Hi, I have just seen this thread.

I wouldn't be able to do what Sirius has done but I can describe how I get decent jumpers.

I never start out in a jumps game, rarely are you given anything with high potential that can actually win races. So I do what Sirius described with starting new games and looking for horses with high potential, jumping speed potential and ideally constitution and very importantly low deterioration potential.

Ideally these horses will want from 1m1f-2m4f, I tend to find anything lower than a mile and they just don't stay and tend to breed horses who don't stay or who want odd distances. Though I have recently had a lot of success with a 6f sprinter I bred in a flat save who managed to win races up to 2m4f.

Anyway, for colts/stallions I would use Sirius' guide to ability, nothing below what he indicated and ideally higher. I am a little more lenient with fillies/mares (as they can only breed once a year you can match them to a very high potential stallion and still get good horses), so if she had very high stats (excluding deterioration potential) but only 50% potential I would consider keeping her and seeing what she produced in the breeding barn.

So when I have found said horse I go into the training screen and see the head lad's comments on its jumping ability. I only keep those with 'Good' or 'Average', if they are poor but meet the criteria then they'll be great additions to a flat team. Then select the 'retire to game pool' option and skip through the season, either by entering it in good races and seeing how it does. Or by buying a cheap horse and entering it in whatever race is available for it on the last date available in the decs screen.

Save on the last day of the season then go to the next season and check your horse is in the transfer pool. Once you know it is you can delete that game and start again. I'll do this until I have a couple of mares and a couple of stallions. It can take a lot of time.

Now you can start your jumps game. Any difficulty level, but I prefer easy. Check the horses you're given and sell them unless they meet the above criteria. This should give you some cash to be moving ahead with. Check when the legends are running and bet on them to make more cash. Finally, if you know you have a group 1 horse enter it into one of the early graded hurdles or chases, they will go off at around 50-1 and you will make millions betting on them.

Once you've made your money and had a bit of a play for a season or two in the jumps game you can start breeding and this is how you get good jumpers. Much longer method than for flat horses, but I've found that it is almost impossible to breed a good jumper from jump stock- the best stallions are gelded and there are few top class mares. Obviously don't be scared to use any stallions that do come up in the breeding barn, if they've won top races and particularly if they've managed to beat your flat horses then they often produce the best jumpers to be going ahead with.

You can also do this with existing flat horses if you've had success breeding top flat horses. Check the stats and see what the head lad has to say. They might not be top class on the flat, or you might not want to keep them for the flat but they could be the start of your empire over the jumps.

Hope this helps a bit.

I've got to admit my breeding for jumps is very different to Cat's. My Chasers are pure bred jump horses without any flat influence. Now my jumps breeding is a long way into it but I will always try a very good game bred like this one.



If she enters the breeding barn by 9 I will save the game into my game folder and bred with her and if she brings something different then I would go back and bred with her a couple of times but if her first offspring is crap then she goes in the bin.

Ah, I also look out for these horses and obviously breed with them. But I find it is so hard to find good game stallions that it's much easier to find good flat ones and start there. You need to breed with the jump horses otherwise you very quickly hit a brick wall.

Also horses who like softer ground are preferable.

Wonderful, thank you guys(girl) so very much. Been looking for help like this for so
long . Been top "flat trainer" a couple of times but useless at jumps. Here's one
happy person today.
Thank you's again.
dotsy

I echo this, Knew you would come up trumps SuperCat, I remembered your trainer only
guide for SO5, Well done.
ARAPHO