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 Track King is browser based horse racing/training/breeding/buying and selling game that’s over a decade old and probably looked like rear end when it was launched, nevermind years later. In it you can buy horses, train them, race them (hopefully not until they break their legs,) breed them, and spend your in-game personal wages on betting on them. I’ve seen videos of it from 2013 (the only tutorial videos of it I could find) and there were quite a few more people playing it then, but there still seems to be healthy numbers when you get to the top end of the game. First off, what’s the appeal of horse racing? In most sports it’s human against human, or human with honed, designed machine against human. Horse racing adds the unpredictability and variance of contending with another living being into the mix. On top of all that it’s absolutely degenerate. You have a mix of Arab oil sheiks spending tens, if not hundreds of millions, “mere” multi-millionaires losing literal millions, someone who’ll buy one horse and realise it’s costing them twenty grand a year for four or five days at-the-races, and the guy with a social welfare cheque betting a few quid, then, all these people are hovering around the same races, losing (maybe winning) probably too much money for their situation, while drinking heavily, and more. If you want to get into the almost certainly loss-making endeavour that is horse racing (and we’re talking flat racing here) you need a lot of cash, or to become part of a syndicate, for your “fun day out.” Horse games, and horse racing games allow anyone to take part. There’s a few of them out there, ranging from sparkly pony style dress up games, to flashy Japanese mobile apps designed to hook a whale, to this game, Track King, for the kind of person who likes spreadsheets. And isn’t that what this forum is about?  The base of Track King is your stable of flat racing (no jumps) horses (you start off with four or five) with two of the four horses racing each week (so each horse racing once a fortnight in a two on/two off schedule) in a “League” that follows a three month schedule on real time . The game is set up so you can “simply” prime everything once a week and let the game run, or get into the nitty gritty, doing detailed research. As you build your finances you’ll have more and better horses, allowing you to race more often (you can race more often with your four horses at the beginning, but they'll perform worse, and their injury risk will go up with you looking at long lay offs and having to pay for more vet hours.) At the end of the twelve week league there’s the possibility of promotion to a higher league where you can earn more, get more prestige, and attract better staff. Of course the racing is also more difficult, and costs higher, so the risk/reward ratio is greater. Do badly (or start your stable late in the season with league races mostly finished) and you could be looking at relegation; less money, less prestige, but a chance to lay some solid foundations. Apart from League racing, there’s also stakes (pay money to enter for a purse, horses 1-5 win sponsor money and some of the stakes,) and invitational and cup racing, where the best horses (in different categories) compete for trophies, even greater prize money and prestige. So, how do you interact with the game? The fist element is your horses.  You’ll see some details straight away, whether they’re male or female (young/old/gelded or not,) their record, and options to see their lineage, past form, etc. At the bottom are the important details. Their health (they should be in almost perfect health to race and avoid injury, so “Vigorous” all round, unlike this horse which just raced,) their bio details (weight, height in hands and stride length play a part in what they’re suited for) and their stats. In the tabs you can see the horse's other details, such what type of race they’re best at (extremely important) and what ground they’re best over (fast(dry) heavy(wet), etc.) Of course none of these will ever, at least at the beginning, all be in sync together, so it’s about getting the best out of a horse in each situation.  You’ll have four or five horses at the beginning. Most likely all terrible, most likely all suited to short to medium length races. How you manage them is important, from booking a jockey. A professional jockey you contract for a season gets you the most out of the horse, or an amateur you can train up, but with worse stats and cheaper, and hiring a no-name/bot jockey for a day gets you the worst results. The jockeys will each have their own styles, and that’ll dictate how they race and how they interact with the horse.  You also set your instructions for how the horse will race. The jockey might (or might not) do exactly this, or ignore it, depending on how they read the race and horse. The general idea is that you want to get the most out of the horse, setting their speed (a short race will be faster, a longer race will need some breaks, while wet/heavy ground will need more breaks) and where they run the race on the track. There’s also considerations about how the race is run in relation to the jockey instructions, does the horse lead, run with the pack, trail behind and come in at the end, etc.  