Large Stables - What's your opinion?

[quote="Shanthi"]

Ha ha, that’s true. :slight_smile: In the RL if I had 100k in the bank I’d be getting like $10 a month, I suppose. Whee…don’t go spending all that in one place. :slight_smile:

Personaly, its the money thing for me.  I have time to sit down and tinker with these horses in training, but when it comes time to ship these guys somewhere, things fall apart.

I mean, good grief, I have horses all over the place that need to get up and go somewhere, but I lack the funds entirely to do so.  Taxes are going to demand my first-born child!    The FF stables will help some with that though, I hope.

So I think there are basically 2 groups of FF members :wink:.  The “old crew” who is starting to get old enough that real life demands attention/time that we used to give to FF (but to whom money is something less of an issue, because we’ve had enough horses over the years that were good) and the “new crew” who maybe came in recently, is slightly younger than the “old crew”, and who don’t have the financial safety net that the older guys do, but have the time to fiddle with their horses.

Of course, if I basically stopped reading the forum I could probably add a couple hours a week to the time I spend on my horses;).  Maybe that’s the solution  :stuck_out_tongue:.

I think you hit something there, Andrea.  Back in the day, never did the 30 min/week, but geeze it’d be nice if I could do that now!  Since, right now I’m cheating @ work and reading the forum rather than prepping the paperwork for belt tests.  I mention that it became a chore, simply because I don’t have the time to manage everything in the micro-detail that it demands/deserves.  Hopefully this will change when my landlord sorts out the internet situation with Verizon, but for the moment, the ponies are stuck getting fat.  I’m sure they’re very upset about this.

Again, not Shanthi’s fault for it…just no time on my part for the cool new tinkering things.

I’m not a large stable by any means, but a feature that would be useful to me (and likely older stables) would be to have a “Ship home” button as well as the date the horse was last at the farm on the “Race results” page.  Having it on a page you’d already check would make it really quick to see if they ran a crappy race AND hadn’t been home in a while…a tip-off that they might need a trip back to the farm, especially if it’s nearby.  Just a thought.

However…as a new member…the idea of a savings account seems like something that would help members who don’t need it (millionaires) and have no impact on those who DO need the added funds.  As a new member scrapping to build a solid income, I can’t justify putting $100,000 in the bank for a year for the possibility of earning $10,000 more in the end.  Investing in a great horse & it’s fees is MUCH more likely to pay off, it seems…even if it takes you a long while to figure it out.

And I agree with Andrea…although…I think as new members, it’s not even so much about HAVING extra time, necessarily, as being desperate enough to NOT go broke in the game that you find SOME way to squeeze in some extra minutes online, hoping you’ll look back & be glad you did it when you’re a big, “established” stable.  :stuck_out_tongue:

What are your/everyone’s impressions of how much micromanaging is required, though?  Honestly, I own one of the biggest stables in the game, and I still probably spend a max of 30min (45 some weeks) per week on the game…15min per race day to enter for next week’s races, and 15min once a month to ship horses home who need it.  Add in 5min/day during breeding season on the days that mares foal (so 2hrs total/year) and that’s basically my time investment in the game.  (Playing, of course :wink:, coding is an entirely different matter altogether :stuck_out_tongue:)

So…are people doing more than this for micro-managing, or do you feel you need to do more?  90% of these new features that have been setup have been created so that they’re optional (training, jockeys, etc).  Basically the only one that’s “required” is shipping, and that (theoretically) takes no extra time because entering a race auto-ships the horse for you, so you just have to remember to ship it home eventually.

I don’t consider myself part of the old crew, nor the new crowd. I’ve been here almost three years, and this is my best year yet. I spend about six hours a day (avg.) on the internet (oh god someone take me away!) and about 2-3 of it is FF (and others – with breaks – I can’t do one thing for that long). My breakdown of FF is talking to Edea and Rhi, helping them with anything they need done to manage their stables, then I go to mine, train if needed, ship home if needed, see what races are coming up, check the forum, play around with hypothetical breedings, look at my horses dosages, etc. Of course, I can’t dedicated two hours EVERY day to FF (lately I haven’t even touched a keyboard some days)

So, to sum it up, I’m a brat with no job and no real life (I rarely hang out with friends, I’m always so tired), so I make up my own life on the internet. I live FF and the other games I play, so I can be on. I can also get on at school, and I have a free period for 45 minutes every day, so it helps.

