Feels Like Work....

General Comments and Suggestions
21

Shanti you don’t sound defensive, I think you worded everything very very well :slight_smile:

I’ve been sitting on the sidelines reading everyone’s comments, I had no idea so many people were frustrated with things. I’ve been here since 2008 (wow, 6 years already?) and here is what I have found…

We are having a very successful year this year, I think our best so far… We have the highest OTB we have ever had and have the highest number of successful stakes runners we have ever had… We have been fortunate enough to have bred and acquired some fabulous horses but I do think some planning, training and management play a big role.

Training/Workouts really do make a difference… Initially, when these were introduced our horses SUCKED because I was too lazy to train 100+ racehorses… With that said, we have a very very light training schedule for all our horses (walk and jog only, and only 1/2 a mile of one or the other everyday) this just keeps there fitness up… I find if I train any harder then that, then their energy tends to bounce back very slowly after a race. The only disadvantage of this training method is that every horses is different and this training schedule doesn’t work for all horses… Regardless, all horses are put on this schedule, if it doesn’t work for a particular horse they are typically sold. This was really easy to set up, and I really don’t ever touch their workouts anymore (unless someone gets injured or I get a new pony of course!).

I also feel that alot of people over race their horses… Especially at a young age. Most of my 2yos have only run a handful of times because most are not mature enough to be successful yet… Maybe it is just the lines I have in my stable, but MANY of my stakes runners did not become stakes runners until 4 or 5 years old… I think that there are alot of late bloomers out there and alot of people race their horses like crazy at 2 or 3 (then giving up) instead of letting them rest/mature and racing them at 4/5. This is just what i’ve noticed with my horses, again maybe it’s just my lineage :slight_smile:

I also use boarding, ALOT… My horses in general race every 3 weeks or so and after every 3 or so races I send 'em to the boarding farm (even if its just for a couple days)…  I used to be too lazy to do this, but it has helped ENORMOUSLY!

Just my $0.02 on racing/training

Regarding taxes - they are painful… The specific tax I find most redundant is the yearling/weanling tax… Because you pay the 10% tax on the stud fee when you breed (broodmare tax) then you have to pay this 10% AGAIN as a weanling and AGAIN as a yearling… So for example I bred a horse to High Chances, this is a $45,000 stud fee. I get charged a broodmare tax of $4,500. The foal is born and again I have to pay $4,500 has a weanling and another $4,500 as a yearling. All of a sudden this stud fee is really $58,500. I feel that this is a bit of ‘double-dipping’ in the tax world. I like the idea of having flat rate tax brackets… Kind of like the real world, the more money you make, the more taxes you pay.

I don’t think we should be restricted on broodmares at all, i’ve had so many dud racehorses turn out to be phenomenal broodmares… But I am one of those hoarders, I need to be better at retiring my broods and some racers… But I always want to see what that next foal will be like or that next race will be… I guess I have a problem :slight_smile:

I also don’t think stable sizes should be restricted but I DO love the idea of setting a personal limit… Maybe if this personal limit is reached you can’t race any more races until you get rid of some horses or something? Instead of taking horses away?

Shanti - I think you are doing a fabulous job with this game, I love it and that is why I keep coming back… Keep up the good work!

22

No Shanthi not defensive, you just sound helpful and thoughtful. You have put so much time and effort into this game and of course FF IS your baby and it must be difficult/annoying to hear negative comments.

I have to admit I have thought about just leaving for the last 2 years but I really have enjoyed the game so much in the past I kept hoping to do better if only I could work out what I was doing wrong, or not doing right. I feel better knowing it’s not just me. Now i know i can afford to keep going next year i’ll try different tactics again with what i have learned from this thread.

It has been helpful to know how energy levels work and at what speed they ought change. and good to know that at least some of the jockey comments can be believed (there was a time I believe, when you said jockey comments were possibly misleading) so I have pretty much ignored them.

I will definately be cutting down on broodmares too, ATM it’s cheaper to buy them from the auctions (but not as much fun!)

So now my whole stable is resting for the next month while I re plan the rest of the year knowing I’ll still be here in 2019.

23

Very interesting reading lots of ideas/opinions etc. I really enjoy playing this great game and always look forward to see how mine have done each race day. Taxes are a painful expense each year and I’m happy that we won’t have any this year. Going forward perhaps only stables that make a net profit on the year should pay tax?
Most of my time on the game is sorting out which horses should be entered in what races. Also keeping them all as fit as possible with workouts is very important but reading some of the earlier comments from others I could be overtraining mine?? 2 canters over 6f and a gallop over 6f plus walks per week for most of mine tho they do get race days off. I give em 2/3 months rest a year also.
I’ve looked back at one I gave 7 months off cause he’d been busy last year(winning plenty) he got beat in a 40 grand allowance race first time only to go and win 3 weeks later in a grade 3. Good job we are all different(horses and all) else it would all be easy and predictable and that’s not realistic is it!
Keep up the good work Shanthi
Now I will review my training schedules lol

24

I was originally training my workouts like this as well, but I found it was taking FOREVER for my horses energy to pick up, they were always tired… I switched up my training routine which is now (giving away my secret  :stuck_out_tongue:)
Friday - Walk 1/2mile
Thursday - Jog 1/2 mile
Tuesday - Walk 1/2 mile
Monday - Jog 1/2 mile
Sunday - Walk 1/2 mile
I know it seems like nothing, but it (for my horses anyways) is just enough to keep their fitness up, along with racing regularly. With 2yos I sometimes change things up to try and learn a bit about them, but in general ALL my racers are on this schedule and so far it has worked really well for us.

