Have some questions about jockeys / the game in general.

1) Are jockeys selective? Meaning if i have a crap horse will a good jockey take my ride?
2) If you are a beginner, is it smart to do jockey control yourself or leave it to the ai.
3) For race selection, is it smart to check out the other horses that are entered in a race to look for "soft fields", etc?

Interesting post!

Ok these are my thoughts and I am sure other players will post theirs.

1) I and I think most players have a stable jockey or apprentice that they nominate for each ride/race - leaving it to the game to choose the jockey I can't answer as I don't know.

2) As above but get on board and ride as well - it's a good way to find out where your horse prefers to be during a race. Riding over the jumps is a lot of fun!

3) Yes you can do that or look for small fields so at least you'll get some sort of monetary return and a better chance at winning.

1- if you can afford his fee and he is not already booked then yes you can use any jockey in game. Though as suggested stable jockeys make life easier, starting out an apprentice is a good thing as they can claim weight. My original apprentice is now my main stable guy and he wins champion jockey year in and year out.

2- I do not ride my horses, I play the game for the trainer/owner experience and try to stick to some self imposed limitations to keep it more realistic. But again as said it is the best way to understand horse preferences and certainly something to try in early run throughs as you get a feel for things.

3- I would say so yes, certainly with horses that are never going to be in the top class and early on money is a very important aspect of the game, you can never have enough. Once your into g1's and have a solid breeding programme it does not make any difference, though you will come to learn there are certain g1's that are easier to win than others.

I usually ride my horses in maidens for a bit of fun but I know unless I get it horrifically wrong they will win on the bridle near enough

Race selection I do usually try and mop up the easy Group 1s that I probably wouldn't have entered otherwise

1. As stated, if you pay them they will ride it.
2. I leave maiden races to AI (this is assuming you don't do jockey mode and ride yourself - I don't). In an unraced horse, I let the AI have about the first three rides. I also let AI have one ride on a 3/4 yr old if I bred it it raced at 2. I have seen the horses preference change from a 2yr to a 4yo. Read the results and see how the AI handled it. As a beginner just watching the AI run them is ok. If you buy a horse that has been raced more than 2-3 times off claimers or the auction, you can just read its history and have a fair idea from that on what it likes.

I save before race days. Sometimes when a horse didn't even place that I though should have and I gave instructions that I thought suited, I'll reload and let the AI have it. In some cases, it wins then, and not due to inconsistency but the AI rode it very differently. I then reload again, and manually give instructions to try to recreate that and see if it wins. Usually it will. Though be aware, some horses are inconsistent, so the same instructions results in varied performance, look for the AI making very different choices. But using that "save, watch AI, if win where I lost", reload and see if you can replicate the instructions is great learning, just beware those inconsistent bars. Eventually you'll have a good feel from watching a race and looking at the horse's stats how you want to tweak the instructions.

3. Absolutely.