So how do you train a horse? Well, you book hours of training for them, at a cost. Each type of training effects different stats and horse preferences, with the standards benefits and costs, and you have to aim them towards a particular type of race. They can be intensely trained and raced less, or vice versa (maybe missing out on actual live experience, or getting more in-race experience.) There’s also managing your stalls (ensuring you have enough for your horses and renting out the ones you’re not using via your admin assisstant,) and veterinary care for your horses to ensure they stay in top health, help them recover after races, and nurse them back from injury or after giving birth, etc. Finally in this window there’s specialist facilities such as farriers, nutrition experts, geneticists, training rooms, etc. which is what you’ll use for certain boosts when you specialise your stable in certain areas.  So how do you get more horses? (You start with four or five.) The most likely way is via an auction. Here you can see some two and three year olds (an age when they can be trained up better and are still to come into their prime racing years) that other stables are selling (maybe they bred them?) I’ve yet to buy a horse, so I’m not sure how much cash is needed for a “good” horse, but there’ll be the big stables selling off their poor two and three year olds at the start of each season, horses not right for them but that might work out great for you. It's about playing the long game, and building your stable up over multiple seasons. Getting horses that'll earn you money straight away, to keep you going (seven, eight, nine year olds coming towards their end and being sold off,) while also getting horses for the future to train up for when you're racing in higher leagues and more prestigious races. All the while you need to be building cash to afford all this, training jockeys that'll actually ride for you (the top jockeys won't be caught dead near such a poor trainer,) and eventually—maybe—getting the right horses to breed and have your own foals to train, or sell for cash (which is many seasons down the line.) All this is going on over a three month period of a season, in whatever region you choose to play in (each continent, with various sub regions can be selected to better suit your time-zone needs), where you’re balancing all this—and a lot more—along with finances, plans for the future, calamities that might befall you, etc. What you want out of the game is up to you; be the best breeder; win all the top cups; become the richest stable; or simply have some good races. Final, small details... You can watch the races up to 72 hours after they finish, in 2d, or dodgy 3d if you pay the premium subscription (so far the 2d looks better to me.) The subscription price is fifteen aussie dollars for three months, but I’ve seen guys in the top leagues who don’t pay it and get along fine on the free version. It genuinely seems to be a game that doesn’t screw you over if you don’t give it money, just offering some quality of life functions for the sub. It’s far from pay-to-win, unlike other horse games I’ve seen. There’s a bit of a learning curve on the (horrific) interface, but it mostly makes sense to me after two days. The depth of actually getting the best out of your stable, training, horses and jockeys seems immense, though. And I'm looking forward to digging into a game, that based on my searches offers the best training and racing experience. — — —
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Aug 27, 2020 21:09
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— Reserved
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Aug 27, 2020 21:09
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My stables... I’ve literally just started playing Track King and found this out over the past couple of days. It looks like there’s depth in it. I’m probably being demoted from my starting league seeing as I’ll only be racing in the final four weeks, with not enough points available. There seems like there’s a lot of intricacies and strategies involved, and you can either spend a few minutes every couple of days on it, or more time really getting into it. The game had me automatically entered in my league race (that I had no control over) where I came 3rd and 4th (on the wrong distance for the horses.) I have another horse racing tomorrow (the one I put up for auction, so I’ll see how much of a mistake that was.) I also spent some of my money wrong, by hiring an expensive pro jockey instead of training one up, so it’s not the most auspicious of beginnings. If you start now, instead of about a month from now you might end up being relegated. Some of the FAQs say you should only have four horses (so I put my fifth horse up for auction) don’t do that if you start with five. Also, don’t hire a pro jockey, they cost a lot. If you have four horses just rotate them around your league races, nothing else until you pick up some more. And the general recommendation is to spread 12 hours of training across your four horses, and four hours of vet care across the four.
