This is a weird request but the last few years have been very frustrating for me racing-wise and I feel I need a complete overhaul of my racehorses and how I manage them. You’d think I’d learn something in the years I spent playing this game but lolno, I haven’t learned a thing. Maybe it’s because I’m sentimental or have too much hope for that dud horse that keeps racking up more bills than ITM finishes.
I don’t want to ask too much of anyone. I just want some advice on which horses I should let go of and what might be a good way of managing my stable. I have a few sentimental favorites that I’d rather retire than sell, otherwise all of my runners are fair game.
Here are some suggestions for your a couple of your active racehorses:-
A.P. Impala - Find races for her over 6f on Dirt.
Rahy On The Rocks - I’m guessing she might be one of your faves, but she could be over the hill. Maybe you could enter her in a high price (Claiming Price $30k or $50k) Claiming race where the quality might be lower but the purse should be high enough to discourage any claims. This might give her the boost to recover her confidence. Failing that, you could retire her to stud.
Ho’opa’i - He has been pretty consistent so I would try him in a Stakes Race. His best SF was in his 5f race at Santa Anita but his best 1st 2f time (which seems to be a good indicator) was over 9f. I would try the G3 Aegon Turf Sprint over 5f on Turf at Churchill Downs on April 19th. The purse is $100k and the entry fee is $5k, so that should be reasonably manageable.
Apart from these, I’m not sure what to suggest. I did notice that you seem to have recently been sticking mainly to racing your horses at Santa Anita and sending them home between races. I find that shipping, even short distances, takes a fair bit out of horses so would resist the temptation to ship them as frequently (mind you, racing at Santa Anita will be done for the year after Wednesday and Del Mar doesn’t start for another month). One disadvantage to frequent travelling is that that doesn’t give them much time to effectively train, without over-training them.
One other word of advice is that sometimes it is prudent to forget sentimentality, especially if their income is less than their expenditure. I have bitten the bullet with a few of my sentimental favorites recently myself (including a couple who were one SW away from stud-qualification) and it was tough, but, if they weren’t doing it for me, I figured I’d see if a change of scenery and handling might help them regain their previous zest for racing.
Starfish - that is a ton of help. I always appreciate an outside perspective, especially when it comes to pixel horses.
I stuck to my home track for most of late winter/early spring because I didn’t want to risk shipping far away and having the horses bomb their races. That idea worked out for a while and then things obviously went downhill. I don’t mind the month long wait for Del Mar to open up but I can’t just sit around twiddling my thumbs until then, lol I just have to decide which horses can make back their shipping + entry fees and then some.
With Rahy On The Rocks, I was just hoping she wasn’t another one of my horses that blossoms at the end of the year and then bombs all of her races as soon as Jan. 1st rolls in, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I’ll try to find a claiming race for her as you suggest but if that doesn’t work out she’ll just have a date with my stud.
Also, your comment for Ho’opa’i is interesting - why and how does the first 2f time matter? I never heard about that before.
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to glance at my racing stable and give me advice on a few of them. I really appreciate it.
I’m not sure why it seems to work, but I switched my Handicapping system to be based on the average of the 1st 2f times for each horses most recent three races. My selections success rate increased dramatically and my Handicapping winnings went from an average of about
$5.5k to more than $12k. This was an adaptation of a system put forward by somebody else (thanks to Cell Block for coming up with this system).
Well now I have to try this method for a day of handicapping. I just need to find the time to stare at all the PPs. And all of my horses’ PPs to figure out what’s best for them.
Note that - eventually - I’ll be overhauling the race code (again) and this method hopefully won’t work. It’s a little unrealistic that the fastest horse at the start of the race wins the race.
Also, shipping has no effect on horses’ energy or fitness. They’re effectively “in limbo” while they ship. (Your point about lack of training is a good one, though.)
The training bit is definitely something I need to work on. I slacked off on it when I couldn’t gauge any noticeable difference in my horses’ performances but I should get back to that as part of the overhaul of my program. That would also mean my horses spending less time being boarded or shipped home after every (other) race, so I’ll have more chances to keep their fitness up when appropriate races roll in.
That is how i have felt for the last couple of years too. This years racing is abysmal already and i can see myself bankrupt in the next few months. I’ll have to have a try adapting my training to see if that helps. I intend to sell quite a few this year (hopefully!) and reduce my nimbers by quite a bit. Hope we both get a bit more sucess this year
If it makes you guys feel any better, the last couple of years have been crap for my stable, too. I think I can blame that entirely on my lack of time to train/manage so many horses, though. Being a grown-up takes way more time than being a kid/student did, that’s for sure!
In an ideal situation, you would get to customize every workout to the horse on that particular day…but who has time for that?
Find a system that works for you - note that it won’t work for every horse in your barn, most likely, but getting regular training in (and jockey comments!) does make a huge difference. It has helped me astronomically. Could I be doing an even better job at it? Probably. I just don’t personally have the time to customize workouts. There have been some horses who have suffered due to this - some did better after I sold them, and I’ve had an increase in injuries… Overall, it has helped me figure horses out and keep their fitness up. I also only send my horses home about once every 3-4 months (barring injury), or until the jockey says something relating to NE, whichever happens first.
When entering races, I have it sort by A energy…which also puts those that are A/A at the top, so those ponies get entered first (more often). It seems to be significantly related to how well they do in a race, so focus on that group most! Then, even if I only have time to enter a couple of horses, the “most prepared” ones go out (and tend to place better, earning more money).
Organizing by energy level seems like a smart move, but my brain does better when horses are clustered by location, lol And I’m terribly hands-on, so I’d probably be monitoring every horse’s training regimen. It’s a reason why I try to keep my racing stable small, and then I go and not train the horses…
Speaking of which, I should go ship some horses out and try a more involved method with them, see if I can get results that way.
It makes me feel so much better about the volatility of my ponies results when I see what I consider to be big, successful stables having the same struggles. You guys are honestly idols of mine.
It’s a little unrealistic that the fastest horse at the start of the race wins the race.
Overall, it has helped me figure horses out and keep their fitness up. I also only send my horses home about once every 3-4 months (barring injury), or until the jockey says something relating to NE, whichever happens first.