Rats Website<\/a><\/font>
I grew up on Long Island and spent many afternoons as a teenager at Belmont with an uncle of mine. I also have the distinction of attending 20 consecutive Belmont Stakes, starting in 1973 until I moved to Texas in 1992. I also owned some racehorses in one of the earlier versions of what West Point and Karakorum presently do called Nedlaw Stables back in the early ’90’s. At one time we had 17 horses including Grade1 winner Roanoke and graded winner Tee’s Prospect and another pretty good one named Eternal Flight. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> I’ve got stables in several residencies, NWRC, Queensland, etc, but the bulk of my stables are divided between DelPenn and the GR Simsters. All of the Super stables, like AFC’s and whirlwind’s stables, are in DelPenn. I’ve been living in Kentucky for quite a while now. I moved down to Lexington to attend law school, and stayed put, although I moved an hour away to Louisville about 2 1\/2 years ago. Louisville is a wonderful place to live, although I wish it was closer to my family (I grew up in Jersey, and everyone else is still back there), and the beach. I’ve also lived in Virginia and England. <\/p>\nPazJazz<\/font> Do you think that having more stables keeps you more interested in the game or are there times when you are simply overwhelmed? <\/p>\n AFC<\/font> Well, the more you have, the better the chance of getting the “big” horse. But that’s gotta be adjusted by the time it takes to run a big stable. Face it, most of the time is spent running horses that will never amount to anything, in search of the golden nugget. But this is a strange game; once it sinks its’ hooks into you, you_ just_can’t_get_enough, know what I mean? \u0192\u00ba<\/p>\nWhirlwind<\/font> A bit of both I suspect. I don’t think I could have just 10 horses and just watch a couple of races each week. I enjoy the challenge and the adreneline rush every week but sometimes doing the entries and jocks can become a chore and a pain in the ass to get done. It takes a great deal of dedication to run multiple stables on a constant basis. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> For me the answer is both. It’s easier to be patient and not run horses back every two weeks when you have a lot of them, but at the same time, it can get a little overwhelming. There’s a fine balance between having a game you enjoy and a chore when you’ve got these kind of numbers. I’ve solved this somewhat by periodically planning weeks where I have only a handful of runners. To me, it is the most overwhelming in December and January, when all of your two years olds are turning three and can run every other nanosecond (at least it feels that way sometime). I like it best late spring\/early summer, because the 2yos can only run every 5 to 8 weeks, so the entries get a lot lighter. <\/p>\nPazJazz<\/font>Do you find that you still continually open new Stables or have you been steady for some time? <\/p>\n AFC<\/font> Nope, no new stables. I’m fine with five, and we have no plans to expand Super any further. <\/p>\nWhirlwind<\/font> I haven’t opened a new stable in years now, other than the Supers 3 years ago. When we needed more space, I had a few basically empty stables that got grafted on to the Supers. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> I don’t think Super has expanded in 18 months or two years. Most of the stables were opened up in the first six months. I think a handful occurred a little bit later. As for my own stables, other than the 13 that I picked up last April from that friend of mine (I really ought to say three, since those are the active ones), I haven’t opened up a new stable in 2 to 3 years, and I suspect, as some stables get empty enough, I’ll probably give a handful away down the road. Definitely no plans to expand, either in Super or in my own stables. <\/p>\nPazJazz<\/font> What tools do you use to help you in the game? <\/p>\n AFC<\/font> None for me. I’m completely computer illiterate. Turning the damn thing on is enough of a problem for me. When I think of tools, I think of power saws and screwdrivers, not stuff to use in the game! <\/p>\nWhirlwind<\/font> I have sure beta tested quite a few. Cokers viewers were probably the first, Indy had a stable tool that made life easier but it didn’t last some of the early re-writing of the game. Lobo’s Stable Tool was really good and performed quite a few tasks, I think there are still people using it, after finding plug-ins or alterations to compensate for the changes in the programming of the game. Robert’s YOSS site was great. He had a lot to fool around with there. His Jockey Agent was probably my favorite tool of them all. All your jocks done by clicking 3 times, now that’s what I like. I also really liked his stakes planner quite a bit. We used it extensively in ’05 and ’06 to keep all our stakes horses apart from each other and it really worked that when we put 5 horses in the gate for the ’06 Derby, They had never really raced against each other. I spent many frustrating hours with SSS, but I never got it to work for me and then it seemed to need to be updated too frequently. