LMAO. Love it!

Well, I was hoping you'd settle for a slap up meal, a girlie movie, and the promise of a quick spoon after wards but it seems you've set the bar a bit higher.
If however you swap the country estate for a town house in New York with the horses stabled locally, we might be able to come to an agreement so long as I can keep the pool table.

Sorry to bring it back to racing talk, but approximately how long did this take you to achieve? I can see the thought processes behind this method, I tried it last night (as I'm new to the game), but got beaten out of sight in most races. Do you think the horses improve race by race, i.e 2YO's? I would have thought they do, but it's getting to that point of improvement that enables you to enter them into big races I suppose....Ah well, try again tonight!

Damn it DB. I've just had to spend the last ten minutes cleaning my keyboard after laughing with a mouthful of coffee.

Hmmmm although the spooning is very enticing I still want my country estate, but I wouldn't say no to a house in New York as well, as a second, or maybe third or fourth home... You're welcome to keep the pool table...

I do hope all the new players are learning lots about the game from this!

On the racing question, I'd actually try and get middle distance horses, they tend to be better than sprinters (in my game anyway) if you can win one of the Dubai races with one of them then you're away and you'll be fine for the rest of the game. I've found sprinters really hard to come by and 14 seasons into my flat game I've won every G1 except any of the sprint G1's.

[/quote]On the racing question, I'd actually try and get middle distance horses, they tend to be better than sprinters (in my game anyway) if you can win one of the Dubai races with one of them then you're away and you'll be fine for the rest of the game. I've found sprinters really hard to come by and 14 seasons into my flat game I've won every G1 except any of the sprint G1's.[/quote]

Ok, I shall try and heed that advice. When you say middle distances, are we talking 1m2f - 1m6f horses? Your right about Dubai, a winner there and your made. So how would I go about picking up a horse good enough to give me a good chance at Dubai (or any G1). I'm thinking (from advice I've read on the forum) that to sell all of my horses (start on normal, so 3) would generate around £250k. Then possibly finish that season with no horses and wait for the auction at the start of the next season, and try and pick up one or two good horses at a decent price? The reason for soing that is that the majority of horses at the end of day auctions (seller/claimer winners) aren't going to be good enough to win a G1/G2? What do you think? Sorry a bit long-winded.......

You can use art money to get your funds up and become as rich as Coolmore or Godolphin.


http://gallopracerseries.yuku.com/topic/16067

Typical woman. Somehow manages to come out of a negotiation with more stuff than she wanted to begin with.

Namned, you can also use the money from selling the start up horses to gamble and make a few bob to work from that way. The end of day auctions sometimes offer up decent horses so you don't necessarily have to wait till the new season and in the first season, particularly early on, the entries are all over the shop so it's possible to pick up far better horses than normal from claimer/seller company.
Don't know if it was on here or another thread, but someone mentioned horse stats. They really have no bearing on how good the horse turns out to be so best not to base too much on them.
There is quite a big gap between feature handicap/listed and Group class I find in SO4, which is good. After a little bit, you gauge quite early on with a horse what level he'll reach though sometimes horses who don't cut it at 2 can take a step forward at 3 or even 4. Breeding is obviously the quickest way to success. Will say this though, avoid horses that have only raced at 2, no matter how good they were at that age. Most of the time you'll end up with a yearling that is also good at 2, but after that, they go off the rails big time and are of no use at all.

Appreciate the response.

It's all trial and error I guess, I will trial a few different methods on a few seperate games, and whichever one works out the best continue on with that one. I love the fact that I can sell my horses, have a huge gamble on a horse in a 4 runner race, and end up having a nice pot of money from which to work with, and I shall certainly explore that option. The hardest thing I guess, is actually getting started and getting your first G1 winner from which to breed with. From then on you'll have plenty of dosh, and buying or breeding G1 winners should be more straight-forward.