But lately I have also found myself in the FF slump. It seems this time of year everyone gets frantic between wanting Select horses and trying to make taxes and then picking out some nice foalies later on. Plus there’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, etc (am I missing something?) and things get really busy.

I suppose it’s not helping me that my memory is failing me (and that isn’t sarcasm/joking, I can’t remember much of ANYTHING). So, FF is getting harder for me for various reasons, but I tend to be bad and put everything else aside to get on and check it out. I also cheat and check results via my phone lol. I wish I had a bigger screen/faster internet so I could do all my FF stuff on the bus to school/home/when I’m not near a computer. But, I know you can’t code me that, Shanthi :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m “New”. Definitely new. As in… Got a stable last month, new.
But I’ve found the level of micro-managing here very reasonable. Particularly compared to other sims (for other species) that I’ve played. In one I play at you’re looking a MINIMUM of an hour a day with a 5 critter show string to be competitive.

With my current string (5 horses) I spend around… 5 minuets a day. That excludes the forum (which I consider extra, rather than necessary, so if life demands, I skip forum-time). That 5 minuets is averaged out, including my training, race planning and the like.

The only exception is I’m waffling on what to do with a purchase I made who was injured when I got him and when to bring him back. But that’s just my personal indecisiveness. I’ve spent too much time going back and forth about what to do with him while working… and then decide to go with my original plan anyways. It’s sad, really.

Okay i’m not new here but i really fall into this catorgy as an hour aday would be max for me here and i’m running a 30 ish string. outside of a couple of suggestions i’ve mentioned in earler post i have to say all the changes have made the game WAY more fun for me.Yes i realize it is a game but all hte added little bits make the horses(and the wishful thinking of being a racehorse owner) that much more “real” to me. I auctually play way more now then i did then as i’m have so much more fun. So much fun i’ve started to donate(hopefully) on a steady basis as i know how much energy and money it takes to run a game like this. I’m personly loving nearly every aspec of the game though more income to balance the rising costs would REALLY be helpful.

I’ve been playing FF since it was VR and I have grown to love the unique and inventive changes Shanthi has implemented(even if it was reluctantly at first-I eventually adjusted) that add so many life-like layers to this game but I have never understood how people can say they can manage their stable with 30 minutes a week. Thanks to my frequent sales(which I would have less of if the game wasn’t so time consuming for me), I’m only a medium-small sized stable with a large broodmare band but I still must spend about 4hrs+/week on FF(I really have no idea but I know its at LEAST that-don’t really want to know to be honest). Anyway, I don’t know if I’m wasting my time doing unnecessary things but racing these horses now takes a lot of my time and no matter how hard I try I inevitably screw it up for them. 

I go through each horse individually, look at the Upcoming Races page, try to figure out what track/distance/surface etc. races will be good for my horse(then also look at their PAST races if I can’t remember which usually I can’t) that are reasonably close in location UNLESS theres a group of suitable races at a faraway track. I also try to make sure they’ve been rested at home every 3-4 races or so(gotta check the shipping page), make sure the horse is at that track in time to also get some training in before the race(for me that’s a minimum of 5 days) and also to TRY to plan ahead(as in make sure they are in a good spot) for future races. When the Upcoming races page isn’t enough I use the scheduler.

Then about 5 days before a race, if its a “fresh” horse I start training. Training each horse involves bringing up the horse daily, looking at past workouts, seeing how close the race is to see what kind of workout they should have(if any that day), etc. Between scheduling(picking a good race in a “good” spot plus shipping) and training, each horse takes about 15-20 minutes a week. Often I only end up thoroughly doing my favorites and the rest get whatever is convenient and close and if they don’t get a good workout schedule too bad(and unfortunately that usually shows).

I agree with Paul in that it has become more of a task than a pleasure sometimes(again, I love the layers in this game, its just that its had become so complicated to satisfy everything halfway decently for each horse that it is sometimes a chore I dread) and that’s why I’ve decided to downsize to see if a smaller group will make it more fun.  Maybe if the planning, entering, shipping and training systems were more streamlined it wouldn’t be such a big deal.

