Roxyken’s 1000 BP Challenge (knightmare)

This is the second update article in my attempt at Roxykens 1000 BP Challenge. I have decided to try a different way of starting and running my stable. I am taking the approach of breeding my way to a 1000 breeding points. I started with five one dollar auction buys and a thirty point newly bred three year old. All of my runners have had a start and some two starts. Let’s get to the dollar auction buys and their recent performances.

Classic Sidney is a six year old that I started in a started allowance. I was able to find s shorter field and he ran an ok 4^th earning a 79 speed figure. I should be able to drop him into claimers and by finding the right races should be able to get something out of him.

Yearofthesnake is the best earner of the dollar auction buys. A four year old maiden filly can earn some BPs. In her first race for me I found a four horse maiden special weight field and she ran second. Last time out January 28 I found another four horse maiden special weight and she ran second again. She has earned 30 BPs for the stable in her two starts.

Babs Revenge is a four year filly with a nice race record built in hot races. She had not run on the turf or in a sprint so her first start for me was a turf spring allowance. She ran a slow 66 speed figure. In her second start for the stable I placed her in a $7,500 claimer. She finished fourth in the four horse field. Travel penalty prevented her from earning breeding points.

Kyalite Kid is a 10 year old veteran I hope will find some old form. He made his second start for the stable and this time I put him in a $60,000 claimer. I tried something different. Asking around I got some advice that I should send him to the lead. He is normally a deep closer and by sending him to the lead in this race I hope it wakes him up a bit for his next races. He went to the lead but was done at the half mile pole. I may send him to the lead again for another race before setting back on jockey select.

Victory is Life is a bargain bred four year old colt that had not run in sprints. I started him in an allowance sprint on turf and he was overmatched. In his second start I found a $15,000 non winner of two life time turf sprint on February 4. He fit this condition ok but ran a distant fourth in a four horse field. He came out of the race ready to go so I entered him back for a race on February 10. I found a four horse starter allowance so he should earn a couple of breeding points. I would not normally run a horse with such little time between starts but when they are this bad why not?

These one dollar auction horses are bad runners and its unfortunate new players get stuck with bad runners. The one good thing about having bad runners is that you can learn the game and get a feel for how others play the game. You learn very quickly that you need a solid horse to run in an allowance race. You also learn that claimers can be very competitive. If your patient and spend some time you can find short fields and at least get some use from these bad runners.

I have taken for granted as an existing player a new players knowledge of race types and race conditions. I think learning race types and conditions are important for a new player. If you are familiar with horse racing you are a little ahead of the game. For non US based players even if you are familiar with horse racing you may still have a small learning curve as US racing conditions are a little different.

Stakes races are the highest level of racing. The top races are referred to as Grade or Group races. In real life committees of people rate top races based on many factors. Grade One races are the very top level Grade two races are a step below and next comes Grade three races. The next level down is un graded stakes, these are referred to as listed stakes at times. Below these would be stakes restricted to runners bred in certain areas sometimes referred to as state bred stakes.

Allowance level races are races in which the horse in not for sale. Claiming races are races in which each runner is for sale. Both Allowance and claiming races share many different conditions.

We have win based conditions. Non winners of “x” lifetime is how the race is written, they are abbreviated like this NW2L, NW3L, etc. These conditions start at non-winners of two lifetime and progress up to non-winners of four lifetime in most cases. The sim does card races as high as non-winners of six lifetime.

There are also conditional restrictions referred to as non-winners of “x” other than maiden, claiming or starter. Abbreviated the conditions look like this NW1X or NW2X. If you look on your horse page in the upper right hand corner there is a field called NonMCOS. This is the number of allowance races a horse has won in its lifetime. If this is zero your horse is eligible for NW1x or non-winners of one race other than maiden claiming or starter. These also progress in difficulty going from NW1x to NW4x. Most commonly these conditions exist in allowance races however these conditions sometimes also exist in claiming races.

A NW1x allowance is considered roughly the same level as a NW2L allowance. A NW1x race is different however in that you could have horses that just broke their maiden having one lifetime win facing runners who have won a few claiming or starter races with several lifetime wins.

Another set of conditions offered is based on the amount of time that has passed since the horse’s last win. On your horse page in the upper right hand corner you have fields that say Wins Within 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and year. The conditions read as non-winner of “x” race(s) in the last “x” months or non-winner of “x” number of race(s) in the last year. Abbreviations look like NW1s. The “NW” standing for non-winner, the number representing the number of wins, the last letter representing the amount of time(t = three months, s = six months, n = nine months, y = year).  NW3n is non-winners of three in the last nine months.

In the sim there are also CPU restricted races. The CPU value of your horse can be found on the horse page in the upper right hand corner in the field labeled CPU value. For a CPU race restricted to *500 your horse can enter if the CPU value on the horse page is below 500.

Starter Allowance races are races restricted to horses that have run for a claiming price in the past. In the upper right hand corner of the horse page there is a field that says 6mo Tag. This is the lowest price the horse has run for in a claiming event in the last six months.  A Starter Allowance with a tag of $20,000 is restricted to horses than have run for a claiming tag of $20,000 or less in the last six months. These races when purchased can have restrictions that were discussed above. So you could purchase a Starter Allowance with a $10,000 tag restricted to NW1S.

Maiden races are restricted to horses that have never won a race. These races only have the never won a race restriction. There are maiden allowances where the horses are not for sale and maiden claiming races where the horses are for sale.

Shortly I will have an article about the runners I have bred so far in the stable. I will discuss my thoughts on how I came to the sires I chose and my expectations. On the next update of the runners in the stable I will go more in depth on class level within race types.