RACING

1.  You should have at least one race horse for every horse in your pasture.
2.  Every race horse should earn their daily board and at least one other horse or they are not providing enough money for your stable to survive.
3.  Set aside 1/2 of your beginning balance to cover the 'lean' times when you first start racing and until you get enough money earners in your stable.
4.  Ask advice either in Chat or in the forums if anything confuses you after you have read the Help Center at least twice.
5.

Author D-Stables:

Whether to sell or retain your source horses?

This is a hard one. When you start playing if you receive one of the big name sources (Aljabr, Caerleon, Lenjoleur, Storm Cat, Mr. Prospector, El Corredor) they have value right off. The colts have some value for future stud use, but the fillies are a goldmine. Source fillies can bring in from $500k to upwards of $3mill at the right time.

To answer the question it will really be up to the stable and the choice or road the plan for their stable.

Keep Sources - This is not a bad choice since you can race them in Maidens or Allowances and they should do fine. Then breed them to decent studs and you should get some foals that should be able to run in stakes.

Selling Sources - This is the way to go if you want to try and purchase some GB horses in auction, but be warned stakes quality GB horses sell for tons in the auction. Trying to purchase one stakes quality yearling in auction could cost upwards of $1mill and whipe out your balance.

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From Tudor Family Group of Stables:

I've been playing this game now for over 3 years.  While I haven't been here as long as Brassy and a select few others, I've seen a great many changes in the game and a great many game players come and go.

Source Horses

Some are still fairly valuable.  Some are not.  If in doubt post to the forums and ask.

Three ways to play this game:

1)  Working your way to better horses, wins, and money, gradually.  You will gain a great deal of respect doing this.  Learn the game inside and out.  And show that you have a good track record for producing good horses and learned the ropes to get there.

2)  Buy/Claim or purchase by PT from another game player a horse that does well and gain fame for handling its racing career to the top.  You will gain respect for making a good choice and will be well thought of learning the game this way.

3)  Buy your way to the top and do this in a short period of time.  Those new game players that learn this way fail to learn the ropes and do not gain any respect or learn enough as they head to the top.    The problem with this way you do not learn anything except how to buy horses.  You do not learn to breed.  You do not learn how to race.  You learn nothing.  And what happens with these game players is once they no longer can buy a good horse, they try to breed one and fail.  Because they learned nothing along the way to get there.

Game Player Respect

A big issue!  If your a new game player and come into the game acting like a big shot or knowing too much, you will find doors closing to you.  If you insult long time game players they will ignore you and then cease to deal with you. 

To gain respect you must work to learn the game and pay attention to the other game players.  You must not insult them and you must be courtesy both by email and by chat.  This is an element of Netiquette and very important to have friends in the game.

Breeding a #1 Horse versus Buying a #1 Horse

Breeding a #1 horse requires that you actually owned by mare BEFORE the she is bred.  If you buy a pregnant mare, you are buying someone else's breeding choice.  You do not gain long time game player respect this way.  You gain respect and congratulations from many.  But, no satisfaction of having done the entire job.  This is a false sense of accomplishment.  This is technically buying a #1 horse.  Even if your stable is listed as the breeder.  Always be sure to thank and congratulate the original breeder of said foal if the foal accomplishes something.  This shows respect to the other game players.

Breeding a #1 horse yourself.  Its not quick and takes time to learn a few things to get there.  But, the satisfaction is three fold.  You did the task yourself.  You earned it and lastly you get the congratulations and the respect of the long time game players.

Long Time Game Players

You can look at any stable and find out how long they have been playing on their main stable page.  Anyone here consistently over 1 year is in this for the long haul.  Anyone here longer than 2 years has learned the game almost from the beginning.  Anyone over 3 years in the game are definitely close to or one of the original game players.  Game started in 2005 for anyone interested in knowing.

Distance Horses

A distance horse in this game does not break speed records in training as a yearling and does not do well generally until 3 or 4.  Some lines are well known for this (Grammatical).  If your yearling is timing exceptionally well, then initially its more likely to be a sprinter than a distance runner.  And some of them change to distance running as they age.

Stakes

A new stable should NOT dabble in stakes.  These cost a great deal of money and will eat your game balance very quickly.  Source horses cannot run in stakes and have not been able to run in stakes for over 3 years.  New stables concentrate getting your game balance over $100K and staying there before dabbling in stakes. 

Your Money

All new stables should set aside at least 1/2 their balance for emergency and keep it above half.  Do not buy horses with the last $50K of your balance until you have some money coming in.  For every horse you have sitting in pasture you need to have at least 1 if not 2 horses racing and pulling in a minimum $2500 per race to cover those in pasture and their selves just to maintain your balance.