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Aug 27, 2020 21:09
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 My First Race — The Dennings Stakes at Buckingham Royal The Dennings Stakes, a sprint run over 950m, with a $2,520 entry fee, $27,200 for first place, $13,600 for second and third, and $6,800 for fourth and fifth. Before The Race  The horse I put up for auction (which I couldn’t cancel and so had to bid for it myself) is racing in a sprint today. The other horses running in it, for the $27,200 prize are all computer managed horses (as opposed to player owned.) This bodes well because there’s bonuses to manually handling things as a player: performance boosts and jockey instructions. You can see it at the end Insight Century's trained at Hilltop Floods with an actual professional jockey riding him.  A few minutes before this race, with only me as the human owned runner, there’s another race, with a lot more player horses in it. (You can see the player owned horses, generally, because they have named jockeys.) This might make sense, because my race is only open to class four and below, while the more popular race is open to anyone. Except there’s one stable with two class four runners in the more popular race. The prize money is a little lower in mine, but the lower class horses actually have a chance of winning in the race I’m in. I do not understand this. Although I’m sure it’ll all come out once I’ve actually run, because, as you can see from the stats below, my horse looks like poo.  Here you can see Insight Century’s stats, which are pretty bad. My other horses have more “4s”, occasionally a five, and maybe only one “2” or “3”. Unlike this plodder pretending to be a sprinter.  At the very least you can see the horse has a lot of experience in sprints, which is what I’m “betting” on with this race. However the ground is “dead” in this race (neither fast and dry, or slow and wet,) so it’s not all good as the horse has gently caress all experience on such ground.  I’ve never set instructions for a race before (this is the first race I’ll be in charge of) so I’m generally taking it easy and not doing too much, just to see how it works, also I’ll be waiting to see what the jockey says about the horse’s running to adjust in the future. The horse is slow out of the stalls, due to its stats, so I’m just letting it run as it wants at the start. The next quarter I want decent speed, to catch up, and again to hold its line, because we’re starting in the widest stall. The jockey likes to run wide, but if it comes a little inside I’d actually prefer it. The third quarter I’m letting the horse relax a bit (but not too much, it is a sprint) because its stamina is low, and in the final quarter I again want the horse at top speed, to hopefully take the race, all while letting the jockey run wide as per his preferences and telling him, to not “spare the horse.” Give it yer all! The Race Aaaand... They're off!  I get off to a good start, a few seconds in, and the horse is clear ahead. Which is the way it stays for the whole race, finishing over thirty metres ahead of the second placed horse. This does not tell me a lot, other than the bot horses and bot jockeys are pretty poor (I'm sure this comment will come back to bite me.) Let’s see what the jockey/trainer at the course had to say.   at that jockey, although he’s a better rider than my stable in crappy races. All this might change when he’s losing and when he’s riding more fiery horses.The trainer comments are a bit more of a worry. There’s only one shorter length race, and then it’s only 50m shorter. I think the general opinion is that the horse just has rubbish stamina (which is true by its stats.)  Here we see the horse’s race in Time vs Speed. The red graph line is the race, the red dashed line at the top is when the whip is used. You can see it responded well at first, then trailed off a little to encouragement. The jockey seems to have whipped a little more than necessary, although that is his general personality type. The big concern, is the trail off of speed at the end of the race and the lack of response to encouragement. Maybe the horse knew it had won? Or maybe the horse had run out of stamina like the trainer said? I think the latter. Still, that’s a very much needed $27,200 for me.  And, at last, here's the crappy horse—one at least better than stupid computer controlled horses—Insight Century’s.  Now it's time to give the horses what little vet time I can afford, and maybe get them running again, including Insight Century's, presuming I don't sell him off. Mrenda fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Aug 28, 2020 |
