The Racing Biz has been tracking claiming activity in the mid-Atlantic region and reporting on it weekly for the last three months.  Today, as part of that coverage, we add the Midlantic Claiming 7 — the trainers who have been busiest over the prior 30 days, ending in this case on September 17.

Scott Lake has been the region’s busiest claiming trainer over the last 30 days, according to our Claimbox report.  The report tracks claims made tracks in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (excluding Presque Isle), and at Charles Town.

Lake claimed a dozen horses to pace all trainers, with a combined value of $194,000.  That works out to more than $16,000 per claim.  For the region as a whole, the average claim was about $11,000.

Patricia Farro and Ramon Moya dead-heated for second, each having claimed nine horses during the last month.  Farro’s $119,500 in total claims were the second highest, with Moya’s claims worth a combined $100,000.

On a net basis, however, Moya took home the award.  While claiming nine in the last 30 days, he lost only two — a gain of seven horses.  Lake’s net of four horses — he lost eight during the month — left him in second in that category.  But the eight he lost were worth just $58,000 combined, meaning that he claimed $136,000 more horses than he lost.  And, while he claimed horses worth around $16,000 each, those he lost were worth only $7,250 each.

For the week…

The busiest week of claiming — by far — since The Racing Biz began tracking the data in June saw over 90 horses claimed, with their gross value exceeding — for the first time — $1 million.

Overall, Charles Town, Delaware, Monmouth, Parx Racing and Penn National saw 92 horses claimed, with a gross value of just over $1.059 million.  Both figures were more than double those of a week ago, when 44 horses with a gross value of about $400,000 were claimed.

In particular, Parx was the busiest track by far.  During the past week, 54 horses were claimed at the track — up from just 12 the prior week — with a gross value of over $640,000.  The average price — a bit over $11,900 — was slightly more than the $11,516 recorded for the region as a whole.

Weekly Dollar Value of Horses Changing Hands