Horse Racing Fantasy Community

Bloodsong's Clueless Newbie Guide to Learning How to Jockey
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So here you are, jockeying virtual horses -- something you probably have never actually done in real life. And it isn't as easy as picking the fastest horse, or the one with the best odds, and then pressing the RUN FAST button the whole nine furlongs.

The thing about the Quick Start races is... you can't really review your performance -- or the horse handicap comments and everything. You win -- WOO-HOO! You don't win... you dunno why. The Advanced Mode and Training Game section of Horse Racing Fantasy 3 can help you with this.

Note: Make sure you are in private mode when you do this tutorial, so you can access all the information screens.

First, make sure you know how to re-run the same race in Advanced Mode. This is covered in more depth in my "Clueless Newbie Guide to Training and Evaluating Your Horse." The short refersher version goes like this:

1: Start a new race -- control or don't control whatever aspects you want. But do turn "Select Horses Automatically" OFF. (If you use automatic horse selection at the start, for some reason, it won't remember the horses it used the next time you go to run the race.)

2: Select some horses -- you can now click on the Select Horses Automatically, to get a good mix of horses for the race.

3: Note down the track name and conditions so you can reload them next go-round. If you let it automatically pick a distance and surface and anything else, note those down, too.

4: Run the race, and when finished, start a new race. Use the same parameters as the first race, making sure to UNcheck Select Track Automatically, so you can load up the same venue.

5: At the horse selection screen, pick the "Use same horses as last race" option.

Re-running the same race will let you try different jockeying strategies and different horses in the race, so you can see how that affects the outcome. Plus, Advanced Mode will let you peek under the hood at what the AI jockeys are doing.

Finding the Jockey Instructions
http://www.horseracegame.com/community/files/public_gallery/CNG-jockey-1...

When in a private Advanced Mode race, you will have access to a button on the far left labelled "Adjust Race Setup Details." If you're like me, you probably thought that meant the track details. But it is in fact a cleverly disguised "Show Jockey Instructions" button. :X

Press it!

AI Jockey Instructions
http://www.horseracegame.com/community/files/public_gallery/CNG-jockey-2...

Click on a horse in the list that pops up, and on the right you can see the instructions and strategy the AI jockey is using with that horse. These options are shown and explained briefly near the end of the Adjust Race Settings video tutorial.

Jockey Strategy: this controls how hard the jockey tries to hug the rail. Move to the left towards the rail, to the right away from the rail.

Target Pace: whether to start slow or to sprint like a son of a gun.

Weight Carried: I wouldn't touch this, since the race parameters determine the handicap or whatever weights for the horses.

Pace Strategy: Stalking or Taking the Lead, etc. It's interesting to note that this strategy doesn't always match the horse's listed preferred running style. In this example, the horse seems to like Mid-Pack, but the jockey is set to Stalk Pace. Why? I don't know -- I'm a clueless newbie. It probably has to do with the other horses in the field, the length of the race, etc.

When to Move: This is how many furlongs from the finish to quit doing all that strategy and try to take the lead. When you are jockeying, you'll notice big yellow mile-marker signs posted along the track. But the furlongs-left-to-go are shown on the track overview/radar in the upper right. That's where you'll get this number from.

So now you know what the jockeys are doing. Or trying to do. If you select a horse, you could check its jockey instructions to see if they match up to how you would try to run it. Then try it both ways and see who is smarter. ;)

Trainer Instructions to Your Jockey
http://www.horseracegame.com/community/files/public_gallery/CNG-jockey-3...

If you've read up about the Trainer Tournaments, you've seen that you can give jockey instructions before the races you enter your horse in. Well, here they are! Except one little detail... the instructions you can give for your horse's jockey are limited. :/

You can set the rail distance, and the pace, but you can't control the strategy style or when to make a move on the lead. The only thing you can do is tell the jockey to slow the horse down at the start, speed him up at the start, or just let him run how he likes.

By the way, the default for "When to Move" seems to be 2.0. (Or maybe that is my horse's style; since natural front-runners time to move would be at the start of the race. I dunno for sure. Clueless newbie, here. For all I know, I trained him to do that, because when I ride him, because that's when I usually hit the gas.)

Running the Race and Changing the Outcome
 

So I did this with my race, and the top three finishers were #9, #2, and #1. I saved that race for local playback, so I could review it and watch the horse's pace and controls. Remember, you can snoop any horse in the playback by using F8 or F9 and typing in that horse's number.

Then I tried riding the different winning horses. #9 was easy to win with. With #2, I could change strategy and win with this horse. Cool! Um, of course it helps to know which horse is 'destined' to win, so you can stalk them. :X I tried riding #1 a number of different times, but I couldn't get that horse past second. Either he just didn't have the speed and stamina to do it, or I'm a clueless newbie jockey and don't know how to coax it out of him.

So now you should be able to re-run the same race over and over as a jockey, change up strategies, and hopefully learn a little something about bringing different horses to the winner's circle. Have fun!