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Aug 28, 2020 18:13
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This is my first week where I’ll be in charge of the horses for League Racing, and I need the horses to perform above their ability for the next three weeks if I’m going to stay in Class 4 and not get relegated. But first, the general stable management I’ve been up to...  I’ve installed “facilities” for both an Expert Farrier and an Apprentice Classroom. The farrier should help my horses recover, which is very much needed when I have to constantly run them on a two-on/two-off schedule. The apprentice classroom is to help boost the stats of an apprentice jockey I hired, supposedly it’ll take about three or four weeks to get them race-ready (and even then they’ll not have much experience) so they should be good to go for the next season, whichever class I end up in. Both the farrier and apprentice classroom cost money to build, and need money to maintain their effectiveness levels. I spent about $40k building them, as a one-off cost. Then it’s about $17k a week to just keep both at the level they are, and I’ll have to look to improving them at some point, so those costs will rise. Another facility I’ll be looking to build is the Nutrition Centre, which is vital for getting the horses at the correct weight for racing, something not all of my horses are. All this, the farrier, classroom and nutrition centre is highlighting a big challenge of the game, managing your finances. Winning or at worst, placing, in races is vital if you want to improve and get to the top leagues where the real multiplayer is.  I started off with $250k in the bank, and I’m leasing out some of the extra stalls I built, making me maybe $4k a week, not counting the initial cost. Sponsorship is at its lowest level at about $75k a week, and my pro jockey is a big expense at $32k a week. Next season my training and vet costs will go up even more, because I’ll be looking to buy a two year old or two, and training them up for the future years, so a lot of hours working them out at a big cost, never mind the $300k or so one decent foal can cost in the auctions.  My apprentice jockey... She may not perform as well as the pro jockey I have for the end of this season, but by being an apprentice it should cut about $30k of my costs next season. Whether this will make up for her inexperience in riding and consequent loss of performance in races, I don’t know. Race Preview  First up, a 1,050m sprint. It’s $98k for first place, and $24.5k for the lowest paid place of fifth. I’m up against some really strong stables, a third would be great, second amazing, a first I can barely dream about, but if I make money from this race I’ll be performing at an appropriate level given who’s in it.  My horse, Torque, will be running his first race for me in this. He’s experienced at this distance, but his stats aren’t that great and he’s not used to the ground (I’m guessing it’ll be dead.) It’ll be a tough ask, especially as he’s really underweight for where he should be. I can’t see a great result from this. The second race is a 1,750m medium length race, with me as the only human entrant, so far. I need to get first place in this one, both for the $98k prize money and the points necessary to avoid relegation.  I went with a medium length race for Geis Wilson even though he doesn’t have a huge amount of experience at this distance he has some, while other human run stables probably don’t have a horse with any experience. Going up against the computer run stables should make this a good win. On top of that his stats are somewhat appropriate for a medium length race, even if they’re generally poor in comparison to decent stables. Geis is also a bit of a worry, because his medical condition dropped from vigorous to fresh (everything should be at vigorous), there’s till more vet time with him, an hour this evening and I’ve put in for three hours tomorrow at a relatively big cost I’ll have to bear. If it avoids an injury for him it’ll be worth it, especially considering his a bit of a fatty at 30 to 50kg overweight. My next post will probably be Wednesday or Thursday, after the races. And you can see how my horses have fared, a kinda scrappy horse in a tough race, and a fatty horse in what should be an easier race if there’s no human-run entrants.
