Claiming Crown “Great Opportunity” for Shirer’s Three Horses

Matt Shirer started out in 2015 as a trainer without any horses to train. After claiming one horse, and then another and another — and spending years doing much of the work himself — the Ohio product’s career is on an upward trajectory, and he now has 20 horses at Churchill Downs. Three of them will race in Saturday’s $1.2 million, nine-race Claiming Crown, the annual series that spotlights the horses that form the backbone of American racing.

It’s a given that trainers Mike Maker and Joe Sharp will be well-stocked when it comes to the Claiming Crown, and indeed they entered six horses apiece. No one else has more than three entrants, with Shirer one of seven trainers with a Claiming Crown trio in Talkin In Cursive ($100,000 Empress), Five O’ Somewhere ($125,000 Rapid Transit) and Light the Way ($175,000 Emerald).

While Shirer has had horses place in graded stakes, a big day Saturday could put his 20-horse stable in the limelight.

“It’s a great opportunity,” he said.

Which is exactly what the Claiming Crown was created to do.

The Claiming Crown is staged annually by the National Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association in conjunction with the host track and their HBPA affiliate, which at Churchill Downs is the Kentucky HBPA. The races are held under starter-allowance conditions, where the horses must have raced for a certain claiming price or less within a specified time frame.

“The Claiming Crown is great,” Shirer said Tuesday morning. “It gives these claiming horses a stage to perform on. It can be hard to find spots for really nice starter horses. It’s nice to see them all run against each other. The starter races at Churchill and Keeneland throughout the year, you’re only running against a select few of those kinds of horses. But Claiming Crown, you get to see horses from all over the country come in. You get to compete and see who is the best. I have a lot of owners coming in for the race. I’ve had a lot of people talking about it, asking me about it. So, yeah, everybody is looking forward to it.”

Shirer, in his 10th full season training horses, does not come from a racing family. Growing up in northeast Ohio, his intro to the industry was as a hotwalker at Thistledown during the summers while pursuing an animal science degree at Ohio Wesleyan. Not particularly interested in an office job, after graduation he delved further into working on the backside, ultimately becoming an assistant to trainer Kenny McPeek in Kentucky.

He had no horses when he went out on his own in late 2015.

“I remember going in and taking the trainer’s test,” Shirer said, “and Barbara Borden, one of the stewards, was like, ‘So how many horses do you have?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t have anything.’ She said, ‘How are you going to train if you don’t have any horses?’”

Shirer rectified that by claiming Dontchangetrainers for $10,000 at Churchill’s fall meet, running him back two weeks later in a starter-allowance race for his first start as a trainer. He claimed another horse for $15,000 and earned his first victory in a Turfway Park allowance race.

“I’d say the first couple of years, I only had two, three, four horses,” said Shirer, who stables at Churchill Downs most of the year while wintering at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas. “Probably five, six years ago there was a point where I was grooming horses myself. I was doing everything.”

The stable has been on an upward trajectory in recent years. Post Covid, his horses topped $900,000 in earnings in both 2021 and 2022 and have surpassed $1 million every year since.

“That’s just from getting more and more horses in the barn, more owners, kind of higher-level horses,” he said. “Not just claiming horses, but we’ve had some graded stakes-placed horses. And obviously the purse structure here at Churchill and at Oaklawn helps your earnings.”

The 5-year-old mare Talkin In Cursive was sent to Shirer after Oaklawn Park’s winter meet with the Claiming Crown in mind.

“She’s kind of a quirky filly, a little bit hard to train. She likes to sling her head, jump around out there on the track,” he said. “It took us a little bit of time to figure her out, to see what she wanted to do…. She eventually ran for $25,000 at Ellis, ran a really nice race and beat some nice fillies. Then we tried to protect her every start since then.”

The result is a three-race win streak, with Talkin in Cursive coming into the Empress off starter-allowance races at Churchill Downs and Keeneland. For her career, the chestnut daughter of Speightster is 9-4-3 in 30 starts, for earnings of $307,583. She was claimed by owner James Nelson for $32,000 at Oaklawn but is eligible for starter $8,000 races. The six-furlong Empress is for fillies and mares that have raced for a $16,000 claiming price or less in 2025-2026.

“This has kind of been the goal since we got her,” he said.

Shirer claimed Five O’ Somewhere for owner Buckhead Racing for $25,000 last November at Churchill Downs, recalling that 26 people were in for the gelding and he was lucky enough to win the “shake.” He ran awful in his first start for his new team, getting off slowly and ultimately losing by 25 lengths. But Five O’ Somewhere has run well in five races since, including a good third in a $20,000 starter at Keeneland off a five-month layoff. Luis Saez, aboard for victory in a $25,000 starter-allowance at Churchill Downs last May, has the mount.

