Spirit Seeker: ignored in California, worshipped in Louisiana

I've long had the idea that fans do not respect the quality of racing at smaller tracks. It makes us feel good to believe that any race endowed with black type status has creditability, but when bettors place their money at risk, we see that they really have very little respect for the competition at smaller tracks. There is probably an equivalency chart of Beyers, and another one floating around inside handicappers' heads, to address comparisons between tracks. Looking at the betting for Delta Down's $125,000, open-company Treasure Chest Stakes on Saturday, the adjustment may be greater than I realized.

We know there are easy marks out of town, and that minting a new stakes winnner can have as much to do with being willing to pay for the transport as having a horse that measures up. But the situation in the Treasury Chest shows just how far this can go. The mare Spirit Seeker had run for a claiming price in her last three outings. She ran for $40,000 on October 27, $20,000 on October 13, and $16,000 on July 3. She won all three of the races, by 2-3 lengths each time. She was not claimed in any. The last two races were at Santa Anita; the July 3 last race was at Pleasanton.

In the Treasure Chest, Spirit Seeker was the 9-10 favorite of six. She finished a distant 3rd, meaning that the decision to send her to Louisiana probably didn't wholly work out. Still, I have to wonder if the trainers deciding not to claim her on October 13 understood they were looking at an odds-on favorite for a $125,000 stake in the next month. The numbers just seem out of whack. It's like the currency in Southern California, "the Southern California dollar", goes a very long way out of state, and those with the energy to take advantage are seizing an opportunity.

As a claim goes, Spirit Seeker isn't really my type, from the little I know of her. That is, if one is only thinking about future breeding success. She's a router, not a sprinter; it took her eight starts to break her maiden, and they were all in maiden claiming events. But the sheer level of ability here for a $16,000 claimer is not to be cast aside. She once ran a 103 Beyer, a huge number for a female. She was 5th by 4 1/2 in the 2010 grade II El Encino behind Pretty Unusual, Stardom Bound, Freedom Star, and Justwhistledixie. She was only 6-1 in that race, in a field of 10.