Welcome to our guide to Photo Finish Live virtual horse racing CLAIMING Races. A “Claiming Race” is where any horse entered can be “claimed” or bought for a set price prior to the end of the race. We feel they can be a lot of fun and highly strategic so this guide aims to help you take part.

First off, if you either want to be able to claim a horse or race one, you’re going to need an account and DERBY, the in-game currency of Photo Finish Live. Please see this guide to getting started.

We’ll first provide steps to entering a claiming race and then we’ll show you exactly how to claim a horse.

Entering a Claiming Race

Step 1: Login at photofinish.live and navigate to the racing tab. Then go to the filters button and filter for claiming races.

Step 2: Select a claiming race with the preferences, distance, and claiming price you want. Claiming prices range from 5,000 to over 200,000 DERBY for the core races In the race below, it’s 33,000 DERBY which is $412.50 as 80 DERBY = $1.00. Again, what that means is any horse you enter in the race may be claimed by someone else for 33,000 DERBY. So if your horse is worth FAR more than that, it’s probably a bad idea to enter this race.

Step 3: If everything looks ok, select the register button.

Step 4: Select the horse you want to enter into the race and be sure to heed the multiple warnings.

Step 5: Confirm your entry and once again, heed the warnings.

Step 6: Are you super duper 100% sure? If so, click the continue button. Seriously, if you complain about your top tier horse getting claimed after all this because you didn’t bother to read, everyone is going to laugh at you.

Step 7: You’re now registered for the race. Take note of when it’s going to run and come back at that time to enjoy the show. If you miss it, don’t worry, as always, you can watch the replay. If your horse is claimed, you’ll get a notice in your inbox and paid the DERBY.

Claiming a Horse

Looking to check out the claiming races to see if you might want to put a big in for a diamond in the rough? Follow our intro above and steps one and two to login, get yourself some DERBY, navigate to the racing tab, and filter for the claiming races.

You can only claim horses when the selection window opens up for a claiming race. This happens when the race fills OR when there’s one hour left before post time. Once that happens, click on the race and here’s what you’ll see:

See the 33,000 DERBY ($412.50) claiming price at the top right and the “Place a Claim” link below each horse? That’s how you put in a bid. But it’s important to click on each horse and do your research to see if any are worth paying that claiming price for. We did and realized not only does Clyde have good preferences but he has one win in three races. NICE! Let’s click the Place a Claim link which takes us to the confirmation screen:

Note that a small 5% fee is added to the total. Seems fair so let’s place our claim after which we receive a note that it was successful. However, this does NOT mean we automatically get the horse. If there are multiple bidders, the system will automatically hold a lottery and reward the horse to the lucky winner. If we’re the only bidder then we’ll automatically get it.

Regarding our claim of Clyde? Yep, we got him and received a notification in our inbox saying as much.

Strategy

Some thoughts for you as you plan your claiming race strategy:
1. Is it worth trying to occasionally sneak in a good horse you think will win the race?

2. Have you done your research in the marketplace to see what horses are available at what prices?

3. Is a claimable horse that seems like a donkey actually a diamond in the rough because it wasn’t raced properly? Or maybe it hasn’t hit peak age?

4. What are the various claiming prices of races? Are there really good horses on the marketplace that would dominate a tier and are below the claim price for that tier?

5. As you receive CROWN every race no matter where you place, is it worthwhile getting low price but decent horses and running them in Claimers?

6. Did anyone accidentally race a filly (female horse) which tend to be worth much more DERBY?

As always, feel free to join the community on Discord to ask questions and share your own strategies. See you at the track!