25

I second Kim, my schedule isn’t exactly the same but my horses picked up when I made workouts much less  strenuous. My ponies also get boarded heaps and I only pay attention to jockeys once they know the horse ‘like the back of their hand’.

I’d be all for GOT’s if they could be more reliable, otherwise I’d be pretty skeptical, because you just never know…

26

I’m quite a light trainer as well.

Mine do three days a week:

Monday Walk 0.5 miles
Wednesday Walk 0.5 miles, Jog 0.5 miles
Saturday Walk 0.5 miles, Jog 0.5 miles, Canter 0.5 miles.

Very occasionally I might manually override the day’s plan for an individual horse but that’s generally if they’ve had quite a long break and aren’t quite fittening up in time for their intended race. When the English season is in full swing I normally try and get them up to full fitness then they ship home after racing and just racing them seems to keep them fit. I’m quite lucky that I can log in most days so I can ship the ponies home on the same day after they’ve raced. It seems to help them recover energy pretty quickly although the majority of the string are having an extended break until October due to me having RL hols in September - I’m already curious to see how they react to that.

Like Kim I generally don’t race my 2yos much - if they’ve got slow opening fractions in their races they normally get put away until they’re 3 even if they win - I’ve got two who are likely to have more racing later in the year, all the others will have the rest of the year off.

I’m not entirely sure how effective my training schedule is as we’re not winning stakes week in week out but I have over 60% OTB this year (and last year) and noticed yesterday that the stable has scraped in at number 10 on the Overall OTB list so something must be working, at the lower levels at least  :stuck_out_tongue:

27

Holiday camps !! Lol
God I think some of mine must be knackered - they will feel better when the work schedules are made much lighter, watch for improvement at littlefield from now on :slight_smile:

G O T 

28

Joe, I usually work my horses out at 1/2 mile jog/canters if they’re pretty fit. Otherwise they get 1-2 mile gallops. Longer/harder workouts shouldn’t affect your horses negatively, so if your current workouts are working for you feel free to keep them going.

29

Thanks- have altered a few and will see how they go for now

30

After reading through how everyone works their horses, I finally gave my kids a schedule and we’ll see how it goes. I rarely gave them strenuous works but I was going in and doing it by hand almost every day, working each horse a little differently because apparently I’m INSANE. We’ll see how this works out!

31

Hmmmm I might try implementing one of these light exercise programs, too. I usually just go in every couple of days and lightly work the horses with less than a B in fitness but a truly hands-off approach might help me a bit more AND tell me how my horses are training.

Also, thanks for hearing us out and for giving answers to the specific questions and concerns, Shanthi. A lot of games I play could use more of your hands-on approach.

32

Just out of curiosity, is there a link that we can go to to see things like Overall Earnings, OTB, etc?

I am often asked by other Owners what is the secret of my success. I don’t know if there really is a secret, just a couple of routines that seem to have worked well for me:-
I have a regular training schedule that pretty much all my horses follow, not too strenuous but also not too light. The only time they get taken off this schedule is if they are at the Farm (or Boarding) or if they are travelling. I also don’t run a horse if it’s Energy is F on the Monday or Thursday before it is due to race.

I tend to give my horses around 3 weeks between races (4 weeks for 2YO) and will generally send them back to the Farm (or Board them if they are overseas) after 3 races (for 2 & 3YO’s) or at most 6 races (for 4YO’s & older).

If there is any one thing that has probably helped the most is that I am Retired and don’t have many other hobbies (I hate golf - I always tell people that I wouldn’t know which end of the golf ball to hit!!!) and have lots of free time to spend on working out training routines, race entries, etc. I probably average 1-2 hours a day on FF, maybe double that on race days.

Above all, I love FF and am extremely grateful to Shanthi for all the hard work she has put into keeping it running as smoothly as it does. Sure, it does have it’s glitches every now and then, but Shanthi is always very quick to figure out where the glitch is and fix it - and she doesn’t have the luxury of being Retired.

33

It’s on the Hall of Fame page which, if you’re on the forum pages, should have a link to it in the box at the top where you can go to the Index, Your Stable etc - should be 2nd from bottom, above the Contact Shanthi link. Lots of ‘top 10’ info on there and OTB is about half way down the page :slight_smile:

34

Hey everyone! I think all of you had some very useful insight and suggestions.  I’m so glad that I wasn’t the only one feeling a little frustrated and this thread has given me new hope for my barn.  I think I’ll purchase some new paint and give the place a face lift. :slight_smile:  I have added a new training schedule which we will see helps.  :slight_smile:

I am so grateful for the taxes being lifted for 2018.  THANK YOU SHANTHI!! I now will have plenty of cash for stallion nominations and keeping things going next year, though I still will not be making any multi-million dollar horse purchases that I have been known to do in the past. :smacks forehead:

All in all I found everyone’s input very thoughtful and helpful and I’m so glad this may have helped others get their barns back into order.

BTW! I will be selling and retiring quite a few of my racers and broodmares in the future so if you are interested in any feel free to inquire because I will be inclined to sell…I think I’m going to decrease my race horse and broodmare count to about 125 ish so that’s at least 75 that will be going. :slight_smile:

35

I retired last Friday - maybe it’ll help me too! Oh and i don’t like golf either  :slight_smile: