Horse Racing Fantasy Community

This is just a general update. I glanced today at the forums and am seeing a lot of misdirection, misrepresentation and just typical 'BS'. I also see a lot of good comments and good ideas, which I always appreciate.

Right now we're focused on getting the new build out and our new main website design finished. In addition, we're working on several components in conjunction with Disney for the new "Secretariat" movie coming out in October. These three items are 100% of our focus.

As soon as we're finished with these three projects, we will look at the trainer tournament program. In several threads that I've read, between a lot of 'BS' comments, there are some good ideas. I think, in general, we just need to control the amount of blue and red restricted tournaments out there and narrow the range of their availability. That, in itself, will eliminate a lot of the concerns with the trainer tournaments. No matter what we do, half the people will be happy and half won't. But, I do believe that there are some changes, specifically to the number of tournaments and the variation of blue restricted tournaments, that can be made to improve the overall program.

The general tournaments should be completely in the control of the players now and they should all fill. If they are requested and voted on and then approved and then published, they should fill.

Overall, I like the blue tournaments. There just has to be more consistency in what they mean. For example, blue tournaments should never consist of races other than Ungraded or Grade 3. General tournaments should consist of only races made up of Grade 3, Grade 2 and Grade 1. This creates a higher value for the general tournaments. Red restricted tournaments should only consist of Ungraded and occasional Grade 3 races. I think future blue tournaments that get written should be for 2-year-olds and then 3-year-olds and up. We're never going to be able to fill blue restricted tournaments as 2-year-olds as its own class, 3-year-olds as its own class and for 4-year-olds and up. If we try to do that, it will affect the general trainer tournaments.

I am staying out of the forums so I can focus on running the business. Derbygirl, MommaLee and others will be available and will, from time to time, respond in the forums. When these current projects are cleared up, I'll probably have an open forum with the most open-minded members, set up a conference call of 15 to 20 players and have an open discussion of the tournaments and suggestions and ideas. People who are posting misleading comments and other 'BS' in the forums will not be invited to participate. Those who have suggestions, questions and ideas and present them in a fair and respectful manner will be invited because their opinions deserve to be heard.

If you send me a private message right now you may not get a response for 4 or 5 days. I am literally staying out of the community because of deadlines that have to be met. If you see my name online, it is simply because someone on the staff is logged in as me or my browser is open through my I-phone. I apologize in advance if I don't get back to you with any private messages right away.

- Puddles