Hi , despite my horses wining plenty of group 1 races in England they nearly always struggle to win in France and Ireland , i have won a handful but normally the ratings and formbook go right out the window and even if my horse is way ahead of the others in ratings and an odds on favourite they still get beat !
Really frustrating as sometimes i'll have an unbeaten animal winning races by several lengths in the uk then send it across the Irish sea and it'll come in stone last !
Has anyone else noticed this or is their a trick to winning these races ?

If u get u horses to a certain ability u can win those races, it's even harder over jumps.

Hi Forest

I wrote a lot of posts about this issue but they seem to have been deleted now.

It is because an invisible stable virus is put on your horse when it runs abroad costing you 5-10 lengths per race.

The horses that beat you are in fact c**p (don't breed from them).

Its easier to win the derby than a group 3 in France in the flat game , and easier to win the Champion hurdle than it is a grade 2 in Ireland in the jumps game .

This is because the hardcore league players have asked for this to be the case because they are fed up with their super horses winning every race they are entered in.

It wont be changed in a hurry because any other solutions would effect how breeding and the league work so anyone else who just wants to play a normal horse racing sim simply has to just suffer.

There have been loads of post regarding this issue but as soon as anyone complains the hardcore/league players come on and say its the only challenge left in the game and its the best solution .

I have to run 3-4 horses at a time in UK races now because running any non megastar horses abroad is utterly pointless .

The only solution to this is to do what league players do and focus on breeding your own horses by fast forwarding through seasons and importing horses from other games until you have a stable full of horses able to run in the league.

Then you will win some foreign races but you will be winning the Derby and Oaks etc by 10-15 lengths.

At least running in France and Ireland and winning will be possible.

The solution is to simply put the stable bug in the UK races that way the whole game becomes a challenge in an even game world .

Hi Mark

Could we not have an 'Unrealistic Foreign Races' option on the start screen options and players could choose whether to have the Foreign race bug on or not ?

Is that possible ?

If so would it not help the split between players who want harder foreign races and those that don't ?

1. Your posts haven't been deleted, I'm sure they've just slipped down the list.

2. How do you know there is a bug?

3. Again not true that league players asked for foreign races to be harder. Yes, some people have said that it is one of the few challenges left, but they have also expressed frustration at being beaten abroad. I made the point that it should be really hard to win abroad, but apparently I was wrong and it should take nothing out of the horse to travel to Japan...

4. Again not true that only league players get their ideas listened to, they simply post more often so are more likely to receive a response. Additionally there is little work going into the league right now, there are ideas being thrown around and things being tried but there isn't hardcore work going into the league until it has been decided how it will be run.

5. The only solution isn't to do that, I don't do that and I can win foreign races fairly easily. I play 2 games at a time, flat and jumps and import/export horses between them to try them in a different code. I don't fly through seasons, I'm only on about season 15. Maybe if you want to be competitive you need to have a think about the way you breed.

6. I'm almost certain Mark won't implement your idea above about 'unrealistic foreign races'. For now it is how the game works and I'm sure Mark will look at it. Post in the technical support forum and I'm sure he'll see it and have a look. But remember there are lots of other issues he's looking into.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but some of what you're saying just isn't true and I'm really sorry that you feel like that about the game. Everyone should feel like they are listened to and it's sad that you don't.

I posted a similar topic when I had a filly that won the oaks very easily and was unbeaten, but when ran in the Irish oaks ran like a handicapper.
I don' t think is a a intentional bug but the Irish classics should be less competitive than the English versions, but Hong kong and Japan would give a tougher test as you are up against more competition from all over the world.
The problem about tougher competition in the game , as mentioned needs to be addressed to keep the game fresh, which is a gamebred problem which I am sure Mark is aware of and will be crack in time if not in this version it will be a improvement in the next generation of the game. I said it before but in general the game is looking great.

To be honest i'm close to giving up running my horses abroad , i just want to have a live chance with my better horses but it appears that despite having the best horse in a race abroad it counts for absolutely nothing .
I don't expect to clean up but it's not very realistic imo.
I can remember winning two group ones in France and two in Ireland , none at all in the US , Japan , Dubai or Honk Kong despite many highly rated entries.
Very annoying.

i win regulary G1 abroad, it is tougher but possible. The current solution is definitely not the best one, but better than before.

I am no expert but there are many things you can look at, in your schedules, over prepped schedule would make the game harder but I like it that way, I play the game like supercat, two games, Australian & jumps, I exported horses from my Australian game to my jumps game they are winning jump races like you wouldn't believe, really a joy to play, I say it makes a difference on the schedule that you are using and how well it's prepped.

Hi Supercat ,

I am not criticizing the game as I think it is brilliant and Mark has done a fantastic job but these issues have arisen from one decision about the game spoiling many other aspects of what would be a fantastic game .

At the start of any game you get the option to play an easy,medium or hard game ,none of these options have anything like the impact of the current foreign races on difficulty .

Even on hard you can bet on 3-4 races on the first day doubling up your money until you have a couple of million ,if you fail start again.

This can be done within 2 hours of game play max.Once this is done the hard rating of the game is gone .

Yet the difference between having foreign races how they used to be and how they are now is astronomical effecting game play more than any other setting in the game.

Any other game I play allows you to chose the difficulty setting why not this game ?

Before the foreign races where 2/10 hard now they are 9/10 hard why cant they be 5/10 hard or at least why cant I have the option to choose how hard they are ?

I can choose starting money ,horses, general betting difficulty but I cant choose how hard 30% of the races are?

Also I have seen Supercat on several post you have said what Mark is going to do or what you think he is going to do with game suggestions .I do not think this is fair as it makes it it difficult to Mark to contradict your predictions on his actions, and should you be saying what he is or isn't going to do anyway ?

Also a lot of the league and more experienced players don't seem to care about what the game may now be like for the casual/intermediate gamer.

To play 15 seasons of this game is a lot of game time .1 month in the game takes about 2 hours real time so a season is at least 20 hours play (I've spent 40 hours a season many times),15 x 20 is 300 hours game play .300 hours on a game is not casual but what about the people out there who only want to play the game for a few hours a week ? The game is unplayable to them .You need to be at least in season 5(100 hours) to have a couple of horses you would consider running regularly abroad .Only someone with a full breeding barn up and running can win abroad unless you get very very lucky at the auctions .

I have a jumps game that I play in jockey mode(So I only run one horse per race) where I have 3-4 horses in each distance/discipline but because I cant run them in Irish or French races they can only run 2-3 times per season max .The Jockey mode game is dead in the water despite the amazing graphics and game play .There is no point me running 80% of my horses abroad just to get a run when they will spend the whole race tailed off despite being clear winners at the Cheltenham Festival .

All players that say the game should stay as it is regarding foreign races should scrap their current games and start again, not build a breeding empire and see how much fun the game is for the casual gamer .If some of them are frustrated not winning with their super horses how would they feel winning 1 foreign race in every 50 attempts ?

Regardless of the effects of horses travelling in real life should a great game be so crippled for so may by one option less feature/decision ?