Chat

Chat is for game players that pay to subscribe to the game.  This helpful location is great for picking up nice horses by PT and learning the ins and outs of the game.  Long time game players help newbies in chat.

New Game Players

Netiquette and listening are the biggest assets of a new game player.  Show courtesy and respect to everyone in the game.  Listen and try to learn from the long time game players.  They are always trying to be helpful and help new game players learn the ropes.  They are not trying to help you to fail.  There are no secrets to this game beyond hard work and learning how to rate and choose pedigrees and where to race the horses.

Tudor

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Don't Discount Those Lesser Mares!

Its been about 6 months since I posted this type of information for those new game players. So its about time. Will also post to the unofficial help center offsite as well. trophyhorse.fortunecity.com/

www.trophyhorse.com/users/horse_info.aspx?name=Lucky+Sun

I think DL stables said that they 'enjoyed' watching me take those lesser mares and producing stakes runners.

This mare was bred by Whitehorse farm that recently left the game. We do hope they will return in future. Sold at auction for $600 in April and resold to me on October 31st. First foal by previous owner did little. But, I saw the potential in the pedigree, hence, why I purchased her.

She's earned a grand total of $14K.

Now look at her second foal:

www.trophyhorse.com/users/horse_info.aspx?id=467617

First crop of Backgammon! Since he was a new sire and I wasn't sure where his kids would race, I put her in allowance to start even though her training times said she was fast enough for stakes. She won, then onwards to stake and she has won again.

So my best advice to new stables, study pedigrees and don't discount a lesser mare in earnings because she just might have been campaigned wrong or hit the wrong track or jockey or even just wasn't raced in the distances she needed to be. Breed to the best you can afford and build from there.

I've about 10 examples of these types of breedings this month in my family group of stables. She's just the one I used as an example.

Tudor

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Breeding Mares 101 (with examples):

I This is essentially a Breeding 101 for new users with their mares. I have some of this info also on the offsite location, perhaps a small posting here will help some new users save money for breeding next month and make some great choices for their future stakes horses!

So here goes.

There really are 4 elements in every mare in this game and how they produce:

#1 and something most miss in this game is the tail female line connection
if the TAIL FEMALE LINE - mom, grandmom, etc.... produce and produce well, more often their kids (mares) will as well.  There is an example linked below

#2 – SPEED  - SI of 110 regardless of race is still SI of 110. When starting out many of us cannot afford the 'stakes mares'. So start simple, with a high SI for your mare - do not keep anything below this SI speed. If they can race a 110 in Allowance or a 112 in a claimer, they probably can produce some speed. Use this to build your mare band upwards!  Earnings mean something when you are experienced in breeding, but, when starting out the mare having some speed is essential regardless of earnings.  Set yourself a minimum SI you will purchase or keep or add to your broodmare band and do make exceptions to this. E.g. 106, 107, 108, etc.  As you develop your lines – set the minimum higher to breed for better mares.

#3 – GRANDSIRE (sire of dam) - he plays big factor in how good your broodmare will be - because some sires - produce better broodmares than others.  Always look up the sires Broodmare stats on his stats page!  They are near the bottom of the page on their stud stats page.

#4 YOU THE BREEDER - this one comes down to you - breeding decisions of who to use to breed to your mare. Breed always to a sire with SIs high in the same area your mare is.... if her best SI is 110 at 6 furlongs - find a sire that produces AWD of 6 furlongs or more (but do not vary more than 2 furlongs above this or below is breeding for distance) or thereabouts. And always breed to best you can afford for those mares - especially for their 3rd and 4th foals. Keep mares best filly when possible (note SI above) to go on with to increase the tail female line breed - ability

And lastly If the mare can't produce something decent - throw the line away do not keep anything. One of the most critical decisions when your first starting out is to keep a potential broodmare that does not fit your minimum criteria.  For the first generation you can get away with keeping a slower offspring of the dam, but, do not repeat for the 2^nd generation or thereafter.  Always remember your breeding upwards and faster, not setting yourself backwards.

Just a bit of help and 101 lesson for those new stables.

Example of Tail Female Line that produces for me:

http://www.trophyhorse.com/users/horse_info.aspx?name=Its+Magic

Pedigree:

Pedigree - Expand
		Nooby Noob Noob
	Chariman Of The Board
		Capri Sun
Midnight Ganster [Siblings]
		Midnight Train
	Midnight Doll
		Affirmed Indy
		The Punk Prince
	King Of Cajun
		Cajun Queen
Imagination Supreme [Siblings]
		Pit Stop
	Deep Stop
		Deep Blue Sea

Tail female line means Imagination Supreme, Deep Stop, Deep Blue Sea.... etc.

