Horse Racing Fantasy Community

Training does not affect your horse's performance in tournaments. It is just a way for you to find out what your horse is best at. What distances, what surfaces, etc.
Dusty

Thank you for your help.

Seems we use the word 'training' rather loosely around here. I prefer to think of races run in private mode as 'practice' -- and you are right that the guidelines say that the private mode races do not affect your horse -- certainly they have had no effect on mine LOL.

However, there is also 'training' or 'workouts' that happen within/during the 'trainer tournaments' meaning the races against other players' horses. I understand that this is the training that DOES have an effect on your horse, although some have said the effect is not much. But I noticed that my clunker horses were far less clunky after just one tournament, for whatever reason -- I supposed it was the training and the 'experience' they gained from racing. Also, the peformance reports state fairly explicitly what kind of 'workout' your horse needs or prefers... this refers to the training that happens during tournaments.

I hope this helps -- anyone please correct me if I've misstated anything.

Have fun!

jr, since you are a VIP member, remember to do 2 things when you breed a horse. First, goto your stable page, and pull a performance report on all of your horses. This will tell you your horses preferred distances (although not always correct, but usually a good guide to get them started) as well as your horses preferred surfaces, their consistency and courage, training preferences, as well as how they respond to your jockey's instructions. This will work as a basis for your horse before trainer races. Secondly, before you race your horse in private mode, select the "view" menu up top and goto "horse information", and click the trainer tournament horses button. This will show you all of your horses, and your horses best initial speed rating. Anything above 103 or so means he has some speed. Obviously, your horse will respond best to being set up properly in races. Running a horse at the wrong distance, the wrong track, or the wrong conditions could affect your horse's performances. Use trainer mode to figure out where your horse places (make sure to race them against Grade 1 competition) at different distances, surfaces, etc. At the end of each race make sure to click the "details" button, as it will tell you the winning horse's speed rating, the pace for the race, as well as how everyone finished. I like to see also how much energy each horse had left (if your horse is in the negatives, the distance might be too far) and how much speed was used. This will help guage how your horse performs. Any other questions, feel free to ask them here. We have a great community here to help.

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Thanks for all of your advice. I do have a few monsters in my barn. That being said I have some donkeys with speeds WELL BELOW the par speed you mentioned above. Have you had any luck with the "Vet Visit"?

Also I did pull the performance reports and some will hit best racing age late into their 4th year. How fast do your horses age in the game? Waiting till then will cost a small fortune in fees waiting till they age, is there a claiming option or do you just retire them? I did try to scratch a horse from a tournament, I was informed my entry fee would be taken and my horse would age without even racing. Any thoughts on this?

Your horse will age 1yr for every 3 tournaments.Or 2 tournaments and one vet visit.
If you withdraw from a tournament it counts towards the ageing process.

I vet uncontrollably:)

-VeTron-

You can afford to be hooked with 2.4 million points lol. Thanks for your help.

Lasix does it work? I already used it for the 1st half of my runners thinking most race horse use it.

I don't use it,only because i'm lazy(too much for me)
I don't even like doing Jockey n trainer instructions.
I here it only helps for distance races,but there are plenty of people who can tell you from experience.

-MoVetTron-

PS:I have an appointment with a horse Doctor,How that horse became a Docter I'll never know.LOL
:)))
No i'm kidding,he's just a regular Docter,who shoots your horse in the head when his leg is broken.:)))
-Dwight Schrute-

jr, lasix is worth it in instances where you think your horse doesn't have the stamina to survive. In my opinion, it is more expensive to use lasix for an extra furlong or 2 than it is to find a tournament that suits your horse at the proper distance. This game is all about using your points efficiently and not wasting them. If I can give you two things of advice, one is to never breed any horses with any special traits (look at a horse like midnight lute in the shop and notice under the breeding notes that he will show you levels of inconsistency) because these horses are a waste of money with the inconsistency (you will rip your hair off when they run 140 speed ratings in private mode and run 65 speed ratings in tournaments), and to just be patient. Be 100% sure your horse likes the distance, the surface(right now all horses like synethetic in private mode, but not in actual tournaments. It's a bug they are fixing), and are showing you some sort of consistency. Just because the horse trains well and wins 1 race, doesn't mean if you run that exact same race with the exact same conditions he will win again. Practice makes perfect. Start your horses in small tournaments, and see how they do. If they are winners, promote them to bigger and better things.

