Hiya GeodieDes, welcome along.
You will find that many people play the game in a different way, I play flat mainly and I have found the best way to make to get on in the game is to have plenty of horses, you can buy cheap horses at the auction and run the in Claiming, C7 and selling races to get easy place money and hopefully throw up the occaisional winner! Each horse has a level it can comfortably compete at, this is basically a trail and error experiment, start low and build up, there is quite a buzz to be had to see your horse running on to take the win even if the finishing time is 3 secs lower than standard. Now and again you will find a pretty decent horse for not much money, also some poor performing colts can be improved by gelding, although if the horse has anything about I would keep it complete in case I want to breed later in the game.Best advice I can give is to watch how your horse performs in a race, if the jockey is urging the horse along when the other jockeys are sitting pretty still then your horse is punching above its weight and could benefit from a drop in class or maybe a step up in distance.
Take your time and build up your barn, as you progress weed out the bad uns and your stable will gradually improve.
Also, on the main screen click on the top left of the aerial shot of the barn and put the food grade on high, I don't know if this does any good but it makes feel better.