Damn, had my sights set on the Championship for a moment there.

Glad it's working again Ghost.

Thanks . For a long time it didn't look to good.

I know what you went through!
Totally gut wrenching thinking that all that work has been lost.
Glad you're back in the game!

Back to the tedium of trailing

I think I'm going to have 10 horses for the flat. Bred very little for the flat this year.

Coigach - Alcazar Will be my stayers
Za Approval will come back and run in the Dubai World Cup.
Rafha will be my 1m2f horse
Nibbs Point will run over 1m6, is a old horse I bred nearly a year ago.
Bella Bellanti will run over 5f.
Johnasberg Will be my 5f 2yo
Tedborrow Wish is my 6 furlong horse.

I need two more horses and I'm done.

I have the bare bones of a team for both, want to get through one more breeding cycle of 5 seasons and one more trial ideally. Work to do.

I'm glad I'm not a full time flat trainer because I've been breeding some new horses but the better u horses get the more mixed up u trials are, no horse seems to shine. Anyone else out there finding that.

My team for the Flat Season. Aim is to pick up a few wins.

Coigach - Alcazar Will be my stayers
Za Approval will come back and run in the Dubai World Cup.
Rafha will be my 1m2f horse
Nibbs Point will run over 1m6, is a old horse I bred nearly a year ago.
Bella Bellanti will run over 5f.
Johnasberg Will be my 5f 2yo
Tedborrow Wish is my 6 furlong horse.
Espisito will be my Kentucky Derby horse.
Wannabe Grand + Marcroft will be my 2yo 6F horses.

I like the name of the last horse John. Reminds me of myself.

Yes I get that with jumps as well. You think you have found the best horse then when you add a couple of new ones and trial again it doesn't seem so good and something that you almost binned looks really good.

There are a bunch of factors to consider when running trials, I have had horses own my early mass trials of say 30-40 horses only to fall away to nothing when the field is filtered down to say 15-20. The presence of a front runner also plays a part, I have a decent looking front running miler right now who wins every trial, but I cannot really decide if he is making the rest look worse than they actually are, or if he is really quite decent. Chances are I shall find out in the league

In other news it is with great disappointment that Dominion of Saints and Trashman have fallen by the wayside in my draft team thus far. Only champion hurdle runner up Chess and National Sensation remain in contention for the next league, the later is almost certainly going to return, cannot breed a decent 4m horse for the life of me.

You must have some good ones then if only two are coming back as I recall you having a lot of good horses last season !

General improvement across the board yes. Not huge leaps rather steady progress. Saints was replaced in my first trial, not up to snuff at 6 and cannot chase. Trashman was in the mix until trial three which I have just done, have about 6 others who have his number. Sentimental reasons would be the only approach to include him or handicaps. Now I think about it Kiss my Tail is also still in the mix to chase this year along with Chess. National Sensation is 9L clear my next best 4m horse, is a distance I am struggling with. Great White Hope, gold cup runner up, also may come back at 7 as my hunter chaser, have not really trialled for that as of yet, but he could rate himself out of contention. Am back to breeding what will be my last batch, last trial will be a squeeze for time I think.

How's your team coming along?

It is difficult for me to gauge really as it will be my first attempt. A few weeks ago I was nowhere.

The main problem is that the game itself is just a little too easy and within a few seasons I was cleaning up the classics every season and thinking I had something decent. Then looking at the bars of some horses posted in threads it was quite clear that they weren't going to cut the mustard.

I then cut my stable down in size to speed things up and concentrated on the better ones just breeding the best to the best. I think I have a few now that might be competitive. Plenty of full potential and full extra speed horses, I am now concentrating on getting the stamina and cruising burst in there and have CB up to about 70%.

I got a full bar BQ stallion but if it passes the BQ on everything else plummets so that has been a dead end. Gelding a few flat horses I don't need to breed from seems to have given me a good bunch of hurdlers and a few chasers but again it is difficult to tell from the in game races. My flat rejects have been winning all the Cheltenham and Liverpool hurdles by 10 lengths or more but that may mean nothing. To be honest I have probably got too immersed in it and spent far too long trying to breed flat superstars which has left me with a lot of 7F horses which are not much use as there aren't many decent 7F races. I should have been working on NH as 3m + chasers are proving a problem so I may have to spend a day or two concentrating on that although time is running out a little too quickly for my liking. Haven't even started trialling or working out how many for each age/distance etc yet.

In a nutshell at the moment I am hopeful I can do okay but have a feeling that won't last much past the first few weeks !