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if you want your horse to age really fast, just enter him in a tourney for 4 year olds. He'll instantly be four. You won't have to worry about those embarassing baby years.

This was a good thread

What's a thread without some needles?

This baby seal walks into a bar and the bartender asks,
"What'll ya have?"

The seal says,
"Anything but a Canadian Club "

... until the bad jokes started.

Dog walks into a saloon and takes a seat at the bar. He's good a big bandage on his foot. He says,

"I'm looking for the man that shot my paw."

What I gather from this thread is that it does not 'pay' to train your horse in the early years, that he will be just as good at 4 yo (or whatever age) WITHOUT training in the tournaments during his early years as he will be WITH training in the tournaments? (I believe this is what puddles indicated up above.) In other words, his fate is already 'predestined' based on his statistics when he's born? If so, why do we put so much effort into training during tournaments?

Any further insights appreciated. No more bad jokes, please, unless you really can't help it.

vicky

You are correct vicky.The best horse in the game so far was retired and never ran 1 race! Matter of fact the top 4 horses in the game to date have been retired(not by me thank goodness)

My joke tied in with my comment "seal of approval"

Let's "sea"...bad jokes eh.....

"A baby Seal walks into a bar....Blood everywhere"
(see i tied in seal,bad,and your bar joke)

I want to thank everyone that answered my questions. Thank you again.

bartender says, "Why the long face?"

...no bad jokes here. But I do have a question for anyone. While I was away, I seem to have forgotten HOW to purchase a horse. Help please (without the snickering)?
...go for it!
Ree

I have to agree vicky, it does seem that the fate of a horse is predestined according to his breeding-with a few (very few) exceptions. With all the training that you put your pony through, it seems all moot point once he's in a tourney. Once in awhile, you can get surprised but it seems rare from what I've read.
I certainly hope the improvements in the new client will adjust that greatly. What you see in & get from a horse in training, you can use to better choose your tournaments.

...go for it!
Ree

Use the "shop" tab which appears along the top margin of most of the game web pages. One of the buttons there is for buying a training horse... I think it's the third button in the left column. Go through the horses, pick one at a time; at the bottom of his/her page is a place to add "it" to your shopping cart. :-)

vicky

Now I've read your second message...

I was not referring to the "no effect" from 'training' in private mode -- I understand the private mode races are 'for illustration only' and then, as you say, only generally --- I was referring to the 'workouts' during training tournaments. It seems to me that if a horse can benefit (peformance wise) from these workouts, that would give a reason to race him in tournaments and age him 'naturally' by racing and working out and seeing improvement as he 'grows up' -- in contrast to what was discussed (and confirmed) above, that these workouts do not have any such effect, that you could plop him down in a 4 yo race and he will do just as well as he would as a 4 yo with previous tournament/training experience. So, I was asking about the reasons for giving jockey and "training" instructions during tournaments if they don't improve the horse as he ages. I still find this confusing and, based on the answers above, kind of disappointing. But I'm still having a great time.

Re007 why retire a horse after one race? For the rest of the trainers out there, how many horses do you keep in your barn?

How long before you retire them?

jromantic:
I'm new to this myself; but I don't think it will be very practical for me to retire my horses at the same rate some of the other players do in search of a superstar. I don't have enough points for that. I have retired more horses than I otherwise would have, however, knowing that the other players are working so hard to get the best horses. But tonight my horse Party's Over will be in a tournament final race, only my second final race. I don't expect her to win (she still might) but she got there! And this, even though when she first arrived in my stable she was nothing special. I just watched her keep falling off the back end of every race until one day she blew away the field! So that, I determined, is her favorite distance. And now she's in a final!

I think most horses here, by definition, are going to be pretty close to average. The guidellines seem to emphasize the importance of finding the right race, as Party''s Over illustrated for me. They say that a horse might even be a champion on only one surface... and it has also been noted that you can't really tell what they will do until they get into the tournaments. So, to avoid spending alot of points trying to find a superstar, I'm going to stick with some of my more 'normal' horses and see how they do, before I send them to the glue factory that motron operates. Some of the really slow ones, I have retired, once feeling their pain really begins to hurt. But I'm trying to get all except the very slowest in at least one tournament, though I admit to being a little impatient! I am going to keep experimenting to see what I find out. I think that's all you can really do. After that, the proof is in the pudding... I guess.