Some ideas…

*Sorting Upcoming entries and “Pre-entering”: I know this has already been said somewhere AND is on the to-do list but I agree, if I’m wanting to keep my 3yo turf filly in 3yo turf filly races only, I don’t need to know about any dirt races or 3+ races etc.). This has also been said but just wanted to say that being able to enter races from the upcoming races page way ahead of time (I’m talking months ahead of time or set up an “automatic entry”.) would be very useful.  The automatic entry could make it so stables could go through(maybe once a month) and make  plans setting their horses up for months of races(months ahead being useful for only your figured out stakes horses I guess, but a month in advance still useful for allowance ponies) and then just approve them sometime(maybe a notification 2 weeks ahead) before the race entry close deadline(until they approve it, the horse is not part of the race field). When you enter a horse in advance using the automatic entry you could set up options for the horse to be shipped to the track X days in advance of the race and start a training schedule, if needed, X days before the race(I’ve been using training A LOT since mid June and it has more than doubled my win% since before mid June so, for me anyway, convenient training would be great).
For instance with a training schedule option when “pre-entering”, a stable could prep their horse X days before their say, 2 mile race with more endurance workouts. That way the stable doesn’t have to worry about their horse being ready, its been setup, and barring injury(in which case as with the scheduler we have now the horse could automatically be removed from this schedule), so long as you approve the plan you had made perhaps months ago you and your horse are all set to go.

*Training scheduler: it would be easier to use training if we could do things like use the scheduler so that we don’t have to log in daily and use the workout page. Right now the scheduler isn’t really use-able for me since I vary the effort % among other things when giving workouts. I think you put that on the to-do list but just wanted to second that more options with the scheduler would be excellent! :slight_smile:

*Jockey comments: they are so vague sometimes I really don’t know what it means. I would like the idea above of being able to pick what you want to know about he horse, plus have them more precise plus a little clearer(or an outline of the meaning of comments on the FAQ). Does fighting too hard mean the horse has lots of energy or not much(I think the later but I’m really not clear on this and many other comments).

*Shipping is maybe the biggest feature that has made the game more complicated and ‘task-like’ as it can be very hard to find the right location to last your horse several races. I know more races are being added so maybe this won’t be such a hardship in the future. With an idea like advanced entering(above) with options for having a horse automatically shipped X days before a race this could be made much less of a pain.

BOARDING STABLES- I know this is on the to-do list but it would make things easier and not such a hardship being based somewhere besides the east coast of U.S.  My horses wouldn’t have to go make that fun “little” trip from the west coast to east coast and back quite so often. :wink:

…this is not so much a streamlining thing but would be a nice, useful feature: have all workout times recorded for comparison later on not just breezes but jogs, canters etc.-lets me know how tired my horse is getting and if its time to go home.

Nominations-shorter nomination time(maybe 2 weeks instead of 4), its been a pain for me to over and over again realize I JUST missed the deadline for a nomination (although an advance entry system might solve this)really big pain if you have a big stable

I agree with whoever said it that there are a ton of fees and i can see how its hard to make money in this game w/out having a nice little stakes winner or two in the stable. I’m established enough to have some decent enough horses to keep me out of the red when I’m not out spending way to much on some pretty broodmare :wink: BUT many aren’t so lucky. Every once in awhile I look back at my budget and am a little shocked at how it all adds up.

Recording of past jockey instructions given for every race would be another added convenience, so many times I may give the jockey instructions only to not remember what exactly I told him, if anything, in the next race. Would help to figure out the horse a little faster!

So a lot of that was just random thoughts, hopefully some of it was coherent. :slight_smile:  Basically, I would be able to manage large stables plus school and life in general and do it all enjoyably IF I could just sit myself down maybe once a month, plan it all out and if its all set up with just minor variations that would take only 30/min a week. That would be heaven and FF would be my Eden again! :wink:

Oh yes, and Andrea, I too spend way too much time on the Forum, maybe that IS the solution(forum time+current stable time=everyone’s happy {except the Forum ghosts of course who will then be in need of some company}! Oh well, I love the Forum and the fact that everybody makes posts now-remember when we’d have days with nobody posting and start threads to get things going again?? lol

I’m not sure that i count in any way as a big stable as I have only been here a year. However with loans and auctions  and  a coulpe of claimers, my stable has expanded rather more rapidly than i had intended it to. i now have problems I didn’t have when it was smaller. The worst one for me is the shipping issue, which I have commented on previously. I know there are plans afoot to have boarding barns to ease the problem - please can it be fairly soon or I will go broke  :'( Many  players have commented on how much it costs just to move within the US - for me to bring horses home to rest costs about 18,000 each so I can only afford it once a year for most of them, fair enough if they’re good winners but most of mine are basic allowance level and with jockeys fees, entry fees and stable taxes a lot of them are not even going to cover their costs. I know it’s my own fault for wishing to race from my own country but it’s a fierce handicap all the same.