How I developed this line:

My base criteria for mares at the beginning was SI of 104-106.  Preference given to mares from the biggest sires:  Pit Stop, Vasilias, etc.

Deep Stop fit the bill.  Her Dam was a Sadler Wells mare Deep Blue Sea - who had an impressive producing record for a source mare:

http://www.trophyhorse.com/general/offspring.aspx?name=Deep+Blue+Sea

So I claimed Deep Stop because of her SI and because her Sire was the Immortal Pit Stop.  Look at his Broodmare record now!

Pit Stop as a Broodmare Sire

Pit Stop is the sire of 348 dams of 2,171 foals, 2,018 rnrs (92.95%), 1,688 wnrs (77.75%), 1.98 AVG CPI; 275 sw (12.67%).

Sire of 348 mares, who produced 2,171 foals, 2,018 ran in races (93.95%) and 1,688 (77.75%) won at least one race.  Of these 12.67% were STAKES Winners. 

These are his stats that were still building at the time I acquired in a claimer Deep Stop.

http://www.trophyhorse.com/general/offspring.aspx?name=Deep+Stop  Deep Stops production record was not horrible either as I was still learning the ropes.  But, I kept one of his best fillies.... Imagination Supreme.... and.....

She produced a $143K winner and Its Magic with earnings over $400K - http://www.trophyhorse.com/general/offspring.aspx?name=Imagination+Supreme

Its Magic showed that the hard work paid off though.... as you can see.....

http://www.trophyhorse.com/general/offspring.aspx?name=Its+Magic

Name	Sex	W | P | S | Starts	Earnings	CPI
5/09 Crop
Magical Keeper	Colt	8 | 2 | 2 | 18	$1,223,925	6.269
7/09 Crop
Magic Moves	Filly	1 | 2 | 3 | 12	$124,685	1.608
9/09 Crop
Strange Magics	Mare	5 | 2 | 2 | 19	$277,778	2.622
11/09 Crop
Prince Magic	Colt	5 | 7 | 3 | 25	$651,687	2.468
1/10 Crop
Incantations	Pregnant	1 | 1 | 3 | 13	$181,640	2.390
3/10 Crop
Resonances	Filly	5 | 1 | 4 | 17	$271,073	2.191
5/10 Crop
Its Another	Filly	2 | 1 | 0 | 5	$9,879	0.182

 

Same applies to my QH mares.  If you wish an example, email me in Tudor and I will put one up here as well.

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Breeding 201 – Mares – part II

 

Common question:

 

What lines go with what lines to produce the best?

 

Well the game offers a wonderful area of a stud stats page that provides that answer!

 

Strychnine's Current Top Performers

 

 

Using a dead sires Stud Stat page.  Now will provide a living sire:

 

Currently Stick and Moves section looks like this:

 

Stick And Move's Current Top Performers

 

 

So you can see based on this that broodmare lines down from Ashagaga, Desired Perfection, Chariman of the Board, Fenster hall, Suishi Canape, D Prince of Rock, Another Glacier, Mr. Blue Sky and Noobys Capri Sun are the best performers for this sire.  When in doubt consult this area to see if potentially your mare might be of a similar pedigree to any of those listed for your sire choice.

 

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Breeding 301 – Mares Continued Part IV

 

To be completed.  Inbreeding..............

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Stakes Race Advice!

When entering a stakes race, your horse should have a reasonable expectation of earning back at least the entry fees.  If your entering for 3rd place through 5th place money, do not enter.  You potentially will not earn back what you paid to enter race.  Looks good on horses race lines, but, an allowance win looks better!

Newer stables - if the race is $250K and there are 1 or more powerhouse horses in the race, DO NOT ENTER.  First off you probably can't beat the power house horse.  Secondly your entry fees will probably be $1,000 and $50,000 - this means your horse must win $51,000 to break even.

Here is example of such a race on Jan 9, 2009 - horses names are blanked out.

$250,000 added, value of race $469,200 - 8 horses entered

xxxxxxx - jockey name - 1- $234,600
xxxxxxx - jockey name - 2- $93,840
xxxxxxx - jockey name - 3 - $70,380
xxxxxxx - jockey name - 4 - $46,920
xxxxxxx - jockey name - 5 - $23,460

Entry fee was $1,000 and sustaining payment was $26,400

In this case only the #5 horse didn't earn back their fee for entering race.  Unusual but does happen.

