Claiming question

[Starfish]

Shanthi - I have a question about Claiming races.

I owned a 3yo colt, Mystic Glory, finalfurlong.org/viewhorse.php?horse=11845. At the beginning of the year, I had put him up for sale, but, up to yesterday, hadn’t had any takers, even though I had reduced his asking price. I decided to enter him in a Claiming race (#31) for Wednesday, March 14th.

This morning, he was bought by Joe of Littlefield.

Just out of curiosity, I looked at the entries for that race and noticed that he is still entered in the race, albeit now owned by Littlefield, not me. Whereas before he was sold, when I looked at the entries for that race, I did not get a Claim button by his name, which is as it should be, because why would I want to Claim my own horse back (although it does, or at least used to, happen in RL, where an owner would enter their horse in a Claiming race, figuring that the quality of horses in the race would not be very high and it would be a good chance for their horse to get a win, but would put in a claim for the horse because they didn’t want to lose it - there was sort of an unwritten agreement among owners that if an owner put in a claim for their own horse, no other owners would put in a claim for it). This morning, there is a Claim button beside the horse, which got me wondering what would happen if somebody put in a Claim for him. Would they be successful in claiming him or would the code identify that he hasn’t raced three times since he was last sold and not allow a Claim to be made for him?

I have contacted Joe to recommend that he scratch the horse, but thought you might want to look into this scenario, at least certainly for the rewrite when you do it.

[Shanthi]

@"Starfish"

This morning, there is a Claim button beside the horse, which got me wondering what would happen if somebody put in a Claim for him. Would they be successful in claiming him or would the code identify that he hasn’t raced three times since he was last sold and not allow a Claim to be made for him?

I have contacted Joe to recommend that he scratch the horse, but thought you might want to look into this scenario, at least certainly for the rewrite when you do it.

Anyone but the new owner would be eligible to claim the horse, including you.

I’ll see about auto-scratching from claiming races upon sale (or possibly give the option in case the owner still wants to take the risk).

[Starfish]

I wasn’t asking about my eligibility to claim him. It was about his overall eligibility to be claimed.

I was just raising the question because I thought that if you bought a horse, there was something in the code that required you to race it three times before you could re-sell it, including before you could enter it in a claiming race. I wondered if because Mystic Glory had been entered in the Claiming race before he was sold, that created a loophole where he could be claimed even though he hadn’t raced three times since he was sold.

[Shanthi]

@"Starfish"

I was just raising the question because I thought that if you bought a horse, there was something in the code that required you to race it three times before you could re-sell it, including before you could enter it in a claiming race. I wondered if because Mystic Glory had been entered in the Claiming race before he was sold, that created a loophole where he could be claimed even though he hadn’t raced three times since he was sold.

Ah, yes, good point. I’ve updated the code to auto-scratch from claiming races if a horse is sold. (It won’t issue refunds to the previous owner for the entry fee, though.)