Horse Racing Fantasy Community

Today we released the new nominated horses. I recommend that everyone checks out the Get Help section and catches up on a little reading. There is a real nice overview on the Nominated Horses as well as the Insta-Tournaments.

Now that the nominated horses are out, there have been some changes in what features the new horses can access. All nominated horses, whether they are NN, PN, or FN, are eligible for insta-tournaments. That means that all new horses can now race not only in the three normal or general tournaments that we have before they age, but are also eligible for the insta-tournaments, which are one-race tournaments. This gives every horse the ability to race 6 times, if they want, in 6 different tournaments per year instead of 3.

Insta-tournaments will start popping up under the Upcoming Trainer Tournaments tab and in the Tournament Schedule Calendar early next week. Insta-tournaments last just a few days and are a great place to keep your horse in-between other tournaments to help pay the stable bills.

I noticed a couple of questions on why the basic horses have gone up in price. Do not look at it like a horse going up in price. Look at it as knowing that each horse is now eligible for twice as many tournaments per year. Again, insta-tournaments will start appearing next week and over the new few weeks, they will really start to fill up the tournament schedule.

As far as the new nominated horses go, the hot subject is PN and FN or Partially-Nominated and Fully-Nominated trainer horses. There is no comparison in what these horses are eligible for compared to general or Non-Nominated horse. Having a top nominated horse will earn you a ton of community points. With all those bonuses, there are going to be some real lucky players out there. These nominated horses are eligible for both general Jackpot and general Super-Jackpot trainer tournaments. Read all about them in the Get Help section.

One thing to remember is that Jackpot and Super-Jackpot general tournaments will not start popping up for probably two weeks, maybe three. Here's the reason why. Any tournaments that have been previously published before today have no shot at being a Jackpot or Super-Jackpot tournaments. We couldn't launch those tournaments until we launched the nominated horses. Any tournaments launched from today on (new tournaments, not final reminders) have a chance to be Jackpot and Super-Jackpot tournaments. YOU DO NOT KNOW IF A TOURNAMENT IS A JACKPOT OR A SUPER JACKPOT TOURNAMENT UNTIL THE TOURNAMENT IS CLOSED AND READY TO START. This prevents any intentional foul play. So, if you have a PN or FN horse (NN horses are not eligible for any of these jackpots), it might be smart to sit on those horses and start entering them in tournaments that you know were published after the 28th of December.

Insta-tournaments can also be Jackpot or Super-Jackpot tournaments, and they will start to appear in conjunction with all the new insta-tournaments that are starting next week.

All insta-tournaments are claiming tournaments, which basically means that when you enter your horse in an insta-tournament, someone could buy the horse from you. The good news is, you're picking up 3 new tournaments per year for your horse, but the bad news is that if someone really likes your horse, they have the option to buy your horse for a set price.

When your horse is entered in an insta-tournament, the mandatory selling price is displayed. That price is the price for NN or Non-Nominated horses. PN horses (or Partially-Nominated) get an allowance of 100% and FN horses (or Fully-Nominated) get an allowance of 400%. So, in a nutshell, if the claiming price is 50,000 community points and you have a PN horse, he is for sale for 100,000 community points. If you have an FN horse, he's for sale for 200,000 community points.

What you will start to see right away with all new published tournaments is the VIP bonus payouts. All general trainer tournaments that have a VIP bonus payout will now come with additional bonuses if you've entered those tournaments with FN or PN horses and you are a VIP player. For example, if the VIP bonus is 10,000 community points for the NN (non-nominated) horse in a tournament if he wins and you're a VIP player, expect bonuses of 200% to 300% more (it does vary based on the overall tournament pool) if you have a PN or FN horse.

We're expecting lots of fun challenges, which we will address as they come out, with both the insta-tournaments and nominated horses. Once things settle down over the next two to three weeks, our goal is to release the new final handicap weight program for the Breeders' Cup final races. Then we will follow with the Auction Program. There are a lot of other developments going on, and as we get closer to those, I will discuss them.

- Puddles