Alright Ladies and Gentlemen,
Just like to apologize in advance, I am sure these questions have been asked a multitude of times. I have tried to search through your forums, but not having as much luck as I was hoping. I will say that in real life, I do not follow horse racing, however I have a tremendous amount of love for statistical games. I have only been playing approx. 2 days now. I can say that I have the betting part down to a science pretty much and rarely lose money betting on any given day. So far, by the end of day 2, I can upgrade my whole stables and still have 5+ in the bank. DOn't think money will be an issue for me. I believe I have a decent grasp on my starting horses, but I seem to be hit or miss when entering them into races, sometimes Ill show or win, and others I don't even come close. I watch the conditioning level for each horse, before, during and after a race. I have been sticking to the 14-21 days between races, though I am not sure how well that helps or not, read it somewhere that it was ideal. So here are some questions I have, and came up with after reading into your forums.....Oh, as an American I play the U.S. based campaign.

(1) What does CK stand for?

(2) I see my horses were sired by Group 1, Group 2, and/or Group 3. I am assuming Group 1 is better than Group3. Do i have that right? If so, do I only breed with Group 1 horses?

(3) I see that races are broken down into C1 through C7 races, again I will assume C1 is tougher than C7. I also noticed that almost all C7 races are selling races and yes I know to stay clear of those. However, I think this is where I am having my difficulties when entering my horses into races. How do I know which "C" rating to race my horse in? WHen to kick them up to the next level?

(4) Breeding, the devil's advocate, this i have read but still a bit confused. So it goes without saying, should I always breed with game bred horses versus my own horses in my breeding stable? For the love of the Great Game Gods, need some good advice and/or tips on this one.

Thanks

Banshii

Hey Banshii, welcome to the forums. You seem to have a decent grasp of things already but I'll help out where I can.


Challenge... something? Not really got a clue here, but it's where you can trial your horses against each other once you export them from various saves. It's the way most people figure out which are the best to use for the online league that is organised by some on these forums.



You are correct that Group/Grade 1 is the highest level of competition. When breeding I do normally start by looking to breed my horses with those computer owned that have won the most G1s - however sometimes poor racers can be good breeders or might have a good trait or stat to pass down the lineage, so I personally try and breed with a few horses that I like even if they didn't win G1 (or even any group races!).



Lots of people seem to differ on how they do things here. My normal path is to start by finding any 2yo's that have at least 70 potential and are within 20 of reaching that (so 50 ability/70 potential... I get confused by the realised and actual potentials so I call them ability and potential instead - where a horse is at, and where it can grow to this season). I start their careers by racing them in a maiden, then in allowance races if I think they are okay, or G3/G2/G1 if I really think they might be good and want to test them. If a horse doesn't finish top 3 consistently then I know it's at too high a level - unless the distance, going, etc is incorrect.

I normally just try and get my 2yo's above 100 rating, 3yo's winning G3 minimum (if good enough we go for the Kentucky Derby and other Triple Crown races!), and and if my 4yo's can't win a G1 then I either sell them or retire to the breeding barn if they have any traits or high potential to pass on.



If I have a mare and stallion with desirable traits I will for sure breed them together at least once. In most of my YouTube saves this is where my best horses have come from. However most of the time I am breeding almost exclusively with the game-owned breeders. Some even say to save before a breeding season so that you can advance three years, see which horses bred the best foals, then crash the game and reload to breed almost exclusively with them. Personally I find that too much time and work, but it really can springboard your breeding program.

Hope these answers help a little. I'm not sure there is an exact science to booking races or the whole breeding side of thing, but what I do works for me. I'm good at booking races and winning in the game, however my breeding isn't good enough to get horses competitive for the Online League at all - some of those monster horses are downright scary! I think they key is to find what seems to work in your game, try out some new things once in awhile, and most of all just enjoy playing the game.

Hopefully others will give you a bit more advice and share their own methods, if not these boards are full of good posts and advice that you can piece together and turn into a good strategy too. Good luck, and once again Welcome!

Chris,
Thanks for clearing some of that up for me. I bought the game on Monday, played for a few hours, and then probably spent two days researching online on tips, goals, and/or goals. In fact, your youtube video's were the first I watched. Just have two more question, I noticed in alot of youtubes I have watched or pictures of horses others have posted, that you have 10% check marks on actual and potential abilities, my game doesn't have those, is there a "mod" for that? I can't find anything in the settings that which will allow me to put those "has tags/check marks" in their abilities.

Does anyone hire an apprentice Jockey and what the heck is he used for?

banshii

I use an apprentice in my main game, indeed over the seasons I have had a load taken them through their apprenticeships and then let them loose, my original is now my main stable jockey and wins the jockey champ year in year out. They are learner jockeys, who based on wins get a weight deduction to overcome their incompetence

Thanks Githyanki, much appreciated.

hi,i use an apprentice mainly when I start a game,like in racing in general he takes a little weight of ie 7 pound allowance now if you have an entry in a top handicap say bunbury cup,enter youre horse if it has top weight,hire youre apprentice he will take off 7...5....3...pound it could be valuable,the more wins they get then they lose their allowance.my apprentice is now main jockey at my stable.

I use both a main jockey and a Apprentice to ride my second string or ride at another meeting on the same day.

Gray

Good luck.

The Increment bar mod is in here:http://www.startersorders.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=9867

Taunton,
Thanks alot, I now have the 10% increment bars. Much nicer.

Banshii

Glad to see others have managed to help you out here too, the Increment Bar mod is a must have for me so glad you have now got that. Hope you enjoy the game, it's real fun.