Mr. Lucky Wins URC Trainer Of The Year 2014

It was quite the banner year for Mr. Lucky as he took home the cherished trainer of the year awards for 2014, but he doesn’t seem fazed by it all. In fact, I could only hope to remain half as poised and elegant should the time come for me to win anything in this difficult game.

After seeing his successful season, I was moved to chat with him a little and possibly pick his
brains on his methodology, which proved to be surpringly simple as you will see in the following interview……..

So, Bill, tell us about yourself and how you found our great game and decided to give it a shot.

MR.LUCKY: My name is Bill and from Columbus, Ohio. I’m married with twin 5 year old daughters. I have always been heavily involved in fantasy sports. About 10 years ago I was doing a search on fantasy games and came across the basketball game that Mike started, I played that and saw the ad for the horse racing game, from there I was hooked. Started creating stables and racing the ponies.

So this ‘Mr. Lucky” name..is there a real life story behind it, or is it in existence only because you wanted it as a good luck charm when you started. Do you really consider yourself lucky?

MR.LUCKY: Years ago I used to wear Lucky jeans from The Buckle. That’s how I got the name but honestly I feel that I have the worst luck. I mean I have never hit the lottery yet.
Great to know cause I honestly thought I was the only one. Tell me some of what you’ve done to become successful in this game and winning the 2014 URC trainer of the year awards. You know, things that can be shared with the general public. For the beefy stuff I’ll just give you my e-mail…

MR.LUCKY: I don’t do a lot of breeding. Maybe 25-30 a year but they are all blue bloods. The other horses I run are mostly claimers trying to gain as many BP as possible. Most of my breeding is done through the BP as it’s very difficult trying to get top sires with credits. Besides winning horse of the year, my biggest accomplishment was winning the bluegrass derby a couple years ago and the breeders cup this year.

Tell us about those two horses and your experience leading them to those prestigious honors and if it was stressful for you. Did you have any guidance from other players at the fraternity or did you decide to go it alone?
MR.LUCKY: Lucky’s Howie won the derby in 2010. I definitely didn’t have any advice on that pony as I ran him in a 5.5 furlong stake race 3 weeks before the derby. With ‘I won’t look back’ I did get a lot of advice from my fellow residency members which was extremely helpful.
What do you think makes this game rock as it does and do you think anything can be improved?

MR.LUCKY: Races everyday is a huge benefit where people get more involved…the one big issue that I have is not having enough search functions. From searching retired mares, can’t search by name and not enough search engines with auction as well as races. You can’t separate maiden from allowance races. Can’t search by claiming level. That’s the only improvement I would like made.

Lastly and seeing as you’ve played this sim for about a decade, what tips do you have for newbies like myself that may be at their wits end figuring things out? How can they have an easier time in their experience of the game while making sure they’ve got the basics covered?

MR.LUCKY: For all new players I would suggest to play the game starting from the bottom and working up. Youre not going to win a graded stakes the first month. I would look through the auction and start buying unraced or lightly raced 2 and 3 year olds in claiming races to start building BPs. Once you get around 1500 BP which could very easily take less than 6 weeks and breed your first blue blood. One that you will remember for life. This will be your baby for the year and watching every step they take in a race. From there you repeat and soon you will have 10 blue bloods in your stables.

Thanks so much for the interview and continued success.

MR.LUCKY: Thank you, I appreciate it.
So there it is folks, a simple interview with a simple guy. I’m sure a lot of us at URC and beyond will continue to wish him good luck and fortune as he moves along this path of smiles and heartaches, but rest assured, it’s not all about luck although we could all use A LOT more…….