Mark get rid of race builder
im bored of trailing ?
why cant we enter horses in stable ?
if i got horse won 20 g1 wins and 10 others trianers got same will it be a dead heat ? no
i had many fav horses .. then go rb and run terrible
i do not think ill be in next league due to this
good luck all
Del

In general I agree, it is daft that the game and the race kit play so differently. In my view so7, the game itself needs to manage the online side, schedules, handicapping and all. And game play needs to be reflected in league play.

I haven't actually started trialling yet, am still trying to breed enough half decent ones first.

What exactly is the issue, how do you mean by 'play so differently' ?

That performance in game does not equal performance in trail. For example I had a monster 1m colt beat everything including frankel as a legend at 3yo. In trial he was rubbish beaten by horses who he owned in game and horses who never got close to frankel.

It is not always the case, some game form does translate to trail form, but it is not consistent enough to trust and as the league play on what is basically the trial kit you have to go with trial results. Makes you do the whole process of testing horses twice. I hardly look at game results any longer, there meaningless.

So do you think that it works the other way around too, and that horses with poor game form might turn out good in trial form and then later on in league. If so does that mean the bars are not necessarily the bee all and end all of it.

I am having great trouble figuring out what is worth keeping and what is worth exporting. Had some with what appear very good bars that are basically useless and others with no bars that are winning good races. It is all very confusing. For example I was amazed when I managed to buy the current seasons Derby winner in a Thursday auction. I thought this would give me a great horse to breed from but when he showed up in my stable his bars were awful.

Is there any point racing them at all in game mode then if you are simply trying to put a league team together ?

Yes it certainly can work the other way around, poor in game good in trial. It is worth racing them in game, least as 2yo and 3yo for the potential improvements.

As for figuring out what to keep, I look at all my horses at 1yo (perk of playing a combined schedule you get them at 1yo) and make decisions based on potential (both realised and unrealised), speed and crusing burst in the main. I also look at consistency finish application and deterioration as this allows me to be more forgiving of low potential for horses who peak later for jumps. I also look at training adaptation for jump training later on. I retire from game the chaff, of an average of 60 horses at 1yo my cull normally leaves me with around 20.

I check them again after the 2yo races when the year changes and they get their 3yo growth, and make a second round of decisions based on potential alone, mainly for those with a high degree of un-realised potential to see if they have filled out. After that they all stay in game until 7yo and I export every year. The 2yo export only includes those who have already filled out on potential.

As for bars I have just about got that heady combination of potential, full speed and crusing burst in the 80% mark, came through in my last breeding season prior to the trial I am doing now, after efforts to improve my bars. Most were good in game, thus far their trial form has been bad to appalling, but they all have ripples to work out, such as consistency and finish applications.

So not the be all and end all, however my best trial horses for the most part have no less than full potential at 4/5, speed at least 80% and cruising 60%+

Cheers, that is all very interesting.

I think I need to be a bit more ruthless at culling. I get them at 1-y-o but have never culled at that point. So do you think anything with a potential less than a certain point, say 50-60% or even slightly higher, should be culled ?

My horses enter the game as 2yo. I cull ruthlessly. The horse below would just pass the cull. His realised potential would have about a 70-30 chance of maxing out to his absolute potential.

Any horse with less realised potential, (dark green bar), does not pass the cull.

This horse was bred on the flat to be a 2m 4f chaser so I would not expect the potential bars to equal\max out until he was 5yo.

Yes he would pass my cull as well, that potential mark is about as low as I will accept unless there is stunning cruising and speed and a deterioration bar at the lowest point, at 6yo these sometimes max out to be good chasers. I am more forgiving on unrealised potential as I have seen a few jump by 50/60% by 3yo, not common but happens and is worth running at 2yo to see.

Thanks both, I think I feel a huge cull coming on. Population at Leedham Towers is liable to plummet overnight. 120 odd down to about 3 by the looks of it !!!

Best you have is still the best you have, cannot improve without them in your bloodline regardless of how they stack up against others, when you have 1/2yo consistently in the 80% potential bracket there worth sticking with to trial and breed.

Hi Martin

It's hard to turn off the sentimental switch when you start playing this game but if you are going to compete in the league and be competitive then you need to cut the wires and remove it lol

It's a strange game and most of my experience comes from the single player as I am now well into my 90th+ seasons in a row and sometimes some horses don't make sense as to why they win so many Group 1s when other horses in the stable have better bars and barely win one G1 - then there are horses with the good bars that win almost everything.
But there is a quote from Scatters that sticks in my head that he believes or has inside knowledge that there is an invisible stat that gives a random horse some X factor and I think the horses with the not quite as good bars that dominate in your game, have.

A theory I also have is that the 1st player game is completely random every season (AI) so there are seasons when the AI is not so strong and other seasons where the AI throws up one or two good horses (sometimes more) that are hard to beat and that may also explain why some horses who should dominate in your trails, fail while what you thought were lesser horses dominate because the lesser horses were actually up against stronger AI horses.

So couple that with my X-factor theory and it's probably best to fix your self a drink and start another season of racing and breeding and hope for the best lol

I treat my mares for breeding slightly differently from my stallions for breeding. The stallions I breed with have full potential bars and have done well in the CK, but I breed with a wide variety of mares. This is a mare from my barn, her potential never maxed out but her other bars are good so I gave her a go in the barn. My best 2m 4f horse came from a mare like this and a good CK stallion.

I do the same

Likely why we have similar looking horses in breeding, though I breed out that dead constitution that you get from old horses.