I'd try and get hold of any horses that win well over 1m-1m4f. Or even horses that you have at the start rated above 85 should be able to win you some money. Or sell all your horses, or all but one of your horses, bet throughout the year to get some money in. Then buy horses at the end of year auction that are bid for £415,000+, buy as many as you can and then race them (sensibly). Try to only buy 5f-1m2f 2yo's to start off with because they're more likely to be able to run at 2. I'd tend to sell the Colts, unless they've been exceptional, and if they've done quite well you should get a good return. Any filly/mare who has been placed in or won any listed or group races retire to the stud and put with the best stallion, you should get a G1 winner from that mating, if not then a decent horse which should sell for a return.

I tend to retire more mares to stud than stallions because I think you can breed a good horse from an average mare and a great stallion but you (or I at least) can't breed a good horse from a great mare and an average stallion, much like in real life.

I hope you understand, any more questions just ask away.

DB at least I haven't asked for shoes yet, although I have had my eye on some £1500 dressage boots since I was about 12, I'm yet to convince anybody to buy them for me!

Sorry to take a while to respond Namned, as people have said there are other ways! took me a few attempts as well!!! that is another good way raise enough for a 200,000+ horse run it easy in a few races out of its distance then lay the gamble down!!!!! but I find it easier as supercat said to start with decent sprinters. Mind you it takes a few attempts + 3-10 seasons depending on whether you get lucky with your purchases, should have mentioned that sorry. for example one game I started bought a 6f sprinter in first season and won jubilee,july, haydock and bc sprints in one season but then again sometimes its taken me 6-7 seasons to get a horse that wins a group 3!!

starting on hard level I like to sell the 2 year old at auction (should raise about 50k) and then campaign the other horse exclusively at claimer level off bottom weight. You need to pick and choose their races to a certain extent but it should be easy to rack up a sequence (don't forget to buy it back at the sale each time) and also accrue more funds if punting them for each run. They will go up in the handicap and in value and by season's end should be worth rated about 80 and worth around 70 or 80 thousand. If all goes to plan and you sell in October or November you should have between 250 and 300k to go to take to the auction and buy a few yearlings with some degree of ability.

This method does take up some time and can obviously fail as well resulting in bankruptcy and restarting from scratch but it is a bit more rewarding than using art money or gamble/save to obtain a decent starting bank.

I find it a good tactic to run your horses from the start in claimers and betting on them, then once they prove themselves in that grade I up them to Conditions races. Win a handicap and you might go up 5lbs but the rating goes up even more if you're placed or win a Conditions race - then you can sell them at the end of the season for a lot more if their rating is 100+.

Again, appreciate the tips guys.

I played again last night. I thought I'd try some new avenues out. So I skipped the first auction of 2yo's, and sold 2 of my horses and ended up with about £250k. I kept one 2yo (5f) to be able to at least have a bit of fun with. However, I got too ambitious. I ran him in a maiden in which he finished 2nd. I then tried to find a small Group field with large prize money, to see if I could sneak a place. I didn't, and was hammered out of sight.

So I have decided that I will now keep to that method, and either:
1) Run the horse at an unsuitable distance a few times, and then fire it into a race at the right distance, and punt big or;
2) Run exclusively in sellers/claimers in order to keep the cashflow ticking over, and come the end of the season hopefully sell him on for a nice figure (hopefully he'll be rated 80-85).

I absolutely love the game, and I know it's going to be hard work to be able to get that elusive G1, but I'll get there....eventually.

One thing I did find last night was that, my horse needed Soft ground. Now do you think I could find a meeting with Soft ground?? The answer is no, and it was a bit frustrating. Even in Jan/Feb & Nov/Dec the ground was still Good/Firm or Good and even Hard!! Is that a problem anyone else has found?

YES the soft ground thing can be a problem but I also find if I have a stable full of horses who want firm ground the ground will constantly be soft. Also unless you want to retire them to the game pool and import them into a NH game I'd be very wary of any horse who wants 'very soft ground' because they're unlikely to be able to perform to their best very often throughout the summer.