“Really classy, really fast horse — was really happy to win the shake that day,” Shirer said. “I had this race in mind all year, so we just freshened him up over the summer. Just wanted to bring a fresh horse into the Claiming Crown. He just ran at Keeneland. I thought I was a little short on works on him, but we wanted to get him a race before the Claiming Crown. He actually ran a way bigger race than I thought he would.”

The 6-year-old gelding Light the Way will make his first start for Shirer and owners Four Corners Racing, Cory Moelis Racing and Jeremy Sussman after being claimed for $25,000 on Oct. 9, a race in which he was fourth. In the 1 1/16-mile Emerald, the son of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify will race on turf for only the second time in his 32-start career. He was off the board racing 5 1/2 furlongs in his lone turf start 1 1/2 years ago at Saratoga.

“We’re just trying something different with him,” Shirer said. “He’s a Justify out of a Malibu Moon mare, which to me says turf. We didn’t claim him for this race. But when I talked to the owners and told them, ‘You can kind of take a shot, and see if he might move up a bit on the grass.’ Because he has a ton of back class. It’s kind of a shot in the dark. I think he’ll like turf. It just depends if he likes running against horses like that. Those are some classy horses in that race.”

Global Sensation can make Santamaria’s big year even bigger

Carlos Santamaria — who is having a career year after starting his own stable from scratch in late 2022 — has his first Claiming Crown in Workman Ranch’s Global Sensation in Saturday’s $125,000 Rapid Transit at seven furlongs.

It’s part of a breakthrough season for Santamaria, who came into Tuesday just a few hundred bucks shy of his first $1 million season. That already more than doubles his prior best, $407,262, last season, with his 22 wins in 2026 way more than last year’s five. Workman Ranch, a partnership headed by David Workman of Arkansas, also tied Juddmonte for leading owner at Churchill Downs’ brief September meet with three wins apiece.

Santamaria claimed the 7-year-old Global Sensation for $20,000 at Ellis Park. In two starts for his new barn, the Into Mischief gelding won for $20,000 at Churchill Downs and then was second in a $12,500 starter-allowance race at Keeneland. The winner that day was fellow Rapid Transit entrant Military Road, who is trained by Chris Hartman.

The Claiming Crown will be the Godolphin-bred Global Sensation’s 43rd start. He has made $451,023 the hard way, running in only two minor stakes races – last year at Evangeline Downs, finishing ninth and third. Otherwise, he’s run in claiming, allowance and starter races.

“It’s like the Breeders’ Cup for small guys, for small horses,” Santamaria said of the Claiming Crown. “Not so much for small guys, because there are a lot of big trainers who will have horses in those races. But for these horses, it’s a really good thing. They deserve to be in those kinds of races on those days. For us as a trainer and a small barn, it brings your name out there. It’s pretty good for us, as well, but mainly for these kinds of horses. They run so hard.”

Five of Global Sensation’s 12 wins have been at Churchill Downs, which made him appealing to Santamaria. But two of his losses in Louisville were in the Claiming Crown, coming away with a pair of sixth-place finishes for two different trainers the past two years.

Global Sensation finished sixth the day he was claimed, but Santamaria wasn’t concerned. He was looking ahead to Churchill. Plus, he later discovered that the gelding lost a shoe in the Ellis Park race.

“Right after I claimed him, I ran him at Churchill,” he said at his Trackside training center barn in Louisville. “It was a mile race, a little bit far for him. But it was his favorite track, and he had Jaime Torres, who had won like four times on him already. He came back and ran a really, really good second at Keeneland. I think he’s good enough to go back to the Claiming Crown.

“I freshened him up a little, because he’s an older horse. He’s one of these boys where I need to make sure he’s happy. He’s already fit. I don’t have to work him every eight days. It’s more about happiness with him. And he loves our program, I guess.”

Churchill Downs’ short September meet was highly productive for Santamaria, who had three wins and a second in eight starts. Global Sensation’s victory also gave David Workman that share of the owner’s title.

“He’s super happy,” Santamaria said of Workman. “He loves this game. He can’t wait to be here for the Claiming Crown. For him, just me and the horse, it’s going to be like a little Breeders’ Cup for us.”

Stories by Jennie Rees, National HBPA communications

More on the Claiming Crown

Eight of nine Colonial Downs’ CC Showcase winners competing in main event

17-year-old Yomar Ortiz named to ride seven of nine Claiming Crown races

On National HBPA Youtube: Hear from Yomar Ortiz (and Sharp, Maker)

Claiming Crown: “This is what it’s about”

Retired Racehorse Project named official charity of 2026 Claiming Crown

Behind the scenes at the Claiming Crown: Check out National HBPA social media: X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube