1. Weather. It is no doubt the Brit who developed this game never traveled to America. Unlike in the British Isles, it does not rain nearly every day in most places in America. Is there a mod or tweak to change the weather patterns in the game so it's there is less rain? It's just kind of weird racing at tracks like Santa Anita where there is 290 sunny days per year and yet it's raining there in the game most of the time.

2. Stat bars. Are the detailed stat bars absolute or relative to the horse's ability? It seems relative, because horses with giant stamina and speed bars but with a low potential bar still suck.

Not really Only the potential bar is important

Yes potential bar seems to be the most important. If you can manage a full potential bar along with full Starting and Acceleration bars that seems to me would be the best.

I've got screenshots of each horse in my breeding ttf operation when I first retire them to the transfer shed. 280+ horses and not one of them has that triple crown of bars.

An example of the insane record keeping nonsense I'm up to. This one is a gamebred. Probably the closest I have to having all three of those bars at max. But he has no confidence and no finish application which makes him suspect.

How do you manage to get a full condition bar I never seem to have that do you use manual training?