The trainer game allows players to go head-to-head against each other in virtual racing by allowing players to breed their own horse, name that horse and compete in individual races and tournaments against thousands of other players for community game points, badges, awards and other prizes. If you're not familiar with community game points, please read the help topic called "Points, Badges and Awards".
From the top navigation in our community, click on the Shop link. From the catalog, you will see a category called Purchasing Horses for Horse Racing Fantasy Trainer Game. Once inside this section, you will see a list of sires and dams ready and waiting for your evaluation and selection to create your own virtual horse. Click on the name of the sire or dam you may be interested in breeding. There you will find complete details of the horse you're interested in - everything from their true racing history, preferred racing surface and racing conditions to even a short synopsis on their racing career. Most profiles come with either a video or picture of the champion you may wish to breed. You will also find a summary of every virtual offspring from that sire or dam including their lifetime earnings and access to their complete racing history to evaluate the quality of the offspring they might produce.
Once you determine the sire and dam that you want to breed, simply select from the list and then choose Add to Cart using either community points or a major credit card. Please note that the prices of each horse are always the same - $2.50 for each full breeding or 25,000 game points. Your first breeding is free. Players may nominate their horses for additional bonuses and jackpots through our Partially-Nominated (PN) and Fully-Nominated (FN) horse eligibility program. Nominating your horse to these programs is not mandatory, but is highly recommended for active players looking to maximize their potential payouts when winning tournaments. To learn more about these special nominated programs, please read Trainer Game Nominated Horses Benefits & Features found in the Get Help section. After you've chosen a sire and a dam, you'll be asked to name your new baby. If you plan to nominate your horse, you must do so prior to naming that horse. When naming your horse, try to come up with a name that's appropriate for both genders, because part of the fun is not knowing what gender horse you will get. Our name verification tool will instantly let you know that the name you select is available. If so, it will reserve that name throughout the ordering process. Follow the checkout process to complete this part of your transaction. The traits of the offspring are totally random and are based upon the attributes of the selected parents. Keep in mind, just like in real horse racing, our horse racing game will sometimes produce an offspring that can far exceed his parents' ability or, in some cases, never come close to equaling that ability. When choosing the sire and dam, keep in mind what type of horse you're looking for. The traits of your baby will tend to follow the performance traits of his/her parents. For example, if both the sire and the dam you want to breed were both known to perform well on grass or turf surfaces, there is a stronger possibility that your offspring will prefer that type of racing surface, as well. Just like racing surfaces, if the sire and dam prefer racing short distances or sprints, then your offspring will probably be a sprinter. With this said, breeding two turf horses could produce a spectacular dirt runner. Just like in real breeding, sometimes the offspring don't follow the direct genes of the parents, and sometimes follow the genes of the grandparents or great-grandparents.
You can purchase as many horses as you want, but you must remember that every horse you purchase has to be maintained (stable fees). As part of the maintenance program, your stable will be charged 10,000 game points each month for each horse for non VIP members and just 8500 game points for our VIP members for each horse that you have in training. The first month’s stable fee is included in the purchase price of your horse. Management has the right to either increase or decrease monthly maintenance fees depending on economic conditions and feed and boarding costs. One thing to remember is that you can always do free offers from the Free Points section located in the top navigation menu at the community at any time to instantly obtain thousands, ten thousands or even hundreds of thousands of free community points. So, if you're a little short one month, simply do a couple of offers and keep your horses well-fed and racing.
Once the transaction is complete, your horse will be accessible from your Stable page. A private message will appear announcing the arrival of your new thoroughbred. With each new breeding, we provide a free performance report, which can be accessed from your Stable page in the community/game. The performance report will help you evaluate your horse’s ability. When you first receive your horse, it is assigned a birth speed rating number (BSR). This is a number generally between 40 and 150 and is a key factor in determining your horse’s overall ability. Champion horses in our game are usually born with birth speed ratings in excess of 135. Horses with initial speed ratings of under 120 will probably require placement in either Red, Green or Blue Restricted Tournaments. If you bred a horse and his initial speed rating is under 90, you might want to take advantage of our Vet Visit program.
