So have a question before I inadvertently mess something up or do something I should not. I presently have a single game running with a decent breeding crop of fillies and a sprinkling of colts with different distances, I churn out about 40+ babies per year, and can usually always take the classics with this crop, though the Derby has escaped me in the last few years and my sprinter and distance lines are not very mature.

So I have discovered how to 'pool' horses and then crash the game so you have a version you can use in another but I have never had the need to export them, I trial in game as a rule, but understand export is required for the league.

Is the export, then crash option method the same as pooling? Is there any issue with pooling and then bringing the horses back into other games to export when fully fit? Does the league function with a stable training etc as per the game or just in the condition they were when exported? Does fitness matter in this format? I have horse in 'copy' my best who have since been retired into my barn to breed does this matter? So entering into the league father and son for example?

Any tips or advice would be welcome as I start to think about the crop I want for the league?

Josh

The export button is the 'E' button on the top right of the horse description. That exports to the construction kit (CK) where you can run races on various tracks. You can export at all ages, but if you export in the same season it'll be overwritten with the most recent export. They're exported as they are when you press the button, so if they don't have full potential or full condition, that's how they remain in the CK. To get the file to upload you go into the CK and press the blue circle (more detailed description in posts further down), and then can upload to the startersordersonline.com site from your documents once you're registered and ready to upload. But don't upload yet because the site is still being tested, so any uploads will probably be deleted before the season starts around March-time.

Rules regarding game-pool horses haven't been defined, but I don't think there'll be any restrictions on this. Breeding doens't matter, but if there's more than one season of the league then horses ages have to follow on naturally. I.e. they have to go from 4-5 or 2-3, you can't skip a year with a horse.

Mine all mature later, all of my flat horses are jumpers and vice versa. The majority of mine win in game from 2-9 yo, but don't peak until they're 5 or 6, it really doesn't matter, unless you're desperate to have a 2yo runner.

Ok thanks for that.

So in the league if the horses are essentially static can you run them an unlimited amount? I had thought to try and have a crop covering all ages, maybe not 2yo, but certainly a healthy selection at 3, and a sprinkling older. But do I for example need multiples at each distance range to cover all races or can the pick of the litter just run the lot? Have one that nicely covers 1.1 to 1.5.

I have found so far most of my horses are largely done by eight or nine, few of my flats make it beyond 5 before I want to breed them.

Yeah, if there's a race for them you can run every week. It's nice to have a good spread, there's a huge amount of races, but the real schedule is reflected in that there are slightly fewer options for stayers than shorter distance horses. You have (if I remember rightly) a 1.5 f spread either way in the league, though this is in the league rules thread. So if your first run is at 7f, you can then only race between 5.5 and 8.5f, I think the spread increases for horses who run over further. This is to prevent people exploiting the handicapping system.

I think in your first go it's probably a good idea to have a nice spread of distances. It's more than likely that your horses won't be good enough to compete in the group races (though fingers crossed yours are), so you're going to need to rely on handicaps to get runs, meaning if you've got lots at the same distance you might well struggle to get runs into all of them.

Am I correct to assume that league races are capped to say 30 runners and that entry is based on rating? Thus is it worth ensuring their rating is as high as poss before exporting?

My top milers (lot of my best horses range 1 to 1.2) clock low 1.38's with one who gets to 1.37.8ish when pressed, how far off league times does that make me roughly, hard to judge from the game itself as he was only beaten one or twice in his career, and there was a lot of cantering in the last f or so.

No. All ratings are reset when the league starts, most exports have a high rating from the game, hence all are reset to 100 and ratings go up and down from there.

Ok so then to get into the better races you need to first race generally and increase the league rating or is race entry determined via another means?

Sorry for all the questions

The first week will be full of maiden races which will have lots of runners.
As a general rule if your horse finishes in the first 5 or 6 in one of these they will get quite a high handicap mark but they should be capable of holding their own in the group races to follow. They are effectively group races as most of the future stars (group winners) will be running in these races.
If like me your finishes well down the field you get a lower handicap mark and be able to enter the handicaps. These are banded 0-80, 0-90 etc. so however far you are beaten or whatever your mark there will be races that you can be competitive in and win.
Be warned, the standard of some horses is pretty exceptional so it's best to expect to get slaughtered in the first couple of weeks then aim for the handicaps. Anything more will then be a bonus.
In my experience any horse that can win more than a single group 1 race in your game will at least find its level in the low grade handicaps.
And it is easily possible, especially over jumps, to win league races with gamebreds.
Hope this helps.
Darren

As long as you don't violate the distance spread rules, or have a rating that is higher than the handicap level of the race you can enter any race you want. Though if you enter group races, the horse will get a disproportionately high rating even if it finishes last just because it's a group race.

Please take time and Read Gith

League Rules viewtopic.php?f=16&t=8846

How I export and trial for the league...

For exporting I always export my horses at the same time every year and that is in December. I always follow the same schedule so the Breeders Cup is the last race of the year for my horses. They get a month off and then I train them into shape and export at top fitness. My own little method and I'm not sure if this makes any difference is - in the training screen if you hover your mouse over the last icon on the right of the horses line the popup says "click to view more training data for this horse" - repeatedly move your mouse over that icon until the head lad feedback says "horse is raring to go" then I export. Hold up horses get the instruction "don't lead". The rest no instructions.

I have over 300 exports and I trial them all at Ascot on Good ground for uniform results. I trial by age and sex groups to make it more manageable. Currently I am trialling my 6 furlong 2yo's. I select the field and then go to race. I click the mouse to skip the scrolling field at the beginning of the race and then immediately hit the escape button. After a few strides the race skips to the results screen. I do 5 trials for each group. After each trial I use the snipping tool to snip the top 5 finishers and paste that into an open paint project



After I get the 5 results I tally up the best horses with a point system - 5 first,4 second,3 third,2 fourth,1 fifth. Times are important but a very consistent performer is also a good horse to use in the league. Having so many exports I had to trial males and females separately and then get the best performers of both groups to trial in the final set of trials.

Another tip some horses excel at certain tracks. If you really want to win a particular stakes race you should trial at that course and distance to find a good horse who surprises everyone. Personally I always want the Kentucky Derby and the Dubai World Cup so I will trial specifically for those races.

This thread so far has been very informative!
Thanks everyone.

Thanks for the rules link, should have found that myself.

Prompts two last questions.

1- I assume the brother sister rule is more to stop abuse of horse files being physically copied rather than an issue with repeat breeding the lines, should not effect me based on the way I usually breed but is good to know now. How is this policed over multiple seasons?

2 - understand the aging aspect and not being able to skip, but I assume this is for the players to control, so if I want my five year to run in the next league I have to export and keep a version of him at six. Really I am confirming they do not age once exported for league use naturally?

Josh

1 - you are pretty much correct, it is easy for those running the league to check the lineage of each horse and remove if necessary as far as policing goes and I believe all horses are stored in TOM somewhere to check over multiple seasons but can't be certain.

2 - yes exactly correct and this is down to you, I always found it best to export every horse I deem to be league worthy from ages 2 through to 5 in this case. Not ideal as it means it clutters up the CK when trialling but useful if you find a monster in the league and want to bring them back for the following season.