The new player strategies

You have just started your first stable. If you are like most of us you will most likely start a couple more. In the beginning you will probably start with really bad horses, but don’t worry as there are ways to improve your stock of horses.

The mind set: the claiming game

Claim races are a fun place to start. With the stock you have that’s probably the level that is suitable for your horses. Don’t expect to have a horse that is capable of competing at a higher level.

Though you might like the horses you have – don’t get emotional about them, at least not yet! Their sole purpose, at this time, is to earn breeding points (bp’s) and money.

You also have to realize that improving will take time and effort. You will most likely not fall over a bunch of great horses as you stroll around the sim. You will have to get your hands dirty. I’ll give you some ways to make this as efficient as possible.

How to get better horses

There are a couple of ways to get new horses. First make sure to visit the chat. There are many nice people in here. They have all been in your shoes and know how hard it is to be a new player. From time to time they will give away horse to new players. If you get a horse that is a horse you should be emotional about. As they have a lot of knowledge, they will also help you with getting into the game. When you are in the chat you will also have some fun with some really great persons. In between all the fun make sure to let someone look at a horse of yours and give you advise – they like doing that. You can also ask them about their favorite cheap sires and other stuff, as they seem to like to talk about that as well.

From the beginning you don’t have a lot of money, so you have to use them well. Go to the auction and look through what is for sale. Mostly it’s only trash, but there are horses that are excellent bp and money machines to be found. Try to find horses aged from 3 to 5 years with few races under their belt – less than 10 for 3yo’s and less than 15 for 4-5yo’s is okay. 2yo’s need so much rest and older horses are at risk of being on decline, so you usually don’t want them. When you bid, make sure you don’t bid more than a couple of hundreds, as you will most likely won’t have success with all horses you buy in the auction.

You can also look through the claim races. Since claiming costs both money and bp’s you have to make sure you don’t put claims on horses that are too expensive. In the beginning you should avoid claiming for a higher price than 5,000.

So, what is a good buy in the auction and what is a good claim? The first thing you will have to look for is the speed number (sp#) of the horse. That is how fast your horse is and that is very important. You want fast horses. An early season 3yo can earn points and money if it races in the 80’s. Later in the season it needs to run around the 90’s. 4-5yo’s need to run around the 100’s. (This is based on D8 races, some distance and surfaces have a lower optimal level.) Horses that don’t do that is really hard to place if you want them to earn money and bp’s. If you find that does run those sp#’s just get it.

You can also find some hidden gems. There are a lot of horses that are raced on the wrong surface or at the wrong distance. These horses might have lower sp#’s, because they are in the wrong races. A 4yo running 90’s in dirt sprints might be running 100’s at the mile or longer. To spot these horses you need to look at the pedigree and the dam’s performances. But there are also horses that has been running at the wrong level. A horse might run in the 90’s when in allowance races, but if it placed in claims it will run around the 100’s. A male might run in the 90’s, but when gelded it might improve, so make sure to geld all your claims and auction buys. (It will also make it less likely to be claimed by another player.)

When you look for better horses don’t mind the class of breeding. If you do, you should probably look for horses that are not well bred. There is a lesser risk of them being claimed by other players.

How to earn money and bp’s

If you get horses like the ones I describe above, they will be suitable for claim races at the level 2,000-5,000. You can race your low level claimers pretty often. Having 3 weeks between races is possible. You might sometimes only give it 2 weeks between race without causing any damage to the horse.

You also have to make sure to keep your horses in the region they previously raced, since that will maximize your profits when it comes to money and bp’s. This will limit the number of races that is possible for you to enter, but if you’re flexible when it comes to resting your horse it is doable. If there are no races anyways, you might try it at a higher claim level like 6,000-15,000.

If you have a lot of choices when you search for a race, it is in your interest to choose a race with as few entries as possible. This will increase your chances to be successful.

What happens after the horse’s first race for you? You have to decide what to do with it. If you earned some good points you should keep it and race it in the same type of race (unless you are testing it at different surfaces or distances). If it didn’t improve and didn’t earn you anything, as you hoped (when you changed the distance/surface) and if you ran out of options for further testing, you have to put it in the auction for a zero reserve. It is not a horse for you!

If you have a horse that wins or performs way above what is expected of a low level claimer you probably have to put it either in a higher claim level or in a starter allowance (SA). This is something you have to do every time you get a horse back from the track.

I set my claimers at either 2,000-5,000, 5,000-15,000, 15,000-30,000, 30,000-50,000, 50,000-100,000 or 100,000-150,000 (I have a bigger range for 3yo’s, females and those with few race options). If they are too attractive to other players and too good for their level I will send them to a higher level. The claiming game is all about earning bp’s and money without getting claimed. 

How the breed new claimers

When you have amassed a good amount of bp’s you can start breeding your own horses. I think it is better to wait doing this than to start breeding at once. The best time to start buying sire, DS and DDS shares is in December during the sire share sales, when many shares are a lot cheaper than during the rest of the year. You have to go for the discount to use you hard earned bp’s more efficient.

Since you don’t have any good mares it is better to breed from scratch. Also it’s better to breed 3yo’s when you are in the claiming game, because the 2yo’s needs too much rest.

Be aware: breeding takes some effort! You have to look through the list of sire shares in the game, but you also have to look at real sire lists. A good way is to compare the real sire fee and offspring earnings with the price of the share in the sim. If the real sire fee is high and the offspring earnings are higher than the price of the share in the sim the sire might be worth investing in.

It is also worth noting that you will probably not find many Kentucky sires that are underused in the sim. You have to go elsewhere. Sure you might find a couple of underused sires in Ireland or Great Britain, but the real sire gems are found in other regions in North America, in South America, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia. To make it easy for you I would recommend you pick one region and deep-dive into that region (real life and sim-wise).

I could give you names to a couple of priceworthy sires, but that wouldn’t do you any good since everyone would know about them then. It’s your job to find your sires (DS and DDS) that are useful. Remember this is hard work.

I will though give you an example. Mike and Frank have talked about some sires a couple of times that are underused and undervalued in the game. One of them mentioned on multiple occasions is Dutch Art. He is much better than players give him credit. He has been a good sire for years without the game using him. The real lesson is that there are many of them which can be bought cheap during the discount season. Go find those gems!

Scratch breeding require you to find DS and DDS. Mike and Frank have on multiple occasions talked about this, saying there are many of them. And I have found some really interesting ones that are underused and undervalued, but still with great stallion performances in the real life. I will give you an example, not the best but a journey into how to do it.

In 1991 a colt by Diesis was born. His was named Halling. Starting off his racing career a bit below par, but when he ended his career he had won 2 Juddmonte Internationals. He entered stud in Great Britain at 12,000 pounds, but was soon raised to 30,000 (which was a result of his breeding success). He ended his career during the Galileo years. As a result of falling out of fashion his fee was reduced to 10,000 his last season. That was still pretty high. In the sim he has been producing offsprings his last 4 years with an average earning of about 100,000. That is pretty good! Still you can get a DS share for 40 and a DDS for 32 during the discount month. That is way below his worth!

Summery

1. Claim and buy cheap horses with potential

2. Race them at a level where they earn bp’s and money, but don’t get claimed

3. Wait with breeding – when you do make sure you use the cheap-good sires