16K races stay fairly full.