Time is becoming a more significant issue as I am it seems the odd one out as I joined as a working adult so have always had only limited time to spend on the game. Now it has become more critical to earn money to keep the stable afloat I am trying to be more selective in training and running my horses instead of being a bit more casual as I was at first. Checking available races, jockeys, training etc takes me considerable time so I need ways of quicker working otherwise each horse only gets looked at once a week
It would be much better if the jockey comments were more reliable OR if the jockes got to know the horsed in a quicker time frame. I think most professional riders in RL have a generally accurate knowledge  of what a horse is like within half a dozen times of riding it. Not perfect perhaps but a decent working knowledge. I have kept some of my jockey on the same horse for 3 or 4 times that, and I am just getting on some of them that they are BEGINNING to know the horse. if the comments are to be entirely ignored there is perhaps not a lot of point to them. This is a real pity as the idea and coding must have taken a lot of setting up and this could be a real way of players getting a handle on new horses without spending a fortune on entering races just to see if they like it. A RL trainer surely uses workouts for that and fine tunes in the light of the horses behaviour on the track.

Pre entering would also save me time as i often see the perfect race a couple of weeks away then forget about it. i do put details of possible future races in the owners comments box but because I can’t check each horse often enough now, sometimes still miss the deadline which is very disappointing. I would agree that you should just be able to provisionally enter and have to confirm it nearer the day, but this would be ok if it came up as a stable reminder.
I really have other things to comment on but am out of time again. But i do want to say that this is a great game and I am offering comments and not criticisms. I wouldn’t bother spending my time writing on the forum if I didn’t think the game was worth it. But I want to be able to stay in it and not go bankrupt!

I actually work at a track as a groom…we do 98% of all handling of horses. The trainer knows the horses before they hit the track. They know most vises. A good trainer trains at the local track. I am new to this game but so far I deem it to be very exact…with exersise riders/jockeys sometimes it does take quite a few rides. It all depends on the horse;temperment, health, and even just the time of day matters…belive it or not but some horses are not morning or afternoon horses.
Anyways, I find doing notes help with what races I put my horses in…right now I leave them at the track…most have daily board around 7.00 a day available in real life. Most trainers have a row/stable to themselves.
I do not know if this helps at all but just some answers to your opinion.

Okay I haven’t thoroughly read all the other replys yet but i wanted to make a post here before i leave for work.  Sorry if I repeat some things.

I have found it hard to make any money this year.  I do think shipping (for racing and breeding) is steep and some of the other fees just seem to be piling and piling up.  I feel like a little mouse in the middle of stacks of bills…granted I am watching my budget more now and it is more realistic…but is reality fun, lol?  I play this game to forget about reality for a bit and now I feel just a little frustrated.  I use to compete with the larger stables but now i feel I can’t.  When nominations went into effect I spent a whole lot of money (million+) I didn’t need to because that was sort of overwhelming at the time.  There’s one big purchase this year that I shouldn’t have bought but didn’t realize it till now because “reality” is sitting in…lol.  For a “game” sake I feel it would be better to forget some of the little nit-picky stuff (jockey fees, lower shipping fees, sales taxes, huge nomination fees…ect.) and focus on what made this game fun in the first place.  Some of these fees i’m noticeing is the same amount it would take me to earn in a couple-few months…is that right?..i don’t know I’m just a little frustrated and venting a bit…if any of this makes sense and you agree/disagree please let me know…:slight_smile: Thanks for reading. :wink:

Hey Penny I work I just have no Life ;D ;D :wink:
Cost of shipping is a factor for everyone. It has more negative effects for stables outside the US, I think. FF stables should help, but the fees have brought down the price of horses(we don’t have as much to spend) :wink:
Money is a definite factor in this game. I will make $15 million less than last year when all is said and done :astonished:. I don’t expect anyone to shed tears for me it’s just a fact :wink: However most of the biggest stables are down in earnings, and some stables are catching up ;D The changes have kind of put the economy in sync. But they have taken some of the fun out of the game at least for me.
For me it’s training not so much the fees that hang me up. Yes I know training is optional, but if it’s optional why have it :wink: ;D small rant just couldn’t resist :wink:

The reality(I hate reality) is there were significant changes made to FF, and we are still learning to deal with them. Some of us want a game as real as possible( :stuck_out_tongue:), some of of want a game with some realism( ;D) gee where do I stand :wink: But ultimately it’s not our decision it’s the Goddess’s decision. She listens, she weighs, she balances, and does the best she can. I sure don’t want her job :wink: Ultimately we have to adjust to the parameters of the FF word.