The Vet Visit program is a one-time opportunity to essentially completely recalibrate your horse's traits, giving you another shot at getting a champion. When utilizing the Vet Visit program, your horse's color and gender will not change. It is also possible that a Vet Visit can lower your horse's speed rating. Only utilize the Vet Visit program for horses with low speed ratings that would normally be retired immediately.
My horse is evaluated – now what?
Once you've made a full evaluation of your horse's ability through your performance report, it's time to manage your horse and start looking for tournaments. From your Stable page, you will find a general overview of your stable including earnings by game points, earnings by money, a complete listing of every horse that you own and any active tournaments you have going on. Think of the Stable page as your way to manage your horses during and between trainer tournaments. Also on the Stable page, you will see the price you paid in game points for your horse, his/her current status which will be Retired, Active or In Tournament, his lifetime earnings in both community points and money, and an option, as long as he is not active in a tournament, for you to retire your horse at any time. Horses in our game are allowed to race from 2 to 10 years of age (this depends on the type of horse you purchase – please see the help section on nominated horses), but during that time, some owners and trainers may feel that their horse is just not qualified enough to compete and it may be more cost-effective to cut their losses and retire the horse. Retiring your horse stops the monthly boarding fee, but also bans your horse from ever racing again. It's a tough decision, but one you'll probably have to make for some of the horses in your stable from time to time.
Also on your Stable page is a summary of his/her general attributes, a picture of your horse, any awards or community points he/she has earned from tournaments, his/her pedigree and a status of all tournaments entered. From here, you can click on the tournament name (if your horse is active in the tournament) and get a complete overview of the races he/she has already performed in and what other races are available inside that tournament.
Entering a Tournament
You've become familiar with the Stable page, you've learned what you believe are your horse's best attributes from the performance report and it's now time to enter your horse in a tournament. Before you proceed, get an overview of tournaments from the "Tournament Entry Guide". This is powerful information that can give you an advantage when playing against others. Before placing your horse in a tournament, understand the different types of tournaments we offer, which include general tournaments, restricted tournaments (blue, red and green), and insta-tournaments. For VIP players, there are also Platinum tournaments, which offer special awards. There is a special help section available in the Get Help section that will provide a complete overview on the different types of tournaments. Winning tournaments comes down to two factors. Those factors are proper classification of your horse in the right tournament and placing your horse under the right racing conditions (race distance, track surface, etc).
Tournament Schedule
All available tournaments for each horse can be quickly identified from your stable page in the Trainer Tools section. This is the fastest method to identify eligible trainer tournaments.
From your Stable page, you can access a complete Tournament Schedule by looking for the tab called View Upcoming Trainer Tournaments. Our program automatically evaluates your stable and will only display the tournaments that your horses are eligible for. You can also view tournaments from the calendar, but it is not our recommended method. Click on any date (or month) and scroll through and look for tournaments that might work for you and your horse or, underneath our calendar from the right navigation, click on the View Upcoming Trainer Tournaments tab. Our program will only display tournaments that horses in your stable are eligible for. Trainer tournaments are also easily identified in the calendar and your eligibility in those tournaments are also identified through special colored borders and verbiage indicating whether you are eligible for this particular event. Once again, remember, it is so important to not only evaluate your horse's ability, but to understand the tournaments that you select. You need to make sure that not only does your horse fit the tournament requirements but that the races inside that tournament fit your horse's running style and preference. In other words, if your horse is a 2-year-old and prefers running short distances or sprints, and there are three 2-year-old tournaments available, look for the one that has races composed mostly of shorter distances or sprints. Don't enter your horse just because he's eligible by age or because you have enough community points. Enter him/her because the race composition of that tournament gives you an advantage and favors your horse. New tournaments are added constantly. Be patient. Sometimes it may be several days or weeks before a tournament forms that perfectly fits your horse. The last thing you want to do is enter your horse in a tournament just because it was the only one available at that time. As in real racing, smart barns and trainers pick their spots. Once you've committed to a tournament, you're not eligible to enter another tournament until you either complete the first tournament or drop out, in which case you would forfeit all tournament fees and tournament race fees.
