2011: An ultimatum!!!
2011 is upon us.
Yes, another year come and gone. Soon, the ballots will be cast for divisional champions and Trainer of the Year. Of course, none of my horses or stables will be anywhere near consideration for those honors, but this is not a unique situation in the SIM.
There are many paths to simulated horse racing glory, but certain tangibles along that path are unavoidable. Sure, many of us dream of winning a certain big race that reminds us of an important real-life counterpart (the Bluegrass Derby, the Sand Castle, the Ark de Comic Dog, and so on). Many who are relatively new to the game are slowly embarking on that path – but it takes time, effort, experience, and luck.
In evaluating my racing year, I reflected on progress and achievements on a decade in the game. When I began in 2010, I was ecstatic to have an original stable horse (one of the 5 horses you received with your new stable) break her maiden against the boys. “This game is awesome”, I thought to myself. With my insiders’ knowledge of horse racing and thoroughbred breeding, I am going to dominate this online universe!
Fast-forward 10 years to the present – that original horse who gave me my first win, A.P. FORM, is still the best horse I ever trained. She managed to win over $1 million, including a Grade 1 victory against the boys (must be something about unorthodoxy there…)
This was my first and only Grade 1 victory in the SIM.
Sure, many of you will take offense that I find reason to whine while you may be struggling to get your stakes winner of any kind, or even an effective allowance horse who runs a three-digit speed figure. It’s taken me awhile, but I’ve evolved as a trainer and a player and started to do some of the things necessary to get “the big horse”.
Early on, I prided myself on scouring the auction for horse that had a few BP’s to squeeze out of them, claimers who had not tried distance variations or needed time to mature, and experimented with wild and wooly genetic combinations in the breeding shed to find that “secret nick” that worked like a charm. Don’t get me wrong…I did fairly well, and I still love a win of any variety. Winning a conditioned claimer with a modest homebred is just as satisfying for me as winning a stakes race with an auction purchase or claiming halter, and I’ve done plenty of both.
It’s just that… if you want to be in the lights at the end of the year, you need to win a BIG race.
After years of stubbornness, thinking that I would get the next Down That Jazz using a less-than-fashionable sire (read: bargain basement), I came to the conclusion that I would need some powerful geneticinfluences SOMEWHERE in the pedigree.
I started claiming and purchasing blue-blood mares like many players do, albeit about three years behind the rest of the game… I broke my vow of poverty and actually purchased CREDITS using actual monetary currency – I’m sure Mike Wallace’s kids did not get an upgrade from sirloin to filet mignon, but it was a start.
I bred and bred and bred like a rabbit on Spring Break who had just raided the Men’s Health aisle at the GNC. Old mares, young mares, blue-bloods, rejects, it didn’t matter. I even went all Nextbonus and bred mares whowere actually dudes (surprisingly fertile, but they’re only into it the first time around, for some reason).
I even bred and raced 2yo’s (gasp! A horrible BP’s earned-per-week proposition) with the notion that I’d develop one into a 3yo Classic-winning machine.
The victories eventually came, and the Graded Stakes wins starting accumulating in late 2009 and 2010, but the elusive Grade 1 remains a sordid rumor to my runners, and haunts me like a ghost of Breeders’ Bowls past or that scary Japanese girl who came out of the well (that movie freaked me right out!)
For that reason, I decided to put a Ring (ha-ha) around 2011 and end the shenanigans once and for all – I may not become Trainer of the Year (or month…or week…) but I am going to get a
GRADE ONE VICTORY… or BUST!
And by “bust”, of course, I mean that my sorry behind will be bused from this fine game for the duration of all time. That should provide sufficient motivation, I suspect… but please don’t follow my horses around the world with a virtual sponge and sleeping pills hoping that my winless streak continues…
In the following months, I’ll follow up with progress on how things are going – what’s working and what is not (a LOT to report in that department!), what races we’re pointing to and who the prospects for that all-important Grade 1 victory might be. Perhaps I’m sitting on one and don’t realize it, or have a broodmare who is begging to be bred to a sire I’ve ignored all these years. Your comments and criticisms (constructive or otherwise, I’d imagine) will become part of the public record.
If don’t achieve SIM relevance in the training arena, at least I can share the experience with those who still have a shot at glory.
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On the next “Donnybeisbol and the Quest for Relevance”: Opening day 2011, and a review of the Graded performers currently trending towards possible success.