I don’t think many of us put much thought into where we located our stables as far as economics are concerned. I located myself close to home which happens to be in the central part of the US. When it came time for color wars I suggested to our team to make a quick decision an located in the Northeast, because of shipping costs and the high number of races. I don’t always learn fast but I learn ;D Maybe at the end of the year or after/if FF farms are implemented we just let everyone have a one time shot at relocating. No complaints after that. We all know how shipping and fees work now, and new players should be reading the forum and asking questions before they get in game so no pity there.

I am if nothing else a game player. I have been playing games for longer than most of you have been alive :stuck_out_tongue: If I’ve learned anything it’s that it’s incumbent on me as a player to learn the system in order to win/be successful. Am I frustrated right now? Hell yes. What am I going to do about it? I’m going to figure out the system heck I’m a grinder I don’t give up easy. Those of you that play on line games know what grinding is ;D

Goddess your doing a heck of a job :-* lots of luck on this one :wink:

Paul gets an award for most smilies in a single post :wink:

I have to agree with what has recently been said, however I seem to be doing better with all this stuff. NO idea why. I wish I had this determination and want to succeed in school as I do in FF. I made a big purchase ($300k) with a budget not even twice that amount and here I am, back up with more money than before that purchase (much thanks to Shanthi and the code cooperating :slight_smile: but still! I was ALMOST at this point!). So, I’m very much liking what’s going on at the moment because it’s really giving me a (lol) reality check XD Plus, I like a mind game and FF makes my mind do tricks.

I’m all for whatever happens though. This game is too addicting (where did the FF Geeks post go?!) to just up and quit. ;D

I JUST found this post today (can’t believe that I didn’t see it sooner… I blame being busy with the stable :wink: and with now 69 racers, 39 broodmares, and a whole slew of weanlings / yearlings I know that its one of the largest stables in the game. That and I have been around since year 2000 of Final Furlong days :wink:

I mainly agree with many of the points that Jade was making about automatic pre-select functions for going through and choosing races ahead of time instead of going and planning every race that is needed for a horse, then having to enter them when the race entries open. I agree that an automatic setting for equipment would be nice so it would auto-select that for every track because I am ALWAYS looking at my horses page with 69 racers to see whom has what equipment, a possible auto-jockey choice (again same thing checking past jockey preferences), and same with the racing style.

I find that a lot of my time wasted entering races is having to open up all of my racehorses pages that I need to enter, go through all of their best preferences, and then spend the time to enter them all. Having an option for auto-selecting these options would help A LOT. As well to plan and pick future races so that a schedule was already created along with a choice of when to ship the horse (as Jade suggested) would save tons of time from having to plan out each horses schedule to each month.

Other aspects such as breeding, selling, leasing, and even shipping I don’t really have any issues with as I normally select to ship my horses if they are moving to a different track when I enter them into their races which at least saves that step :wink:

I also agree with Jade’s other points of a longer deadline for race nominations (2 weeks instead of a month before), as well because many, many, many a time I have missed races in most cases by only a day. Is it possible that in the potential races section for a horse that somehow any races that require nominations and are due within the next month could be a certain color, or possibly in the last week before nominations close be color-coded so we know that nominations are due soon if the longer timeframe is not available?

Training I hardly use besides trying to figure out my 2yo’s or a very unfit horse that needs a good workout to get back in shape or train back from an injury. I just found that my horses grew tired, and that racing them keeps them fit enough and shipping them home for rest seems to recover them well enough to go back to racing again :wink:

Those are just my 2 cents, but the biggest area that takes most of my time each day is race entering as a #1 priority that would greatly reduce planning time and time online if we were able to select races and options far ahead of time.

Thanks :slight_smile: Lindsay

I totally agree that the best thing you could do would be set up some sort of advanced entry thing.  I attempted at the beginning of the year to plan out a schedule for my guys using their notes page, but that actually took longer :wink:.  Even if it’s just a page where you can select the next race for your horse up to 6 months in advance, and then when entries open for that race you get an alert.  That shouldn’t take too much space in the database or time to code, and would give people a chance to “binge” on FF (which is typically what I’d like to do… spend an hour or two once or twice a week and then just need to check in on them once or twice a week for 5 min to make sure anyone who needs a workout gets one, that horses are entered, etc).