The aging of your horse is directly associated with the number of tournaments your horse runs in. It has nothing to do with our real world calendar. If your horse doesn't race for three months, he did not get three months older. Every three general trainer tournaments that your horse races in, he/she ages one year. As your horse ages, his/her racing ability will either increase or decrease depending on his peak racing cycle. There are different types of trainer tournaments. General tournaments, which are suggested for our top-end horses, carry the highest-end purse prizes, but also require a larger entry fee. There are three types of restricted tournaments – red, blue and green restricted and also platinum tournaments for VIP members These platinum tournaments always carry a bonus prize in addition to community game points. All tournaments are easily identified when searching through the available tournaments found on the View Upcoming Trainer Tournament Schedule. Restricted tournaments are tied to either a horse’s ability or birth speed rating. Red restricted tournaments are based on a horse’s top speed rating already achieved in previous tournaments, while blue and green restricted tournaments are based on a horse’s birth speed rating. There are also insta-tournaments. Insta-tournaments are similar to claiming races. There is an entire help section on insta-tournaments and we suggest you visit that page for complete details of how they work. Finally, there are platinum VIP tournaments, which are restricted to VIP members who have at least 25 active horses in their stable.
Our general top-end tournaments are structured with 4 to 6 races. Each general tournament has different structures associated with the races – no fee, flat fee and step-up fee.
As you become a more experienced player and you don’t see trainer tournaments that are best suited for your horse(s), all players have the ability to request trainer tournaments through the Request Trainer Tournament tab. Requested trainer tournaments are voted on by other players and then are either approved and published or disapproved when voted down.
No Fee Trainer Tournaments
Here a trainer is required to pay a one-time entry fee at the start of the tournament and will not be required to pay any additional fees as the tournament races proceed.
Flat Fee Trainer Tournaments
Flat fee tournaments are medium risk. Not only will you be required to pay a tournament entry fee, but you are also required to pay a fee for every race you enter in that tournament. The per-race fee is determined at the start of the tournament, so a player can determine their maximum community point exposure for the entire event.
Step-Up Tournaments
These are the highest risk, biggest reward tournaments we have. Not only do they require a tournament entry fee, but they also require a fee for each race you enter and that fee increases as the tournament proceeds. As the fee increases, just like the flat fee tournament, so does the prize or purse pool. So, as the tournament unfolds, a player has to constantly evaluate, based on the leader board, whether a tournament he is in is worth continuing or is it time to step out and quit the tournament. Quitting the tournament stops any additional fees, but of course, takes you out of the competition and all fees paid in that tournament have been forfeited to the purse pool.
Tournaments will last between one and four weeks. Their start and end dates are clearly identified from the tournament entry page. The tournament entry page will not only tell you your eligibility, but will also let you preview all of the races associated with this tournament, giving you a great opportunity to pick your spots and get your horse entered early in the races you believe will help your proceed to the final race. Every tournament has a set number of races and a minimum/maximum number of participants. Each horse entered in the tournament is allowed to race so many times, depending on the tournament, in that event. For example, a tournament may be limited to 100 entries and have 20 races to choose from, but each horse may only enter up to 5 races. The number of races you enter may be less than 5 if you feel you've earned enough fictitious money during the tournament to make it to the final event.
Tournament Scoring Overview
The object of a tournament is to earn as much fictitious money during the general races of that tournament to qualify for the final race. Only a certain predetermined number of horses will make it to the final race, which is always called a Breeders' Cup race. The Breeders' Cup race (or the final race) is the race that determines the distribution of the actual purse (or community points). All the other races in the tournament are for fictitious money (or earnings) to determine the final entrants into the Breeders' Cup event. Trainers or owners choose what races they wish to enter in the tournament, but only the top money earners make it to the final event. If horses are tied with money earnings, VIP player horses take precedent. If the tied horses are owned by both non-VIP players or VIP players, then a random draw is commenced to identify the final position for the Breeders' Cup final race.