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Aug 31, 2020 19:17
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My First League Races in Charge We have two races today! My first in charge of my horses, and things are looking good! — Sort of, maybe, not really. I’m having fun, at least. Or am I? Actually...? No.   First up, in a 1,050m sprint race on dead ground for $98k, we have my little rebellious horse, Torque. His stats are a little humpty dumpty, he’s a generally aggressive horse, and, worst of all... He’s up against three other real stables, all with horses better than him. If he can pull a third I’d be pleased, which means he’d beat one other horse. A first is too much to dream of, and a second doesn’t actually get me more money even if it’d be a nice ego boost. Torque is extremely good over this distance, but only has three races on this kind of ground. That’d normally balance him out to “poor,” but with already poor stats, it’s possible some non-player-run stables could beat us—us with a professional jockey and all. The one “good” thing is we’re, at the least, getting $18k in bonuses because there’s four “named” jockeys running in this. It’s not enough to offset my costs, but it’s something! Maybe we can hope for a better with Geis Wilson, in the 1,750m race.   Geis is running in a medium race, again for $98k, but he’s against no other player-owned stables. This was a tactical decision by me. He has no significant experience over any distance or any particular ground, apart from five or so races in most shorter distances (like this,) so has no real distance experience stats to back him up. Whatever he runs in he won’t be great, but medium races haven’t so far attracted human run horses.  His stats are ok, for this type of race, even if they’re poor compared to what other horses with a season of human-run training would be. He should be doing well in this run if my race instructions bear out. This is all good news, right? Yes, except...  That little “Fresh” for medical condition is one level below what it needs to be to really run. It should be “Vigorous” all round. I’ve had vets on him since his medical rating dropped, and even had them with him for three hours last night. It did not make a difference. Talking to some other trainers, they say run him and use the off-season to get him back up to health. I was going to do this anyway, seeing as I need these races' points to avoid relegation, although it’s possible we might need him at least once more before the season ends. Let’s just hope his leg doesn’t fall off in the final furlong! (Although a shotgun is probably cheaper, in the short term, than the vet bills he might need. Poor horsie though! —(I’ve been informed real horse trainers don’t call “horses” “horsies.”))— The Races First up, the most competitive race of the day. My horse, Torque, against three other out-and-out sprinters.  And... They’re off. And Torque is off to a great start! Great acceleration out of the gate, and he has the inside rail! Can he capitalise on this and push ahead his lead?  With 600m raced, he’s 6m ahead of the second placed runner, and a full 18m ahead of the stables in first place in the division. The jockey has been riding Torque hard, a lot harder than the other horses. Just a bit too much on the whip, maybe? Can he hold on?  With 800m of the 1,050m race over we’ve dropped back into second. What I expected? Yes, I didn’t think he could hold on. But! We’re 10 metres and 14 metres ahead of the two other player-owned horses back in third and fourth. I was expecting a fourth, a third would be great, but second would net me a lot more cash than I was expecting. There’s less than 250m left to go. It’s obvious now the jock has been pushing him to the max. It’ll come down to a nose!  The display says I’m in third place, but anyone watching the race in the final 50m can see Torque has fallen back to fourth place! It seems the jockey just didn’t save enough to close out the end, pushing too hard to gain a lead that backfired as the other horses bolted out ahead.  Just past the post you can see how close Torque came, just a nose behind, a literal photo finish for third place. But he just didn’t have the stamina. A fine run from the horse, albeit a poor showing from the jockey. I’m glad I have an apprentice in training.  The final times; 7/1000’s of a second off third, and better money and better, vital league points, less than 2/10s of a second off second, but a clear winner ahead in first, with the obviously better horse. RACE TWO! Onto the second race, where we’re more likely of a win, if the horse can hold out over a 1,750m race. It’s a big ask, especially for a horse that’s not in the best of condition. We’ll have to see how they fare, and if any injuries come up for it during the race! And... They’re off!  We get off to a poor start, which isn’t surprising given this horse’s “Awful (2)” - Gate Speed and “Miserable (3)” - Acceleration. What’s more of a concern is that one or two horses do seem to be pulling away, and we’re not just all sitting in a tight pack.  