Well said my lady.

PS:what?You have something against glue?lol

-Tron

I believe there are many different styles of trainers here. Some are effective, others not as much. The dynamic trainers are the ones that support their horses preferences. If your horse is stubborn, let him run his way and just find him the perfect distance and surface. If your horse has raw speed and he closes well, hold him back. Personality plays a huge role in your horse's success. They need courage, they need to fight, and they need consistency. You will see a lot of horses train well, and never even show up on the track. Great trainers will know that their horse has some sort of fight, and will not run him out of his league. I also believe that some trainers retire their horses based on speed ratings alone...Heck, I've done it myself earlier in my career. Sometimes vetting works, sometimes it doesn't. Nonetheless, isn't it worth it to at least run a 500 point tournament with the horse? He may not be the most talented horse, but if he can find the right situation, he can make you some cash.
JR, as to answer your question, there really isn't an average number. Those of us that are willing to spend money on free points, or have accumulated a large point base based on success in tournaments, usually have larger stables. I have 13 horses in my stable right now. I may be sending a few of them to retirement if they don't show up after their next tournament. Other trainers spend hundreds of thousands of points to find 5 or 6 dynamic horses. They will not be happy with initial SR's, and will retire them before even letting them walk around the track. It's all up to how you want to play the game. I believe those that are willing to be patient and find the right situations for all of their horses will have more success than those that are just chasing speed ratings. Just my opinion.

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I have retired plenty who have never entered a tournament.
I do however,over several months of training,have 20 or so good horses that have proven themselves in tournaments.

Any new horse bred ALWAYS runs on every track and distance agianst my best in the barn.
If they can't make the grade,i don't care what there "Base SR" is there gone!
A $500 tournament will not pay the stable fees.
I look for many things in a high quality horse.I guess my standards are too high.:P
Just my humble opinion

-Tron

Your spot on there Motron.....
Problem with perservering with horses that show little potential in training, is that it may be more costly in the long run with stable costs. Its better to have one good horse rather than 5 bad ones who do not return any reward.

(I needed to post that to get my 10 points and have another buddy challenge!!! times are tough)

I meant that if you can enter the horse in a tourney early, you should be able to finish the tournament before stable fees are due you silly geese! I would never pay 8k on an experiment! :)

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Smart man dodger.... No harm in one tourney, thats for sure.
Im not sure about the "Goose" part though as ducks are better. "Water off a ducks back"

I used to have a family of ducks that would migrate from this marsh behind my apartment to my pool. I once had to save 5 ducklings because they couldn't get over the rim of the pool. Those net catcher things in the pool came in handy. I will however say, that when I was 5, I was at a botanical gardens up in this area and a goose came out of nowhere and attacked me and grabbed my shirt. That goose was definitely silly....and deadly!

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Haha Good one....
5 years old is a little young for a "smackdown" on a goose, but a duck on the other hand might be possible? There used to be a magpie that attacked me on the way home from school (4 kilometre walk about 15 years ago) until an altercation with my adrenelin charged schoolbag.

And if you ask what this has to do with the game????? I have no idea

LOL! This is digression at it's finest. *takes his A.D.D medication*

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Now that you've reminded me, I do recall where to do the transaction. Just call a brain fart... :P

...go for it!
Ree

I had to remove myself from the game to handle some important things only to return & find my PC uncooperative. Sooo, my pony was forcibly retired. He had only 3 races. Sad but true.
Cie' la vie!
As for how many you can keep in your barn-don't know yet and really doesn't matter. I can only keep up with 3 or 4. My patience and time won't permit any more than that for me.

...go for it!
Ree

Is that what happens when you don't have enough for your monthly stable fees? When do they charge the fees? Do you have to wait for a tournament to end to retire a horse? If a horse takes part in a tournament will you be charged boarding fees if he's retired before the fees are charged?

I ask do to having to get rid of some dead wood. I couldn't find any area that talks about this subject. Thanks again for everyone that has answered my questions. Most gaming communities aren't very helpful this is a refreshing change. Thanks again to all that have helped!

