Hello

Just bought SO5 yesterday and had a quick blast of it for a season. Found myself about 100k in debt and had about 4 average to poor horses. No money to bet, and seemed unable to sell the horses I did have.

I'm sure this question has been asked a thousand times so please direct me to another page if there is one with a guide for newbies, but would appreciate some advice on what I should be doing from day 1 of the new season and what the best way to go about the game is.

Thanks in advance,

GeordieDes

It depends on whether you are happy cheating to get money or not?

If you are save your game, open it up again, note down the winners of all the races, where they win by several lengths.

Close the game using ctrl + alt +del (task manager), then open the game again, this will take you back to the same day, now you go to the races and bet on the horses you have noted down.

Otherwise, sell your worst horses, go to the auctions and try to pick up some decent horses, a 2yo with rating of over 80 from a maiden or claimer, race them a bit until their rating improves and then sell them on at a profit.

Thanks! Going to try the honest route first and then when that fails, cheat. haha.

oh, also, basic question, and apologies if this is really obvious, but how do you actually go about selling your horses? do they have to win a selling race, or a claimer? or can you sell them at any time? Just getting to grips with the interface.

On the horse info page with all their stats and race history their is an A button under the picture of the horse. This means send the horse to auction. If you sell all your poor horses at the start of the season and keep the ok ones then you will get decent money for them.

Perfect thanks, sorry for the basic questions. Another one coming up - you say sell the poor horses at the beginning of the season. Is there an 'at a glance' way of being able to tell this (in a similar way to how on football manager, a player's value is indicated and a coaches report will confirm it), or is it only through racing them that you find out?

I seem to have 3 horses at the start, a 2 year old, a 3 year old and a 4 year old. Is there a rule of thumb on who i should keep and which to sell?

Lowest rating goes. Usually it is best to sell all the horses you're given, unless they have a rating of >85 on the flat or >135 NH.

am i right in thinking the 2 year old wont have a rating yet tho? so is it worth holding on to see if it becomes a star? (and then sell when it inevitably doesnt haha). thanks for the help guys, its much appreciated.

on the horse page, theres a little blue symbol top left, above the stats bar, this will open the detailed stats.
Most people will make their decision based on the potential bar, dark green = unrealised potential, light green = realised potential

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.

Everyone has a method here's mine and just for the record I haven't had to cheat at all and nor have I had to take out any expensive loans (until well into the game to fund an expensive purchase)
I am playing the NH only game
So, sell off the game horses you are given at the beginning at the game to leave you with a small pot
Now you want a strong bunch of horses who can run you up a sequence of wins in claimers. You can buy these cheaply at the auctions max I've paid is about 10k. Usually they might have run in handicaps without success or run once in a maiden and finished well down the field. Don't go for anything that's run about a million times without any success at all.
If they don't win in the claimers get rid.
Once you've got something that's winning a claimer by a country mile off to the bookies and back it. That's how you make the money. Don't be tempted to run your hotpot in a high handicap or feature race just because its won a selling plate by 20l doesn't mean it'll oblige.
Dont forget at the end of the day to retain your horse - you'll only pay auction fees about one-tenth of purchase price.
By doing this and having a neat team of claimers I made about 500k and spent some money on a horse that I hope will win bigger races. Now concentrating on building up my pot of money for future purchases.

Start a new game, enter your horses and see roughly how good they are. then put them in races below their ability, not claimers/sellers and bet on them heavy.
risky but ive made loads and now have good horses 3 seasons in!