Tournament Race Classifications
Depending on the type of tournament, the preliminary races that lead up to the final race, which is known as the Breeders’ Cup final race, carry different classifications. Those classifications are Ungraded, Grade 3, Grade 2 and Grade 1. The higher the grade, the more difficult the race, but the more virtual currency is available for the top performers in that race. Part of your strategy is to evaluate your competition during the tournament and not only pick races that best fit your horse's racing style, but also pick the races that can earn you the most money to help you make it to the qualifying or Breeders' Cup event. At the same time, smart trainers will be aware of the competition they face in the tournament and will strategize when figuring out where other owners will place their horses when trying to purposely avoid specific competition that might be tougher than your horse. Players will adopt various strategies inside a tournament on how to make it to the final or Breeders' Cup event. The only value the purse money has in the tournament races is the value of determining who makes it to the final race. You do not have to be the biggest money earner to make it to the final race or even win the Breeders' Cup championship for the community points. Some trainers will try to pick easier spots looking for less competition, while other players will go for the harder races with the bigger purses, trying to secure a spot in the Breeders' Cup or final race as soon as possible. Even if a tournament allows you to race your horse up to 6 times or more, you might have accumulated enough money after only 1 or 2 races to make it to the Breeders' Cup final. If that is the case, there's no reason to enter your horse in any more races during the tournament, especially for Flat Fee or Step Up Tournaments where you risking additional community points. Once you feel you ahve secured your position in a tournament and you're going to make it to the finals, there's no longer any reason to race. Save your community points.
Tournament Race Classification and Purse Values
A tournament is composed of a specific number of races. That number can vary for each tournament. Each race is classified in four different categories or grades. Grade 1 offers the highest purse value - $500,000 - and at the same time would attract the toughest horses entered in the tournament. Grade 2 has a purse value of $400,000, which will also attract some of the better horses entered in the tournament. Grade 3 has a purse value of $300,000. Grade 3 races have a tendency to be not as difficult as Grade 1 or 2, but can still attract some tough competition. Ungraded stake races have a $200,000 purse and usually attract high-quality allowance horses that do not necessarily have the ability to effectively compete against the numeric graded stake races. After you've entered a tournament, you need to closely evaluate each race, including its conditions and your horse's ability under those conditions, as well as the class of the race so you can anticipate the level of competition the race might attract. Some players may go after specifically the Grade 1 events, while other players may try to slip their horses in Ungraded or Grade 3 events trying to earn just enough of the purse to make it to the final race for the community points. Another big separation between the race classifications is that Grade 1 and Grade 2 will allow more horses or entries into the race, making it tougher for your horse to potentially earn a share of the purse pool. As stated, each race will require a specific number of entries. Once the required number of entries is met the race will be closed and not other horses will be allowed to enter. If there are not enough entries in the race, then the game will automatically insert pool horses to make sure the race meets its minimum number of entrants. Pool horses are randomly selected in accordance with the classification of the race. For example, in a Grade 3 race, pool horses whose skill set is equivalent to Grade 3 horses will be selected. Pool horses can never earn money or qualify for the final race, but can prevent players from earning a specific position and the potential distribution of the purse money for that position. As far as purse distribution goes, every race in a tournament has the same purse distribution. Finishing first, your horse will earn 50% of the race purse. Second place will earn 25% of the race purse. Third place is 12.5%. Fourth place is 7.5% of the race purse. Fifth place is 5% of the race purse. Purse distribution will occur immediately after the race and will be posted to your horse's record and shown on the tournament leader board page. The tournament leader board page should become part of your strategy when analyzing races and deciding whether to stay in or drop out of a particular tournament. Over time, you'll learn what game strategies can be obtained from reviewing the leader board. Our general tournaments and insta-tournaments carry VIP bonuses, which are paid out if you are a VIP member. These bonuses can be substantial depending on the purse for the tournament as well as your horse’s classification (NN, PN and FN). To learn more about our nominated horse program and how the classification program works, please read the Help section entitled Nominated Horses.