One more thing are you sent a reminder or is there an auto charge for our subscriptions?

As a VIP member, your stable fees are 8K per horse every month. 4 days before the fees are auto-deducted from your account, you should get an email with a reminder saying they are due. If you have insufficient points/funds, then that horse will be temperarily removed from any current tournament until the fees are paid. After a week, if the fees are still not paid, the horse will be forced into retirement. Your first stable fee for the each horse will be 30 days after you purchased the horse at midnight central time. Once the points are available in your account, the fee will be deducted at 12am. For VIP subscriptions, I believe you should get auto-charged once a month.

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to answer your question about early retirement, you cannot retire a horse if he is active in a tournament. If he is not in any tournament, he can be forced to retire on your stable page. If he has ran all his races in a tournament, he will stay current in that tournament til the final race is ran and the tournament ends. If you just want to go ahead and retire him, go to the tournament details page, and you should be able to scroll to the bottom and after the races list there should be your horses listed that signed up for the tournament. There should be a QUIT option there, that is how you remove horses from tournaments. Keep in mind even if the races have not been ran, if you remove a horse from a tournament it counts towards his age (3 tournaments a year) and you cannot be refunded for any entry fees/lasix purchased on the horse for that tournament.

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to answer your question about early retirement, you cannot retire a horse if he is active in a tournament. If he is not in any tournament, he can be forced to retire on your stable page. If he has ran all his races in a tournament, he will stay current in that tournament til the final race is ran and the tournament ends. If you just want to go ahead and retire him, go to the tournament details page, and you should be able to scroll to the bottom and after the races list there should be your horses listed that signed up for the tournament. There should be a QUIT option there, that is how you remove horses from tournaments. Keep in mind even if the races have not been ran, if you remove a horse from a tournament it counts towards his age (3 tournaments a year) and you cannot be refunded for any entry fees/lasix purchased on the horse for that tournament.

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I think you can retire him within 30 days without having to pay the stable fees -- even if he runs in a tournament before then. I guess he eats somebody else's hay. (Maybe all my horses are hungry?)
That's all folks!

I have to differ on something you said. If a horse is not in a tourney, he will be retired upon non-payment of fees. I have to differ there...my horse WAS entered in a tourney (My First Dance) and they retired him right outta there. Unfortunately, I became absent right after the sign up. I had hoped to earn more points for fees while I waited for the tourney to start but had to handle some things more important.
Since my return, I opened the race in my pre-built to see if my pony even ran. Nope! He wasn't in the race. But yes, he was indeed signed up for it.

go for it!
Ree

If you don't pay the fees within 7 days the horse gets retired regardless of his/her status.

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Thanks again.

How often does Advance mode not look like a tournament race? One of what I thought was a promising horse just threw a BRICK and ran one of his worst speeds ever. He breaks 100 3 out of 5 and today a group by his mode standards he should've been in a stretch drive for first he runs in the 70s. Does this happen often?

Do not worry about one race . There could be a ton of reasons for the bad race. Advanced mode in the game is a great way to figure out you horses over all ability but certain traits can only be discovered when racing in tournaments . The new version of the game will share with the player in real time all the traits of your horse's including consistency and courage .

thanks

thanks

Sounds like a good reason to put off buying a new horse for a bit. When the new version launches, everyone will be shopping!

Everything else is just a learning from mistakes. I think the training wheels are off now!!

Remember when I told you to stay away from special breeds of horses? This is why...I have a horse in my stable (who I will be retiring) that can hit anywhere from 120-140 based on conditions. The horse can sprint, can run classic distances, can even hit 12 furlongs without getting tired. An absolute monster in private mode. He actually hit 3rd place tonight in a race, but his speed rating was 86 and change. That's why it's important to use private mode to determine what distance, time of the year, and surface your horse likes mainly...because consistency, courage, and training routine will put a lot of variable into your tournament races.

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I do remember........ this was an Alysheba X Serena's Song Filly. She didn't run those types of numbers but I've ran her in many different set ups and she has handled most very well, 100's to 117's. Her race tonight I've run a few times and she didn't have any problems......... maybe her training routine wasn't to her liking. So many maybes running through my head.

I may keep this one around for one more tourney.