The Claiming Game…Series Two
Don Cromer Prefers Claiming Horses
By Kenneth W. Terpenning for www.FloridaHarnessRacing.com
Don Cromer Prefers Claiming Horses
By Kenneth W. Terpenning for www.FloridaHarnessRacing.com
- As mentioned in part one of this series, claiming a horse from a race can be a tricky
way to buy a horse. A lot of work goes into the process for many trainers and
owners in the business. Some trainers are more successful than others. Another
of those successful trainers can also be found at Pompano Park.
Don Cromer, 49, was born in Troy, Ohio, but now calls Pompano Beach, Florida
and Pompano Park home. Why Pompano? “I like the climate in the winter”, replied
Cromer.
- When asked what got him into the claiming game, he replied, “My father races
horses, so I grew up with them and developed a liking for claimers. I worked for
the late Herb Coven, Jr., who had a top claiming stable when I was first learning
(the business).” Cromer has been doing it ever since, spanning two and a half
decades.
Cromer says he prefers claiming to hopefully get a quick return on his investment
while avoiding subsequent losses in future weeks.
The only downside to claiming, according to Cromer, is when people get mad at
you and want to curse you out for claiming their horse.
“I have had to have security pick horses up for me after claiming them because of
the hostility from the previous owner(s). I believe in the golden rule of racing which
is ‘If you don’t want your horse claimed, then don’t put it in a claimer’”, replied
Cromer.
Prospecting his next claim, Don states that he looks at the horse’s previous race
history, who is training the horse currently, is the horse going down in price, is it
changing tracks, is it coming out of a condition race, does it have bad posts and
bad trips making the horse appear to be bad, does the trainer have multiple horses
in the same class and is forced to drop one in class, and more importantly,
soundness is key. Once the claim is won (by luck of the draw), Cromer examines
the horse’s health, makes adjustments for shoeing and equipment, double checks
soundness and attitude, eating habits, and observe how the horse reacts to its
caretakers to see if he or she was mistreated in the previous stable.
When asked what his keys to success are, Cromer replied, “Never talk too much
about what you know and watching and learning.” A pretty sound philosophy in
this business considering the information pipeline that circulates around the
backstretches of tracks. The racing community is a small network and people talk.
Mr. Cromer attributes a portion of his success to his partner, Randall Barnes.
Cromer added, “Without Randall, I would not be as successful.”
Once a horse is ready to race, it is time to pick a driver. Don Cromer likes to use
Dan Clements at Pompano. Cromer said, “Dan seems to know our way of racing,
but it really comes down to who is going to get the most wins for our horses. Not
all horses get along with one driver.”
That being said, he enjoys racing horses with the most heart and that try every
time.
In the end, while Don Cromer believes that the future of harness racing will come
down to a few select tracks and a few struggling “Mom and Pop operations”.
He reminds us that to be successful in running a claiming stable, “You must be
willing to accept loss. Without the willingness to accept loss and running your
stable like a business, you will never be afforded the potential to make a profit and
become competitive.”
He added, “My biggest goal in a claiming horse is to keep the horse’s value,
because this means that you are winning with it and when it gets claimed, you have
not suffered a loss.”
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