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> Sadly, pretty much all of the tools I used have gone away. I used the YOSS site heavily, Coker’s, and some others. <\/p>\nPazJazz<\/font> How much time do you normally spend playing the game every week? <\/p>\n AFC<\/font> Sunday evening is my big time investment. Probably three hours a week or so with breeding. Planning the combos, touching base with Laura and Jeff to make sure we don’t chop each other’s heads off in the shed…that’s where most of my time is spent. <\/p>\nWhirlwind<\/font> If you listen to my wife, way too much time! The game has been a constant in my life for 8 years or so and I would really miss it if it was gone. I probably check the message board and DelPenn board daily, I do entries on Mondays and Tuesdays and check in on marginal horses drawing into races from work on Wednesdays. I wrote for the BTB for about 5 years and that was always time consuming and intensive, but it started to be a chore most of the time, so I gave it up. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> It varies, depending on how many horses are running that week, how much time, if any, I spend on breeding that week, and whether or not I help out Jeff with some of the entries. That said, I’d say that currently I spend four to six hours on a light week, 12 hours+ on a firing on all cylinders week, and probably eight hours.<\/p>\nPazJazz<\/font> How do you keep your Stables full, train horses, assign jockeys? Basically, how do you manage that many stables? <\/p>\n AFC<\/font> Jeff has that one. We’ve developed a very smooth system of operation. Division of labor- Laura and Jeff do the labor and I watch. LOL. Seriously, though, it’s a team effort. Laura does the housekeeping. Jeff does entries and jocks. We all chip in with breeding, and that’s where I try to contribute the most. By and large, I’m overshadowed by my colleagues here. They do all the grunt work, and deserve all the credit for making Super go. This isn’t the way to do it for everyone. If you’re a control freak, don’t get into one of these partnership type deals. It’ll never work. The three of us- four of us when Wayne was with us- have a unique chemistry, and we’ve all been able to play off each other’s strong points and fortes to make Super better as a whole. <\/p>\nWhirlwind<\/font> With the super stables, we have fallen into a very comfortable pattern of dividing the labors without ever discussing it. Laura does the train for weeks and bid races on Sunday mornings, as well as making suggestions for culling the herd for auction or to go to claimers. When Wayne was a member, he pretty much did the long range planning and spreadsheet orginization and I usually do the entries and jocks (man, I hate dealing with the little guys, I really miss Robert’s Jockey agent). We all pretty much do the breedings but I probably do most of them at this time. Tony is the boss, head cheerleader, ringleader and executive producer. It was his brainstorm in the beginning and he put us all together. It’s kinda funny, for me, I was starting to get a bit burnt out with the Sim and was thinking of closing all the stables for a while and starting over later on, but playing as a group with very definite goals and game plan revitalized me in the game. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> Wayne would also help out with entries, train for weeks and bid races. Jeff’s description of the current division of labor is pretty accurate. I’ll help out with entries\/jocks from time to time (simply put, I’ll start from the bottom and Jeff starts from the top) and I’ll also try to check on Wednesday for runners that are about to get bumped. But my week in, week out involvement is definitely train for weeks and bid races. We all breed horses for Super, but I’d say the majority of this year’s juveniles were bred by Jeff. As for keeping the stables full, we’re constantly having tocull to make room for new 2yos in Super. In mine, I don’t want to have a full stable, although some of my stables have 10 horses. I cull some periodically, and add some through breeding, and occasionally through the auction or claims.