The Actual Tournament Races Themselves
When entering races in a tournament, a player never knows how many other horses have actually entered the race, nor who the competitors are until the race closes for entries. Just like in real horse racing, it is your job to anticipate what horses are going to enter a specific race. It is also your job to enter the race by the time the race closes due to the fact that the race has enough entries or it is 72 hours prior to race time. Once the race is run, you can view the results of the race and the tournament leader board inside the game/community or you can actually watch the race from your race viewer prior to checking the results. All of our races are available in full 3D to be played right in your browser or with our app for mobile devices including iPad, iPhone and Android devices. Notifications will be sent by both email and private message indicating that the race has been run and results posted. After each race, it is your job as the trainer to evaluate the current leader board and make modifications in your strategy as you try to make it to the final race to win the community points. Prior to each race, trainers can give jockey and training instructions, which can actually help or hurt that horse’s performance for that particular race. Hints on the proper jockey and training instructions to utilize for your horse’s races can be found in that horse’s performance report.
Breeders' Cup Championship Race - Going For The Community Points
At the end of the regular tournament, the leading money earners during the tournament will be automatically nominated and entered in the Breeders' Cup final race. The number of horses that make it to the final Breeders' Cup race is predetermined at the time of tournament signup. Once the final race is over, all entrants in the final race will receive emails, in-game messages and private messages inviting them to view the final race and visit the race result page for the final standings, payouts and badge awards.
Trainer Game Hints
Your horse can only be active in one tournament at a time, and at your discretion, can exit the tournament if you feel he/she is not doing well, cannot win, or another tournament is starting where you feel your horse will have a better chance.
The number of races for each tournament depends on the type of tournament. Insta-tournaments consist of one race only. Red restricted tournament consist of one qualifying race and then a Breeders’ Cup final race. Blue and green restricted tournaments consist of two to three qualifying races and then a Breeders’ Cup final race. VIP platinum tournaments consist of 4 to 5 preliminary races and then a Breeders’ Cup final race. General tournaments consist of 3 to 6 qualifying races and then the Breeders’ Cup final race. There is a section that describes the types of tournaments and we strongly urge you to read that section. It will help you identify our classification system and the proper tournament placement for your horse.
You may quit a tournament at any time. Doing so will make your horse immediately eligible for other tournaments and stops the deduction of any other fees associated with the tournament you are quitting. Please note, once you quit a tournament, all tournament fees paid in to that point are forfeited and nonrefundable. Quitting a tournament does not stop a horse’s aging process.
You may retire your horse from racing at any time. Retiring your horse stops the monthly stable fees for each horse and automatically eliminates your horse from further tournament events.
Once your horses racing career is over and he is eligible for the breeding shed you have 21 days from the date of his last race to enter him in the breeding shed program. After 21 days he is no longer eligible.
Learn how to classify your horse by understanding our different tournament classifications. Properly placing your horse in the right type of tournament, whether it’s a general tournament for the higher-end horses, or the blue, red or green restricted tournaments, platinum VIP tournaments or even the insta-tournaments makes all the difference in the world in succeeding in our game.
We suggest that you read the following other help sections: 1) Insta-Tournament Help Guide; 2) Trainer Game Nominated Horses-Benefits and Features; and 3) Understanding the Different Types of Trainer Tournaments.
Advanced Training & Horse Analysis
For players who are looking for a more in-depth experience with our game and want to take the training of their horse(s) to a whole new level, we suggest that you download our desktop client available for Windows-based operating systems. Some of the added benefits and features of utilizing our desktop client are listed below.
I’ve installed the desktop client – how do I use it for advanced training?
