What should you want stats bar wise in your great horses? I came across an old thread from DocHay where he showed us his totally awesome hacking skillz. I was never bothered by his hacking of the game for fun just his obnoxious way of dropping his results on us. He posted a screen shot of a offspring of two of the games "legends" named Frank Caviar found in this thread...

http://www.startersorders.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=10360&hilit=frank+caviar

Got to staring at the stats bar and it confirmed what I knew and others did about the most important stats to have in a horse. This little post is for beginners mostly. Frank Caviar...



Let's start with the horses main parameter box found in the first screen shot. Frankie here has 100 speed. From my keeping of stats of around 150 horses before the CK was done away with and transferring horses wasn't likely for league horses anymore I found horses with 100 speed were usually good runners. He also has 90 acceleration which is the bar I always tried to get real high. I was on a breeding kick to try and get 100speed/100acceleration/100starting in a horse but wasn't able to do it. High Starting is good especially for front runners.



Now the stats bars. Most likely the most important is the Potential bar. Frank here has a 100 potential as a 3yo. Very hard to get a horse with that potential at 3 but it can be done with good breeding and luck.

Second most important is the real question. It's between Cruising Burst and Extra Speed Rating. I will go with Cruising Burst. From my stats tracking the highest I could manage was a 70% bar. Frank has what appears to be a 60 or 65 bar. Get this bar high for sure. All the greats in my games have a very high Cruising Burst.

Extra Speed Rating - Lookee here Frank has a 100 Extra Speed bar. These are hard to get in your great horses. The game will give you starter horses with this level but the other bars will usually stink along with the horse.

Finish Application - From my studies you either get a 1%, 50% or 100% rating in this bar. A 100 horse has that extra oomph that will pay off in many close races. I personally like this bar a lot in my horses.

The rest of the bars are not so important. Not sure what to make of Frank's ridiculous constitution bar but you have complete control over constitution by the way you manage your horses races. Not important. Interestingly Frank has a 1 confidence. Probably doesn't matter to him because he never has poor performances being as he is sired by gods. Distance and Surface adaptability are good to have high but most likely have no effect on creating the "fastest" horse you can make. High Enthusiasm helps also.

Conclusion - High Potential, Cruising Burst and Extra Speed Rating along with high Acceleration and Speed are in this authors opinion what you need to have to be a legend in your own game, mind and if you dare - the league. If we ever get another league...

Thanks for reading and please feel free to add your own thoughts and findings.

I have spent some time working on achieving the best horse I can. One of my best is the following. I have bred that horse some time ago. I had a break of somewhere close to six months in breeding and am currently looking to improve upon him further.

This is a good post!
These are questions I am now debating over myself.
At the moment I believe that a high 'battling qualities' bar is essential - this bar appears to over-ride a high 'deterioration potential' bar.
I do agree that a high 'cruising burst' bar is a must and I place that second most important.
From there I think a high 'finish application' bar is the third most important.

But as I said I am still getting my head around breeding stats - so I am sure my thoughts will change again

I know Namor has super horses and I see his example there has super high battling qualities. Most horses in game don't have a very high Battling quality bar so judging by his horse there having that bar high should be a big boost. His horse also has the 100 Extra Speed Rating so that is another plus for that category. 100 Speed too in the parameter box.

Also meant to mention that the only stats bars that change are Potential and Cruising Burst. Potential will increase most times from 2 to 3 and from 3 to 4 and from 4 to 5. Sometimes the potential won't increase during any of those age up periods. I retire at the end of the 4yo season so I can't tell you if there is any increase in Potential in later years.

Cruising Burst will increase once in the horses lifetime when they age from 2 to 3. This will generally be between 15 and 25 points.

Speed, Acceleration and Starting will increase over time with special training focus and it seems it improves just by itself sometimes.

Don't have any moral qualms about inbreeding. It's a game - not real life. I just noticed I have two relatives in the shed - one with 100 Speed and one with 100 Acceleration. Both by the same sire. Hoping to get the best from both and then work on the Starting skill.

I am currently working of moving my breeding towards longer distances. The horse below stays two miles. I would still like to increase it's normal speed rating and I believe I have the horses to get it done. I am looking to provide an upload once I am satisfied.