1, At the end of the year, or at the start of next year rather. It say's horse sale, in the financial screen, 9 to be exact. I had plenty of spaces available though, as I made sure I sent all 3yo's I wanted to stud and retire/auction the rest. Also discarded all 2yo's I didn't want.

2, Similar-ish to question 1. if I retire from the game, does that horse block a slot for one of my new 2yo's, as the due to be retired horse stays with me until the end of the year.

3, Breeding is going well enough now, not as good as some I've seen on the forums, but I'm happy. Anyway, my question is, I have a lot of horses coming through each year and most are similar distances. there's only so many races a year to put them in G1's that is and I don't like putting in a few of my own in 1 race. Is there any particular good way people have of weeding out the weak early on, for both 2yo's and 3yo's? I read some only keep 80% potential 2yo's and 85% 3yo's. Well this is becoming all to common now and they're all [mostly] over that target. Any advice is welcome, I'm just trying to save time.

There is a max number of horses you can have in your stable. From SO1 to SO5, it was 100. In SO6, it's 150. If you aren't at the max, buy more stalls. If you hit the max, the game will auto sell your 2yo over the max. Would be nice if the horse sale actually told you who got sold rather than just tell you that you sold a horse. If you have plenty of space, then are you sure the horse sale isn't a horse you retired from the game the previous season? Horses that are retired from the game (whether it be from the main stable or the breeding barn ) are shown as a horse sale on the financial screen the following season.

There is also a max in the breeding barn. You can only have up to 150 horses (or 100 pre-SO6) there as well which includes foals. I tested this in SO5 a few weeks ago and bred over 80 foals one year. Issue was, I had 30 mares and stallions. So I lost 10 foals before they even hit the yearling stage. I watched for several years to see if they'd pop up and they never did. Two were by a 30 G1 stallion so I wasn't pleased. The breeding barn does auto increase its size up to the same number that's in your main stable.

If you retire a horse from the game, it does not block new 2yo the following season. The new one just takes the old one's spot. The game retires the horses first, and then adds the new ones.

With breeding and pruning my stable, I tend to sell or retire from the game the worst of my stable. Some horses might have great potential but are terrible on the track. Unless they have a really good stat that I happen to be looking for at the time for breeding like battle qualities or distance adaptability, I just ditch them. Sometimes they might do better for another trainer. I had one 2yo that lost every race I put her in. Sold her because my other 2yos were better. By the time the game retired her, she was a 17 G1 winner.

I immediately sell any horse below a certain potential level to start off the year. By mid June, I sell any 3yo+ horse that has failed to perform (hasn't won in a feature race). By the end of the year, I sell any 2yo that hasn't won at all unless they want really long distances like 1m2f and I sell any 3yo+ that has fewer than 5 G1. If an older horse hasn't won anything of note in the previous 6 months but are over 5 G1, I retire them to stud. As my game progresses, my G1 requirement goes up. I require 5 G1s to start, but after my line's established, I start to require 10 G1. Sometimes I may consider bloodlines and G2/G3 wins as well. I have one mare in my breeding barn who did nothing on the track. One of my first mares I retired to stud. I got some of my best G1 winners to start out of her. I also get a US Trible Crown winner out of what appeared to be a terrible mare.

Keeping a spreadsheet of your horses is how many keep track of their stables. I started to do that with my most recent SO5 game (I don't own SO6), and it made me realize who my top breeders were and who flopped. It also let me see which horses were only good for selling the foals. Spreadsheets aren't for everyone and they can be tedious to keep depending on what you're tracking. You just have to figure out how you want to do it yourself. Some spreadsheets others keep are in other threads which can give you examples. You can search the forums for "spreadsheet templates" and you might find them.

Thanks for the response. some good info that I wasn't sure on.

I have max stalls. It may well be as you said from retiring. At the start of the season, I noticed it said horse sales (9) and something else (though I can't remember what the other was now) I just thought it was strange, I had saved just before the end of the season, and had noticed at the start of the season. I exited the game and sold some horses to make space (even though I should've had enough space) but it still said 9 sold. it's the reason I thought I'd post here, just in case I was missing something. thanks.

I'm ok in the breeding barn

Glad it doesn't block my 2yos. I sell my horses usually as I was unsure if I retired and sent to grass, that it'd block my 2yos. I hate selling and them beating the ones I kept and seeing them win multiple g1s aha.

As for breeding, my rule of thumb was the 80%2yo and 85% minimum 3yo. I'm now finding a lot of the ones I sell are better than the ones I kept, so I will have to be more careful. I do like to breed in certain qualities (currently have 2 with high battling qualities) I guess i'll have to try and work out which others I feel are important next.

As for selling, I follow a similar procedure (as mentioned) I only keep mine until the end of their 3yo career, namely because I thought I was blocking my 2yos. I've noticed some that don't perform on the track produce good offspring, I guess usually a safer bet is if it wins a lot. I tend to be more selective over my colts/stallions than fillies and mares. I only keep a couple of stallions, that have certain things I want to breed into. I do find it difficult getting them all to win g1s though. The quality is there, but as I said, so many around the same distance (slowly moving into higher and lower distances) and with there only being so many g1 races in certain distances, I have putting loads of my same horses in 1 race. I suppose that could help weed the good from the bad though.

As for the spread sheet idea, I can see it being useful, I'm just not sure it's for me. with exporting and of bits that need doing, it may just take some of the good game feel away and make it into a chore. perhaps not though, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try, it's just that it already takes an age to get through a season and I haven't really started trials yet!

Again, thanks for the post. it covered a lot I was unsure of.

Kill if u breeding for the league then don't get caught up with in game trialling, the best in game horses don't always end up being the best CK horses. I'd say trial a lot to find the best CK horses. I think if u find good mares breed a lot with them because I think its harder to find good mares than good Colts.

I used to trial and breed that way, but with ck having its problems, Ive not spent much time with it yet.