The first week of sim racing took part in week 26, Saturday August 15, 1998. Now, exactly ten years later, I thought we\u2019d take a look at the first race on that first raceday. Strictly, of course, the true identity of the first race may be subject to some debate. Geographically, it\u2019s hardly likely that the first race in In finishing order, the runners were: Can On The Candles<\/SPAN><\/B> (Quiet American \/ Nijinsky<\/I>) \u2013 The first ever winner of the first ever race has that achievement as just about his career highlight. He won this by three and a quarter lengths in 1.16.4, returning a 100 speed rating. Very nice for a first starter. He went on to be stakes placed on two occasions, including his final run in March 2000. He ended his career with four wins from 28, and left no offspring. Your Stranger<\/SPAN><\/B> (Gone West \/ Irish River<\/I>) \u2013 Now this bloke had a little more luck in his later career, developing into a handy turf stayer. He won three races in succession in late 1998 and early 1999, two of them stakes races over a mile and a half. His final run in December 99 was a third of 12 in a Grade 2 event. Finished with a record of 4 from 19, two stakes wins, two Graded seconds and earnings of $241k. Once again, no offspring. Val\u2019s Nightmare<\/SPAN><\/B> (Ascot Knight \/ Native Charger<\/I>) \u2013 Went on to race 78 times and bank 77k. Won his maiden at his tenth start and had five more allowance runs in 1998. Then came his claiming career. I don\u2019t know what the record for the most sim trainers is, but I\u2019m guessing this guy comes close. Fifteen trainers are listed on his page, and that doesn\u2019t include his original owner, as the records that far back credit \u2018computer\u2019 as racing everything. He left no issue. All Reject<\/SPAN><\/B> (Summer Squall \/ Prospector\u2019s Halo<\/I>) \u2013 Eventually won a 2k maiden claimer at his twenty fifth start. He finished his career with 2 wins from 33, and a massive bank balance of $21k. His line ends here. Alynoko<\/SPAN><\/B> (Unbridled \/ Alydar<\/I>) \u2013 His first win was a 5k claim at start number thirteen in December 1998. That\u2019s right, thirteen runs between August and December was not uncommon. He raced on without distinction until February 2002, retiring with three wins from 66 and $30k in lifetime earnings. He\u2019s the first runner we\u2019ve had to have made it to the breeding shed, visiting Ship Stamp<\/SPAN><\/B> (Last Tycoon \/ Secretariat<\/I>) \u2013 He\u2019s another who didn\u2019t set the world on fire, although he did pick up an allowance among his five wins from 49 starts, which earned $77k in total. Sent to Alysheba<\/I> after his last race in August 2000, he produced the filly, Let The Music Play<\/B>. Retired a maiden after 30 runs, the now ten year old mare has never been to stud, despite her fairly handy bloodlines. That\u2019s a shame really, given her links back to the very beginning. Elk Flaunting<\/SPAN><\/B> (Zabeel \/ Palace Music<\/I>) \u2013 A three year old filly at the time, the horse who ran last in the inaugural event, went on to have the best race record of all the runners. I don\u2019t know how the markets were framed in those early days, but clearly Zabeel<\/I> was held in little regard, as Palace Music<\/I> still had Cigar<\/B> fresh in everybody\u2019s minds. Anyway, records show that she went off at 999\/1 in this race, and the bookies were right. She was beaten 29 lengths. She later went on to win two stakes races on the grass and continued to perform until July 2001. Upon retirement she\u2019d won six from 79, been stakes placed a dozen times (including the two victories) and she\u2019d earned over $213k. She\u2019s also been busiest in the breeding barn, having produced two offspring: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Eight Is Enough<\/B> (Day Is Done<\/I>) \u2013 9yo maiden after 24 runs. Active but unraced since January 2004. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN> \u00a0<\/SPAN> It\u2019s doubtful that anybody could envisage what the sim was to come, following that inaugural raceday. We\u2019ll ponder a few statistics: There were 140 races on this day a decade ago. Without growth that would amount to 7,280 races in a year (14 tracks, 10 races a week, 52 weeks). Today we have 89 tracks running 18 races each per week (16 on Saturday plus 2 rodots), so the decade ends with a program of 83,304 races in a 52 week year. I have no evidence, but I\u2019m confident that there are more horses balloted out now than there were back in those early days, even though we, the players, now have virtual control over the programming.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>With thanks to Zapspride<\/B>\u2019s weekly articles, we know that the decade\u00a0draws to a close\u00a0with an official horse pool of 170446, more than 99,000 of which have had at least one run so far this year. Who wants to predict the figures for the end of the second decade? In closing, while it\u2019s a countless number of real people who make the sim the wonderful pastime it is, it\u2019s been the vision of one man which has given us all so much enjoyment. I raise a glass in a thankful toast to Mike, and look forward to another ten years. The First Race<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":261,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}