After 400m we just go ahead with a bit of battle. The horse has been encouraged, and runs onto a little lead, getting a good few metres on the rest.  We extend our lead all through 400m and past 600m, but at 800ms another horse begins to gain on us. Is this our over-eager jockey demanding too much from our horses again?  Thankfully, no! The jockey eased down between 800m and about 1400m, just banking on the lead they’ve accrued, what I think is a good move. But I set my instructions to race him in the last quarter, and not one to not demand the most from a horse, despite being a good 25m clear and no horse gaining any ground, the jockey still whips them on in the final 350m. We get a clean win, $98,000 of prize money, but with the horse already at lower medical condition, will it have suffered an injury?  The jockey didn’t like the horse too much, but I don’t care because at least he didn’t ride poor Geis Wilson to death, gently caress him if he thinks there’s more that needs to be done. He’ll just have to deal with the other horses out of the gate with Geis’s poor starts. I’m thinking about building Little Mr. Geis Wilson (he’s not little, he’s a fatty) up for medium races and starts just aren’t the most important element for that. The better news is that the trainer only commented on the horse’s running. No injury! But their medical is still fresh. The trainer says the horse barely made it around the course with his stamina, but that was to be expected, and we still dominated the rest of the field. I think the decision for the off-season is whether we do keep training this horse towards medium races that are less populated, or drop him down to shorter races where we might get more top speed out of him. Undoubtedly the heavier ground I’ll get at times, compared to this race, will play a part too. Medium races do seem the best bet. But with all that said, my purse winnings for the week is an acceptable $145,000. A week or two more of results like this and I might have the money to buy a 2yo (maybe even two!) in the off-season! I still have to see what my outgoings are for the week. But first, training on Friday, and I might even build a nutrition centre to get my horse’s into even better fitness! (And make Fatty Wilson—my first winner, so maybe I'm being harsh—less of a fatty.)
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Sep 2, 2020 21:05
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Another week done, another week where I’m still worried about possible relegation, but at least my horses' training has had some effect: stats changes galore, which might not mean everything, but more on that later... Training First off we have Rayner, who’ll be racing this week in the League Races. She’s an old horse, so training won’t have a huge effect long term, it’s just a case of getting her weight and stride to the best places for her style of ride.  We’ll be running her in sprints, even though she has more experience in short races. This is due to her decent out-the-gate speed. Here you can see her weight has gone up a little, an effect of the training and bordering on getting to the top end of where it should be. The good news is her stride lessened, and we need it even lower for sprints. Her cross country had the double bonus of these good changes on her physicality but also a bonus to her stamina, however, that might not last long. We’ve got sprint time trials for two hours next week, it’ll keep her weight around the same—definitely needed—and reduce her stride, but it might come at the cost of the stamina we picked up this week. We’ll see how she goes in the sprint race she’s in this week, and see if any changes need to be made.  Next is another old horse, Link Minos. Out of the gates he’s awful, so we’re looking at pitching him towards Short Races. For that we have to get his stride and weight correct, an increase in stride and reduction in weight, thankfully both effects of his Beach Gallops. We’ll have him doing them again next week. Link Minos has a year on Rayner, so we might just get another season of him being a plodder, presuming I don’t rise the ranks too quickly (unlikely.)  This is Geis Wilson, a 4yo (soon to be 5yo) I have a bit of time for. His stats show he could make do at the lower levels in Medium length races. We just need to get his stride and weight in line to really make something out of his other stats. His weight has gone down, but not enough, although he can carry a bit more than my other horses being over 16 hands tall. His stride has increased, and another increase will see him doing well, so again he’ll be on the Beach Gallops next week. Even better is that his Acceleration has improved, maybe allowing him to sprint to a win a little better, plus his Stamina has improved. This is vital to have him running medium races. A five might be the bare minimum we’ll need for races up to 2000m in length. It’ll let us get one good quarter of the track at top speed out of him. A Six means in the shorter medium races we could chance getting two quarters of top speed. Something to think about in the future. Finally, we have Torque, a horse that’ll have to be at his best to compete in the ultra-competitive sprint distance in my leagues. Unfortunately, he’s not the best, with a little harem scarem stats.  