Michael Gill says he is eccentric, and will get no argument from anyone following this year's Gulfstream meet, where the owner has taken the concept of the aggressive claiming stable to new extremes. Gill and trainer Mark Shuman have made 23 claims through the first nine days of the meet, are constantly running horses at a fraction of their apparent value and have made so many starts that it's nearly impossible to come across a claiming race that does not involve the Gill factor. It's certainly not standard practice; you might even call it a bit irrational.

Mike Gill has become the glutton of Gulfstream, but he makes no apologies. He does, however, have an explanation. He just wants to win races.

" I used to be an athlete and played football, basketball and baseball, but I just can't do it anymore," said Gill, who admits his racing operation loses money. "The doctor said if I were a horse they'd have to shoot me. This is my extension to athletics. I thrive on competition...It's part of my being. I can't be any other way. I went to Gulfstream with full intention of being leading owner and Mark Shuman being leading trainer and it will happen. I'll be the leading owner in the country this year in money and wins. I don't want to be in this game unless I'm going to win."

There's little doubt that Gill will achieve those goals. Shuman has started 38 horses through the first nine days of the meet, 22 more than Bill Mott, who is second in the starts-made category. He has 12 winners, nine more than the six trainers who are tied for second place in the standings. Should Shuman came anywhere close to keeping up that pace, he will be a runaway winner of the training title and Gill will easily top all other owners in races won.

Gill, who also has horses in Maryland, at Charles Town and in his native New England, was second in the country in wins last year and fourth in earnings. He says he's prepared to start far more horses this year and, so far, he lead the nation in wins and earnings in 2003. But it hasn't come without a cost. Gill, who owns of mortgage business, doesn't mind taking a financial hit on a horse just as long as he can find a spot where it can win.

Gill's first three winners of the meet were dropping in class and each one was running for less than they were claimed for. Lively Prospect, a winner on opening day was typical. He was claimed $25,000 on Oct. 27 at Delaware Park and didn't return until running for $14,000 Jan. 3 at Gulfstream. Every time Gill makes such a move it poses a handicapping dilemma. Is he trying to steal an easy win or is his horse damaged goods? The way he has been going, you almost have to play his horses whenever they drop in class and simply hope for the best.

"It's real simple, you've got to forget what you paid for a horse," Gill said. "The minute you own him it becomes irrelevant. You've got to ask yourself where can the horse win. You don't always make a good claim. If you claim a horse for $35,000 and he gets beat by 10 lengths, it would be foolhardy to run him back for $35,000. You're not going to win that way."

At the beginning of the meet, rival trainers seemed so stunned by Gill's actions that they missed out on an opportunity to claim off him, even the horses who were apparent bargains. But the competition seems to have come to the realization that it has to at least offer a challenge and is now striking back with claims of its own. Two horses were claimed away from Gill Sunday, but that didn't begin to even things out. On the same day, he made four claims. The idea, he says, is to have a horse for every available claiming race.

"My theory is to always be buying and always selling; that's the claiming business," he said. "I look for what I don't have. What I'll do is I'll position the horses. It's like with a baseball team. You don't want three first basemen. I look for what we need and I think that's why we get so many starts. I try to match my stock with the condition book."

Gill is among the most hands-on owners in the country and he is the one making most of the decisions, not Shuman, whom he calls a "good soldier." But Shuman, a former assistant to Howie Tesher and Jim Bond, has done a good job since Gill brought him in to handle his assault on the 2002 Delaware Park meet. It can't be easy juggling so many horses, winning with a high percentage of starters and keeping a temperamental boss happy. Gill has nothing but praise for Shuman, but that doesn't mean his trainer is in this for the long run. Gill shuffles trainers almost as often as he shuffles horses. He has hired and fired a dozen or so over the last few years alone.

"The first rule in doing business with me is do not lie to me," he said. "I didn't inherit my money, I made it and I didn't make it by being stupid. The common mistake that trainers make is that they think their clients are stupid. When they try and tell me a horse is sound and he's not or if they're trying to make money off me on a horse deal, that's one strike. With me, it's one strike and you're out. Do not lie to me. Everybody who has worked for me in the past has done that."

But Shuman has made no such mistakes and he is delivering wins for his boss. That's all that really matters. Mike Gill doesn't operate like anyone else, but he wins and is doing it at a greater rate now than ever. He never asked for anyone's approval.