Once you install the desktop client, simply open up your game and click on the Update My Trainer Game Horses. This will trigger the delivery of all of your thoroughbreds to your desktop client for evaluation. To access your horse(s), simply click on the Advanced Mode button on the main menu page of the desktop client. There, to start training your horse, you need to set up races under various conditions to begin determining your horse's potential and what racing classification he/she fits. Let's build our first test race and get an understanding of our new horse's potential. From the Race Setup page, select Set Up New Race and then uncheck all boxes on the right side. Choose a distance for testing your horse's ability, a track surface, age - because all horses in the desktop client start out at two years old, I would highly recommend checking out their ability as a 2-year-old. Choose the gender that fits your horse - colts & geldings or fillies & mares, and then choose a racing month and day. What you will be doing is setting up a practice race. These practice races are your way to determine your horse's potential under various racing conditions. The key to the game is for you to discover, just like a trainer in real life would have to, what racing conditions your horse will perform best under. Does he/she like short distances, longer distances, wants to race on the dirt or grass, does he/she like to race in the front or better suited to come from behind as a late closer. All of this and much more will be determined as you run practice races with other horses inside the desktop client. Practice races do not affect your horse's stats. They do not affect your horse's performance. They are only used to determine his racing preferences and his ability. Racing more or less practice races will neither enhance nor hurt your horse's performance ability. Every practice race you set up helps you get a better understanding of where your horse will best fit inside the tournaments. Once you've built out a specific criteria, hit the Continue button, select the track from the Track Selection page, choose a track surface (for example, sloppy or fast on a dirt track or soft and firm on a turf track, because track conditions can be just as much a factor in performance ability as the type of surface itself. Now you will be on the Horse Selection page. The Horse Selection page allows you to build races with your horse against any of the community files or purchased horse files that you own. By doing this, you are beginning to measure the type of ability this horse has. All your trainer horses will be inside their own file marked Trainer Game Horses. To build the race, highlight the file that you want to choose horses from, click on the horse's name from the display and hit the select button. You decide how many horses you want your horse to race against in these practice races - you may only want to race your horse by himself. Once you've built a race, hit the Continue button and you'll be taken to the Field of Horses page. Here you can scratch horses, adjust horses' post positions, or continue to the Advanced Field of Horses page where you can watch the race you've created or actually jockey your horse, if you so desire. Again, I reiterate - everything you do with your new horse in private mode does not count against or for your racing stats nor your earnings for your new horse. Think of these races as workouts or private races only to be used for evaluation purposes. Set up as many races as you want so you can best determine where your horse truly belongs in tournament races. Run races a 2-year-old, 3-year-old, 4-year-old, run them on the dirt, the turf. Run races at small tracks with tight turns or big tracks. Run as many races as you possibly can to maximize your understanding of your horse's ability. The difference between an average trainer and a great trainer is that a great trainer knows more about his horse than the horse knows about him/herself. Successful trainers know what their horse's potential is, making it very easy to identify what racing conditions best suit this horse and where this horse will have the best shot at winning. Take your time evaluating your horse. If you are a VIP member, your horse will build a full past performance history in your game, helping you to more easily recognize the best racing conditions for your horse.
A few things to remember:
When racing your horse in your desktop client in private mode, the only thing you are doing is evaluating their ability. This has no effect on their performance, no effect on their overall evaluation or earnings in the community. Everything you do with your horse in your desktop client in private mode is never shared with the community.
For evaluation purposes, when racing your horse in private mode, you can move him/her up in age and back in age as often as you want. Doing that does not have any effect on the age of your horse for tournament or community purposes.
Horses have performance cycles, giving you the ability in private mode to create different racing scenarios and provides the ability to evaluate your horse's peak racing cycle as well as racing conditions. Some horses perform best as 2-year-olds or 3-year-olds, while others reach their peak performance later in life. By having complete control in private mode of every aspect of the race setup, as good trainer, you will quickly identify all your horse's strengths and weaknesses including his/her peak racing age.
There are different types of trainer tournaments. General tournaments, which are suggested for our top-end horses, carry the highest-end purse prizes, but also require a larger entry fee. There are three types of restricted tournaments – red, blue and green restricted and also platinum tournaments for VIP members These platinum tournaments always carry a bonus prize in addition to community game points. All tournaments are easily identified when searching through the available tournaments found on the View Upcoming Trainer Tournament Schedule. Restricted tournaments are tied to either a horse’s ability or birth speed rating. Red restricted tournaments are based on a horse’s top speed rating already achieved in previous tournaments, while blue and green restricted tournaments are based on a horse’s birth speed rating. There are also insta-tournaments. Insta-tournaments are similar to claiming races. There is an entire help section on insta-tournaments and we suggest you visit that page for complete details of how they work. Finally, there are platinum VIP tournaments, which are restricted to VIP members who have at least 25 active horses in their stable.