He’s still underweight, but his stride is coming into form. His gate speed is decidedly poor, but maybe his acceleration makes up for that? Whatever it is we need to get him an inside stall in his races to counter that poor starting speed. On top of all that, “Heart” is said to be the secret sauce in a horse, how they dig out in a tough race, their ability to defy the odds, and it’s not good for Torque, that just means we have to get everything else correct. He’ll be doing more Cross Country work this week, a tough bit of training but it’s needed to knock him into shape. Finances Before my costs come in for the week I’ve done OK. Our sponsorship went up a miniscule amount. We didn’t do too great in the races; despite one win, a fifth was poor, especially when we were so close to a third. At the very least we had a little bonus from racing against “named” jockeys.  We’re at a profit so far, even after I made some expensive additions, such as...  The cost of almost $20k for the nutrition centre was a once off (you're seeing the maintenance cost here,) and it’s helped with getting my horses to their better weights, but all my facilities mean I’ll be taking nearly $30k off my money in their running costs just to keep them at current effectiveness, plus $7,500 in my wages, and a whopping $32k for my pro jockey. Then of course there’s the cost of training and vets, something I’ve had to go heavy on. The reality of a business like this is you could be doing well, financially, on a Thursday, after your race purses come in. Then, when all your expenses are calculated on a Sunday night/Monday morning you’re looking at an empty bank balance, never mind saving up for more stables to rent out, or the two, three, or more horses I really need to buy to achieve. That means I have to race all five of my horses constantly, four in the leagues, and my one useless nag whenever they’re fit. Which means Insight Century’s is racing tomorrow. Race Preparation  In the end I didn’t sell this lump. I figured it was better to keep her, and her earning minimum amounts, rather than sell her for next to nothing to simply save on costs.  She’s racing against some very good horses in a Stakes Race tomorrow. Over 900m, the other horses are all rated in mid-to-high 30s, while Insight Century’s is rated 25, a big gap. Remember, at the start of the post, where I said a horse’s training and stats might not mean everything? Well, this race will be a good example of that. Literally every other human-owned horse is better than my mare, Insight Century’s. However, IC has a huge amount of experience in Sprints, as you can see.  With Insight Century’s rated as high as you can go, her rivals are rated 16 (pretty drat good), 8 (kinda average-to-above-average at lower tier horses) and 5 and less, which is not a lot of experience at all. So this is my “trial.” All these horses are rated far above Insight Century’s when it comes to their physical attributes, but IC could pull out—maybe—a third (and decent money) based on her experience at this distance (unfortunately she has relatively little experience on this kind of ground.) It really is a case of knowledge over ability.  On top of this experience vs ability battle, I’m also trying something with my race instructions. Although, despite me paying the fucker a fortune, my jockey doesn’t come with a lot of the “good” race instructions because he’s useless. Still, my basic idea is that the horse doesn’t do anything until the final quarter. For the first 3/4ths, she’ll just get around the track, holding her line due to a wide start (which the jockey seems to want to do anyway.) In the final quarter she’ll be racing flat out—especially as she can’t really race harder until then given her lack of stamina. My experimentation comes in the “Chases a pack” instruction, fully expecting the horse to be struggling to keep up if the jockey follows my instructions of not flogging her, of course, this jockey is a bit of a numpty and has ridden my horses into the ground in the past. Who knows what’ll happen in the race? Or whether Insight Century’s will be struggling to keep up with the leading horses?  Anyway... Tune in tomorrow to find out how my poo poo horse with decent experience does in the Duellman Stakes, and whether any more horses will be entering it to really dick me over, and out of almost $10k in costs for entering and travel! Let's have all your thoughts and prayers urging Insight Century's on for a good expectation of a third!
