Every Thoroughbred race run in North America sits on one class ladder, from the cheapest maiden claimer to a Grade 1 like the Kentucky Derby. The conditions line printed on the program, a short block of text above each race, states exactly where that day's race sits on it: who can enter, what they're competing for, and in a claiming race, what it would cost to buy the horse right out of it.

The ladder, bottom to top

Race type Who can enter What it means
Maiden Horses that have never won a race Every horse is unproven; a maiden special weight (MSW) carries no claiming price, a maiden claiming race does
Claiming Horses entered at a stated claiming price Any licensed owner can claim (buy) the horse for that price right after the race; the price is a rough measure of the horse's own worth
Allowance Horses that meet conditions on wins, earnings or age rather than a claiming price A step up from claiming; no claiming price, so the horse stays with its connections regardless of how it runs
Stakes Horses that meet the race's own conditions and entry requirements The top of the ladder; stakes races carry the largest purses and the ones with enough history and purse size can be graded

A claiming price is a sale price, nothing more poetic than that. Enter a horse for a $16,000 tag and any other licensed owner can hand the track $16,000 after the race and take the horse home, win or lose. That mechanism is what keeps claiming races honest: a trainer who enters a much better horse at a cheap price risks losing it to a claim, so the price tends to track what the horse is actually worth running for that day.

Allowance races drop the claiming price and substitute conditions instead, commonly things like "non-winners of two races other than maiden or claiming" or an age and sex restriction. A horse racing in allowance company is considered too good, or its connections unwilling, to risk losing to a claim.

How a stakes race becomes a graded stakes

What it takes for a race to carry a grade

  1. Run it for at least two consecutive years

    Under similar conditions each time, per TOBA's own graded-stakes criteria.

  2. Meet the minimum purse for the grade sought

    $300,000 for Grade I, $200,000 for Grade II, $100,000 for Grade III, $75,000 for Listed.

  3. Clear the quality bar

    TOBA's American Graded Stakes Committee weighs the field quality, the percentage of past graded-stakes winners who ran in it, outside ratings panels and the official chart's own figures (earnings, finishing position, weight carried).

  4. Get the votes

    Eight affirmative votes from the committee are needed to upgrade a race to a higher grade, six to downgrade it. The committee meets annually, so a race's grade can and does change year to year.

A Grade 1 is the top: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont and the Breeders' Cup races all carry it. Grade 2 and Grade 3 sit below it on the same quality ladder, and a Listed race sits just below graded status. Reading a horse's past performances with this ladder in mind, rather than just its last finishing position, is most of what handicapping class actually means.