<\/p>\nPazJazz<\/font> What is your breeding strategy like? Do you breed lots of two year olds, use retired mares, credits etc. Do you find that you usually breed the beginning or end of the week? Are they all big ticket or do you try some random breds? <\/p>\n AFC<\/font> I’m one of those reviled credit breeders. I don’t have enough claimers, and I don’t have enough horses, to accumulate the BP’s to keep my own five stables full. I prefer top rung sires. I tend to pay a lot of attention to the DS and DDS- I firmly believe that the back end add s the punch to a top rung sire. I have my personal favorites, but won’t divulge my biggest trade secrets. LOL. Nah, I love the Never Bend line on the backend, I like Damascus and Private Account, Nijinsky II- of all the top sires I’ve used, there’s a fairly familiar pattern on which horses become good and which stink- and the magic lies in the back end of the pedigree. As for favorite sires, well, let’s just put it this way…I had a memorial service for Miswaki when he passed on. <\/p>\nWhirlwind<\/font> Super breeding is a combination of just about all those except for random breds. Of course, we are primarily bp breeders, hahahahahahahahahahaha, with the current brouhaha with Barndog on the message board, that would be the PC thing to say, but we use credits as well as the BP\u00a1\u00a6s we accumulate. Funny thing there, Barndog was briefly a member of Super in the early going. Last year, we used primarily BP’s and managed to get an entry into each of the spring classics this year, so it is possible to get to the promised land without credit breeding, but we are probably the breeders players complain about. Hey, should we apologize for the fact that we have resources and choose to use them? We have nothing to apologize about, we play the game within the same rules as everyone else. The same people probably complain about the Yankees and their success. This opens up a whole other box of issues but I can honestly say we have gotten no special attention from the powers that be. I have corresponded with Mike maybe 3 times since I started playing the game, once to complain about the incorrect pedigree of the great English sire Aureole and a couple of times to lobby for the Eddie Haskell race to be returned to it’s rightful track of New Jersey instead of being run in NY at an incorrect distance. But back to breeding, we have many retired mares of quality and use them, but primarily we do scratch breeds on Sunday nights. We discuss sires we are shooting for and try to not get in each others ways when the bell rings. We are big believers in breeding the best to the best and hoping for the best. We also do research with the statistics available to find nicks and crossings that work particularly well. Laura and Wayne were really the stats guys and brought organization to what we were doing. Tony and I were a bit more organic, but you would have to be an idiot not to see the results they were getting with their individual stables, so there has been a learning curve for all of us. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> I’d say that Super has done everything except random breds. Currently, it’s a mix of credit\/BP breeding, and scratch breds, using active horses as mares\/he-mares, and retired mares. I’ve got a similar mix in my own stables, although most of my credit breedings at this point are using active mares\/retired mares, rather than a scratch bred. If I’ve got a strong idea for a scratch bred, and I’m going to try to nab it at the bell, he\/she is going to Super. In both Super and in my own stables, we breed mostly 2yos, but every once in a while, a 3yo will slip into the mix.<\/p>\nPazJazz<\/font> What is your Saturday like? Do you actually view many races? <\/p>\n AFC<\/font> Yeah, I try and watch them all. I have a sort of ritualistic system. I won’t watch any stakes races until I’ve watched all the maiden and allowance races. I won’t watch Graded Stakes until I’ve watched all the ungraded stakes. I don’t know how I fell into that trap, but if I stray from it, bad things happen. <\/p>\nWhirlwind<\/font> I have to be at work at 2:00, but before that it is all pretty much Sim driven. Luckily the she-wolf understands and usually gives me the space. When I can, I try to go to DelPenn for the Saturday morning chat at 11:30 which leads to the races being posted. We usually have anywhere from 60-100 runners going, so watching all the races would be pretty time consuming, so I check the charts for most of them and watch the stakes races and the juvenile races. At some point during the day, either Laura or I will do a “that was the week that was” group email with the highs and lows and general state of the stables. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> It depends what is going on with my weekend. I don’t typically view races unless it’s something I’m really excited about a particular race result, something preferably involving a closer flying at the end. When GALLOPING GHOST<\/b> was in her prime, there was nothing better. Typically, in an effort to save time, I no longer check results until the Saturday update is done, because I’m going to do the train for weeks, bid races and figure out who needs to be culled\/retired at the same time I check results. Doing them all at once saves me about two hours a week, so I’ve learned to be patient. As a result, depending on what else is going on, sometimes that happens late Saturday afternoon, other times early Sunday morning. Sometimes I’ll check out some potential claims or finalize some 3 man entries in the late morning, but it depends how wiped out I am from my Saturday morning long run. <\/p>\nPazJazz<\/font> What are your biggest challenges? <\/p>\nAFC<\/font> Winning the Derby. Period. That was a great thrill with VIRTUOSO<\/b>. Now, the biggest challenge is getting back there. Winning a Breeders Bowl race would be nice, too. <\/p>\nWhirlwind<\/font> When I started in the game, I made a very definite goal and I am slowly working to get there. Growing up with NY racing, I wanted to win, what I considered the top NY races in the Sim version. The Wooden Indian, Gary Carter, Cosmo Mile, New Yorker, Travelers, Sparkling Wine, Jockey Guild Gold Cup. So far I have won 3 of them and been 2nd or 3rd in a couple of the others. I never thought I would get close, I was an object of futility, it took me almost 3,000 races to win my first Graded race, but after that it just started working. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> With Super, the pressure is always on with expectations. We did that the first year, with five Derby entrants and the winner, VIRTUOSO<\/b>. Now the pressure is to show that we can keep hitting a similar type level. Personally, I’ve been pretty fortunate in big races. FLY FOR BUDA<\/b> won the Middle Jewel, SEEKING SAL<\/b> the BB Mile, and BUDA FOR A DAY<\/b> just won the 1000 Guineas earlier this year. I’d like to win another Triple Crown race, another BB race, and I’d love to have a serious Derby de English\/Oaks de English contender. <\/p>\nPazJazz<\/font> Biggest thrills? <\/p>\n AFC<\/font> VIRTUOSO\u00a1\u00a6s<\/b> Derby. My own? ERUPTION’s<\/b> Eclipse Award, and his wins in the Delaware Mile and Movieland Futurity, as well as the record breaking mile run in an ungraded race. DEVIL’s SLIDE<\/b> winning back to back G1 Penn Distaffs on DPCD was pretty cool, too. That was a tough feat to pull off. <\/p>\nWhirlwind<\/font> Well, winning the Derby has to be there, that was just incredible. My family thought I was nuts, the way I was carrying on around the house after watching the race. Tony, Laura and Wayne must have been on Cloud 9, they were at the real Derby together and were able to share that accomplishment together. PLEASANT NIJINSKY<\/b> winning the Travelers and the Sand Castle Classic were pretty cool as well. Watching MIDNITE KAT<\/b> win my first homebred Graded race was satisfying as well. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> VIRTUOSO\u00a1\u00a6s<\/b> Derby has been the definite highlight so far with Super stables. After all the hard work of managing a dozen different colts through various prep races, and then landing five in the Derby, I was worried we’d end up like some real life trainers, and have everyone toss in a clunker. VIRTUOSO<\/b> made it such a joyous occasion, and it was all the better because we were all so completely excited about it. I think the individual highlight was FLY FOR BUDA<\/b> in the Middle Jewel. I was at the Preakness without computer access, so I didn’t get to check results until that Monday, and I just had the biggest smile on my face for days. <\/p>\nPazJazz<\/font> Which are the best horses that you’ve had? <\/p>\n AFC<\/font> ERUPTION<\/b> and DEVIL’s SLIDE<\/b>, hands down. Devil\u00a1\u00a6s baby, DEVIL’s TRIANGLE<\/b>, looks as though she may make some noise this year, so I’m hoping she can join those two. For Super, OMERTA CODE’s<\/b> Japan Sprint. He’s got a special place in Super for me. His mare was the impetus for Super- a story which has already been told. <\/p>\nWhirlwind<\/font> I have been pretty lucky and had some good horses that succeeded in spite of my lousy training efforts. WEST THE ESCORT<\/b> was a 2 time Eclipse nominee, PLEASANT NIJINSKY<\/b> was an Eclipse nominee as a 3 year old, SQUARE FUZZ<\/b> almost stole the Breeders Bowl Sprint and was nominated for an Eclipse as well. CREED DIXIE<\/b> was a Gd1 winner, FORT KNOCKS<\/b> would have been one of the Derby favorites that year but came up injured Derby week and was never the same. GENERATOR<\/b> and DELIVERY<\/b> made the Derby field in another year. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> In Super, obviously, VIRTUOSO<\/b>, although we’ve had a number of classy horses, including SUPER GOLD, NO APAQUES LA LUZ, WHIP SMART, OMERTA CODE, SPARE T(IRE),<\/b> etc. On my own, I’ve saddled champion EPIPHANY TOO<\/b>, and multiple G1 winners SEEKING SAL, FLY FOR BUDA, GALLOPING GHOST, DANTE, BAND OF BUDAS<\/b> and most recently, BUDA FOR A DAY<\/b>. I’ve had a number of other G1winners, but those seven are probably tops. <\/p>\nPazJazz<\/font> Is there anything else that you would like to add for out readers? <\/p>\n AFC<\/font> Super will be back this year. LOL. We took a year hiatus to do some experimenting last year, with breeding and the way we brought along our two year olds. Now, we’re going back to what worked in the past. On another note, I hope Mike Wallace appreciates what he’s built here. It’s more than just a game. The people I’ve met in the Sim, and I can’t name them all Given, Lenny, PadreBri, the Urinating Freight Train, Bulletwork, Buzz<\/b> and his woman (whoa, there’s another story for sure), Erasmus, Funky, Lilbit, Whirlaway, Shebane, Understell, Jeff, Wayne, Laura, Mike, Larry,<\/b>– the list goes on and on- it’s surreal almost. We all share a passion, so I suppose it’s not unexpected, but Mike’s managed to build a real “community” here. It’s far more than just an Internet horseracing game now. <\/p>\nWhirlwind<\/font> The sim has been a great hobby for the past 8 or 9 years and I have made some good friends in the game. It has changed so much from back in the day. I give all credit to Mike for following through with the game as well as the community it spawned. I have actually met quite a few simmers at racetrack gatherings in Texas as well as New Jersey and look forward to the Breeders Cup being at Monmouth this year and plans are being made to meet a few more. The Super project has been great. Tony, Laura are great partners and Wayne is a one in a million. Some of my earliest friends in the Sim are no longer around too much Dr Dipper Lip, 5starnick, Indy, Labreche<\/b> and a few others. The crew at DelPenn are the best, Revelation<\/b> is one of the best gentlemen in the game and probably my first friends in the Sim, Kingab and Snowchief. Larry<\/b> has involved me with so many things, we started the eclipse awards together, and took so much heat, I had to talk him into doing it the next year, California Gold was fun and I was still standing with $$$ in the FAB 15. And anybody I gave passwords to my stables to use retired mares, have at it again it you like. <\/p>\nTopicount<\/font> I really love this game. There’s a great bunch of people here – I can’t even begin to describe how many terrific people I’ve met, both on-line and in person, through this game. Residencies are a wonderful thing to participate in, and I strongly recommend them t o anyone playing this game. I enjoy my individual stables, but Super has been the best thing to happen to me in the game, despite all the controversy it stirred up, because it’s been so much fun to share the highs and the lows. It has been a true partnership in the best sense of the word, and it all just works because of the personalities involved. That said, I think Super would be a very hard thing to duplicate. If you don’t have the right mix of people, you’re screwed. Mike is a class act, and has built both a wonderful game and community here. I feel like I’m beginning to give an awards acceptance speech, so I’ll stop there. LOL<\/p>\n
\nI packed up my stuff and headed for home, confident that I have now reached inside the minds of some of the best trainers of large stables in all of the Sim. I’ve learned plenty throughout this series and hope that you have as well. There is still a possiblity of one last article but I don’t want to say too much in case it doesn’t happen. I suddenly feel the need to open up a new stable, how about you? <\/p>\n
Email your comments to pazjazz.btb@gmail.com<\/font><\/a> I love to hear from you!<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/darsebay.homestead.com\/PazJazz_Logo.gif\")
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