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Sep 6, 2020 17:01
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My Dumb Horse’s Race It’s the day of the race, and my dumb horse is ready to go. I take one final look at the entrants and, surprising cynical me in no way, another, better horse than mine has entered. This means there's six human-run horses competing for five prize places.  Up until now, presuming I beat the computer-owned horses, I would have made about $6k profit after my entry fees and travel costs. Now, with all the horses rated at least low-thirties, to my gal’s twenty-five, I’ll actually have to have my race tactics bear out to beat some competition. So... A little explanation of them. I know my horse isn’t good enough to win. Even if there was a chance of winning, she’s not good enough to lead the race. I’ve set her jockey’s instructions to hold-steady until the final quarter—hopefully saving some pace—and then going for it at the last. On top of this, assuming I’m going to be behind the human-owned horses for most of the race, I’ve told the jock to simply, “chase the pack,” i.e. keep up with them. The final strategy to this is to ignore the inside rail (the shortest way around the track) because we’re starting in a wide stall and getting to the inside will involve too much fiddle-faddle (the exact terms I used with the jockey.) Instead they’re to just hold-their-line the whole way around, until the end when not only am I letting the horse run, but letting the jockey go wide, hopefully fitting in with his personal style. Its tactics banking on the other horses trying to win, while I just pick up a cheeky place or two at the end—when they’re tired—and snatch a little bit of prize money from, maybe, beating just one of the human-owned, better horses. The Race - The Duellman Stakes - 900m And... They’re off.  After a few seconds of the race—you can see my horse with the jockey with red silks—you might think I’m doing well. I’m just behind one other horse, and we’re out ahead of the pack. You would be wrong! If you look at the display at the bottom (which has been wrong before, but not here) you can see I’m not even in the top four. The human owned horses have just gone clear ahead. So now it’s time to see if my tactics work out.  Gone 200m, 16 seconds into the race I’m up into fourth, beating out some other horses. Can this last? I’ve had excitement before when I’ve been in the money and dropped down at the end, so I try and control my heart-rate.  400m (or a bit more, it’s updating the distance every 200m) and the horse that we beat out for fourth has been battling with us for the past fifteen seconds and two hundred and odd metres. It’s just overtaken us. The one thing is I haven’t seen my horse being flogged. The jockey has listened to my instructions and not pushed too hard. Might we be able to claw back a fourth place in the final half of the race? It wouldn’t put us into more money, but it is a spiritual victory, the sheer winning-out. Or, will another horse pull us back, using my own tactics on me, pushing me back to sixth and out of any profit? Instead dropping me into a $10k loss for the race.  With over two thirds of the race run, not only have we secured fifth, we’ve gone past the fourth place horse, and are catching up on the third placed horse! I’m starting to feel confident! This might be misfounded, I’ve lost a money-place on a photofinish before, but the jockey still hasn’t really urged the horse on, and we’ve been gaining for the past 200m!  A triumphant victory! (for third place.) Not only did we hold off the horses behind us, but we actually gained and beat out the horse just ahead of us, closing a huge amount of distance! This is better than I could have expected, my highest ambitions for the race, and it gets us into the better tier of prize money! What a run from the horse! And the jockey actually did what he was told. Let’s see what the trainer had to say!  The trainer thinks that jockey did well, so I’m glad we agree on that. The other thing to note is that he feels the horse might have had a bit more reserves to be urged on earlier. I think that’s the fine balancing act of this horse. This, at 900m, is the shortest race we could enter him in. We could, maybe, just about, get two quarters of top speed out of him, but we’d learn nothing, and he might not even make it the full way around. Instead he’d be dropping off at the end, and our third—which you can see wasn’t too far ahead—could have turned into a fourth or even fifth. What this race did do is tell us something about the horse. A small few things about running its race against better horses, and how to snap up a little bit of prize money. It was a good day for me. After my outgoings on Sunday night/Monday morning, I need every penny I can get. And with this race I’ve had a not-to-be-sneezed at $22,500 profit after all the travel and entry expenses have been accounted for. Nice one Insight Century’s!  (On another/housekeeping note. I started this thread in The Armchair Quarterback thinking other people might want to play the game. It looks like it’s turning into an LP from me. Should it be kept here—if people are liking a sportsy LP— with me posting on (I have league races on Wednesday) or should a mod move it/would a mod/you prefer it in the LP forums?)
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Sep 8, 2020 03:36
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