$250,000 added, value of race $504,750 - 6 horses entered

xxxxxxx - jockey name - 1 - $252,375
xxxxxxx - jockey name - 2 - $100,950
xxxxxxx - jockey name - 3 - $75,713
xxxxxxx - jockey name - 4 - $50,475
xxxxxxx - jockey name - 5 - $25,238

Each entry contributed $950 entry fee and $50,000 sustain fee.  Which in this case means that 4th and 5th place did not earn back their fees.

Example using the scenario of the following:

$250,000 purse, $1K fee, $50,000 sustaining fee and 4 entries:

$51,000 paid for each entry - Purse total $454,000

Winner takes home - $227,000
2nd place takes home - $113,500
3rd place takes home - $56,750
4th place takes home - $28,375
balance goes into game kitty

So watch what your entering and try to ensure that you are not feeding the money from your account into another stables bank account by placing 3rd - 5th in all your stakes race.

Tudor

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Horse Training -3Rivers Racing

Training your horse is perhaps the most important and at times frustrating aspect of the game. No one has gotten training mastered but this section will help put you on the same level as the rest of the trainers. There is room to experiment with the distances but the schedule of trainings is pretty much accepted by all stables as the best.

Training your racers

Horses need to be raced with 5 days between there last workout and there next race. Trainings should be alternated giving a single workout after one race and then a double workout after the next race. After your horse races look for its next race before training, once you have entered them in the race give them a single timed workout at that track (8f is the most used for this). This will place them at that track before they race and it is believed to have possible advantages. If it is a single workout period then no further training is needed, if it is a Double training day then give it a second workout of your choice. This is where the individual decisions of each trainer must be made as there is no known correct way.

560508	10/20/2010	West Virginia	fst	1 1/4m			West Virginia Derby 260k				Scratch Entry
--	10/15/2010	West Virginia	fst	5f		58.15	Timed Work Out	--	--		--
--	10/15/2010	West Virginia	fst	1m		1:37.26	Timed Work Out	--	--		--
559116	10/15/2010	Pennsylvania	fst	7f	1:22.82	1:22.88	Pennsylvania Derby 260k	2	2	119	Run Away And Hide,Hydrilla Monster,Decrepit Czech
--	10/10/2010	Pennsylvania	fst	1m		1:37.01	Timed Work Out	--	--		--
563397	10/9/2010	Michigan	fst	1 1/8m	1:50.16	1:50.16	Michigan Nine 300k	2	1	117	Hydrilla Monster,Vital Signs Are Good,Prince Gallis
--	10/4/2010	Work Out	fst	6f			Work Out	--	--		--
--	10/4/2010	Michigan	fst	1m		1:37.11	Timed Work Out	--	--		--

Jogging/Moving your horses schedule

Sometimes your horses schedule will need to be moved for various reasons. When this is the case you stay with the same training method of singe/double however instead of training after the race you train them on the day you would had there schedule not changed. The horse above was raced the 9^th then his schedule was moved by 1 day. Instead of training after his race on the 9^th he was given his normal training on the 10^th for a race on the 15^th. It is not recommended to move your horses more then 2-3 days at one time.

Training your yearling (1yr old)

If yearlings have 2 good workouts at the end of the month then they will generally do good. There are two different methods for training yearlings to produce the most consistent results. The first method is training them on schedule the entire month; the second is giving them two good trainings at the end of the month. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. The last two are the most important but the last three must be spaced properly. Generally the last two trainings are a triple followed by a double. Generally they are an 8/8/8 or 8/8/2 timed or untimed, followed by an 8timed / 6 untimed. Once your horse has run its first race give it another double workout which usually consists of an 8/8 also.

If you alter your workouts during the last 3 trainings do not space them closer than 5 days apart

IE: If you train on the 16th and want to alter your horses start day do not train sooner than the 21st

Race Results
RaceID	Date	Track	Con	Dist	WTime	HTime	Race	Post	Finish	SpIndex	Winners
--	10/23/2010	Work Out	fst	1m			Work Out	--	--		--
--	10/23/2010	Work Out	fst	1m			Work Out	--	--		--
--	10/23/2010	Work Out	fst	1m			Work Out	--	--		--
--	10/18/2010	Work Out	fst	1m			Work Out	--	--		--
--	10/18/2010	Work Out	fst	1m			Work Out	--	--		--
--	10/13/2010	Arkansas	fst	1m		1:39.05	Timed Work Out	--	--		--
--	10/11/2010	Kentucky	fst	1m		1:38.28	Timed Work Out	--	--		--
--	10/11/2010	Kentucky	fst	1m		1:38.36	Timed Work Out	--	--		--
--	10/6/2010	Kentucky	fst	1m		1:38.41	Timed Work Out	--	--		--
--	10/6/2010	Kentucky	fst	1m		1:38.38	Timed Work Out	--	--		--

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