Scratch Fees

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jagger
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Scratch Fees

Postby jagger » Mon Aug 03, 2020 1:23 pm

How frequent does it happen that a "scratch fee" is assessed to an owner of a horse? What conditions need to be met in order for a "scratch fee" to be assessed? Does the scratch fee vary from track to track? Does anyone happen to know what the the scratch fee is at Ellis Park and/or Indiana Downs?

jagger
Grade III Winner
Posts: 1119
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:49 pm
Location: Peoria, Illinois

Re: Scratch Fees

Postby jagger » Sat Aug 29, 2020 11:29 am

REALLY??? I'm getting no responses to this post?

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madelyn
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Re: Scratch Fees

Postby madelyn » Thu Sep 03, 2020 3:22 am

There are no fees to scratch, only fines. A trainer is fined for scratching, depending on how they handle it. There is a scratch time posted, usually on the overnight. Some tracks have the scratch time as 9am day of, some are 9am day before the race. If you scratch by scratch time there is no fine. If it is a full, overflowing field, it's just a few seconds phone call. If it is a really short field (8 or less) they want a reason, like "my horse had a bit of a temperature this morning and did not eat up" which then requires a note from your vet (like a doctor's note) and you are out, no fine no foul. You can also scratch, right up to post time, for change of surface and there is no fine. There was one out of my race on Friday where the horse actually came to the paddock but the trainer opted, since we just had a very torrential rainstorm and it came off the turf, not to run in the shiny greasy slop.
So Run for the Roses, as fast as you can.....