I've been an avid player for a number of years now, so I feel like I can get the best out of my horses. But this fella has got me scratching my head. Bought him at the yearling's got pretty good ability, but the attribute I loved was of course the speed. He was an above average 2yo although he couldn't win a conditions race. Thought he'd hack up in a competitive handicap first time out as a 3yo off 94, but could only manage 5th. His potential is so much better than 94. So I tried everything.

- He prefers to be handy but he always misses the break and takes half a furlong of scrubbing along to be prominent.
- He's useless being held up because he has a poor turn of foot, (tried them tactics in the Steward's Cup and the Chipchase)
- Tried the visor AND noseband to try and wake him up and burst out of the stalls but that has no effect.
- And then finally I gelded him which was a tough decision, because he has such good attributes for breeding.

None of the above has garnered any improvement, he should win off his reduced mark of 85, But still......this horse should be winning Group 1's! I've won top sprint races with donkey's compared to this lad.

Anyways just thought i'd share my frustration, any thoughts/ideas are very welcome.

Have you put him on 'starting' training? It can take months to have an effect, but it normally does if you're patient - if that solves his slow-starting then maybe he'll find more improvement?

His deterioration potential is really high. That likely killed him before the end of his 2yo career. Shame since he probably would have done well otherwise.

Honestly, I would have retired him to stud rather than geld him, especially if I was just starting out a new game and needed a stud. You might have gotten a few decent foals out of him. A horse doesn't have to be a winner to have great foals. I've had some really good horses out of two nags. I had a filly with what I thought would be terrible stats win all 6 of the US filly triple tiara races (Kentucky Oaks, Black-Eyed Susan, Acorn, Mother Goose, Coaching Club American Oaks, and The Alabama) depending on which series you prefer so stats aren't really everything, either. can't get into my game as of late since it's crashing or I'd post a screenshot of her. Have to reinstall mods since I think something got corrupted.

At any rate, since you gelded your horse, about all you can do at this point is retire him from the game.

Other option you have is try running him in sellers and claimers. Just have to make sure to buy him back if he wins. Beyond that, not likely he'll do much at this point.

Watch the deterioration potential. I'd also watch for quirks. I had one quirky horse that refused to do anything if he couldn't lead ... and that horse couldn't lead to save his life so he only won like 1 race his entire career. Low confidence can also cause a horse to under perform if they lose a lot.

I'm with guardian on this one. That long red horizontal bar stood right out to me. That's a shame.

I would have sent him to the barn as you say has nice stats his kids or grandkids may have had those problems bred out of them
tough call and a brave one hard to know what to do for the best agree he should be cantering in 0 -100 HC's