DUNAMISTHOROUGHBREDS All Horses
AMERICAN RAIDER
Three second-place finishes.
One amazing night.
A lifetime of memories.
The American Pharoah colt who taught us how rewarding—and how bittersweet—the claiming game can be.
OUR CLAIMING JOURNEY
THE CLAIMING GAME
A horse worth
taking a chance on.
We claimed American Raider for $7,500. By American Pharoah, he had the pedigree, the look and enough ability to make us believe there was more there. The claiming game does not promise a straight line, but Raider gave us every reason to keep believing.
We owned him for almost six months and raced him five times. He finished second for us three times. We never got the winner’s-circle picture we wanted, but three seconds in Kentucky more than paid the bills—and every one of those nights gave our family something to remember.
FINDING HIS LEVEL
Back in for $7,500
After running for a $15,000 tag and finishing eighth, Raider returned at the $7,500 level. This time he showed us what we believed was there, running second and putting us right back in the middle of the action.
That finish set up the stretch of races we remember most: competitive efforts, close calls and the feeling that the breakthrough might come the next time.
OPENING NIGHT · CHURCHILL DOWNS
The new paddock.
Our orange and white silks.
Raider’s next start became one of our most fun nights in racing. It was opening night at Churchill Downs, in the new paddock, and he was entered for $10,000.
He ran second again. We wanted that winner’s-circle photo badly, but there was nothing disappointing about standing at Churchill Downs with family and friends while Raider carried our silks and gave us everything he had.
“We really would have loved our picture with him in the winner’s circle—but second more than pays the bills running in Kentucky.”
TWO MORE RACES
So close—then claimed.
Raider finished second one more time, this time behind a Steve Asmussen horse after becoming a victim of the pace. It was his third runner-up finish for us in five starts.
His next race came from an outside post going a mile and a sixteenth. He was hung wide throughout, finished fourth and was claimed for $10,000 by Steve Asmussen. It was a tough way for our chapter with him to end, even though the economics of the claim made sense.
BACK AT THE BARN
Rachel and her second-place boy.
Results mattered, but the quiet time back at the barn was just as important. Raider was another horse who made this journey personal for our whole family.
Bittersweet—and still proud.
Raider broke his maiden in his very next start at Ellis Park, racing for a $16,000 tag for his new connections. We were proud of him. We always knew he had that race in him.
But horse racing has a way of teaching the same lesson from both sides: it is special to watch a horse you believed in succeed, and it feels a little different when you no longer own him.
American Raider never made it to our winner’s circle, but he gave us one of our greatest nights as owners.View American Raider’s BloodHorse card
Three times he came close.