Also, and I know this may be somewhat lazy of me, but well, this is about increasing efficiency :wink:, it’d help me out a lot of the nominate horses page included a description of race conditions (ie 12f Turf)… that way I know which races to nominate for based on a horse’s running style instead of having to search up the race and then nominate (or my currently used alternative, just sort of nominate at random).

Okay. I’m proud to say that I read every word of every post up to this point today. (Talk about the forum taking up our time! lol) I thought about everyone’s opinions and suggestions and have come up with a few of my own, though I am by no means a large stable.

I have avoided becoming a large stable for a long time, and finally decided to be daring and snag a few more racers. I’m not having trouble yet, but I still don’t have many horses at all. So I’m not one to talk. But I will anyway. Whether you take me seriously or not is up to you.  :wink:

I use workouts a lot. In fact, I’m starting to think that I’m using them too much, based on the amount that I’ve been able to race. (which isn’t much) But, I really don’t find them too time consuming, even with how much I rely on them. I keep half of my horses home while the other half is working on getting ready to race. I know what you’re thinking. If I don’t have many horses, how could I say that workouts aren’t time consuming? Because workouts, for me, really takes about 30 seconds a day. (I have two horses at the track right now) So say a stable has 30 racehorses, 15 are at the track, give 30 seconds to each horse and it takes about 8 minutes to train. And I don’t think we have to train daily. Some days I don’t touch a keyboard either. In fact, it’s becoming most days that I don’t.
If we want to use Shanthi’s way of training, which is very different (and probably better) than mine, then we could set a half mile walk/jog a day for 5 days a week on an automatic schedule and you don’t have much to worry about. Just get on as much as possible and check on the workout comments/results and energy/fitness to see how things are going. It really is like hiring a trainer, but for free.
So, maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I don’t see training as much of a problem or chore.

Now… shipping has been pointed out as a negetive thing is this thread. Mostly because of money, some because of time. I think if shipping costs became a bit less realistic, then that would be a lot better. We all know how gas prices have been treating us, but if we make the oil mines if Final Furlong a lot cheaper, then I think we’d all be happy, and it would have less harsh reality to it all. I feel bad for Shanthi, since I’m sure shipping has taken a ton of painful coding, and we all seem to not enjoy it at all. I don’t mind it that much, since I located by Belmont and I race there mostly. But, for the people who located overseas, I really think boarding is a great idea. But the issue with that would be, would we charge stables to use our stable? Would people have a new cost to complain about?

Some suggestions I really liked. The thing I think I’m most for is telling jockeys what we’d like to hear. Because, like many others, I seem to be getting a lot of worthless comments that I can’t figure out what they mean. If we could say, “Hey, jock, could you pay attention to how Horse Z reacts to this equipment today?” then I think things could get a lot easier (and more fun).
Next thing I liked is entering in advance. I think entering 6 months in advance is rediculous, but, say a month in advance would really help me out.

And we seem to all not enjoy how much reality this game has taken on. I enjoy it, really, because it’s like my dream stable. Not quite tangeable, but it exists in a sense. But, SOME reality could be cut out. I think the reality I would like to cut out this most is cost of transportation (shipping). So that people are less irked about the cost of shipping. (which can be hefty, I’m sure)

I would never have time to have a large stable, even back in the day without workouts and shipping. I love workouts though, and I think shipping takes an a challenging twist. Costly, but maybe that can be helped?

We love you Shanthi.  :-*

I use training a lot too but while it may be easy to throughly know every one of your horses if you only have a few, if you have 20+(and most stables have a majority of their horses at the track with just a handful resting at home) most require a little research into their workout and race records to see what worked best last time or what they liked. 

Well, everybody has different methods of training that they prefer for their own reasons, if everybody trained the same way there might not be much point to training. One thing that many large stables have had a problem with is that they cannot get on to FF frequently and it would be easier for them if they only had to get on about 2x a week.

Shanthi’s mentioned that it wouldn’t be members boarding out to stables, it would be FF boarding stables.  These boarding stables would only have to be used when your horse needs a rest and you do not want to pay for shipping him/her home. Hopefully people would look at the cost difference and figure out which one will be cheaper for them (factoring in how long the horse needs to rest as well since I’m sure the boarding charges will be per day).

I think many people enjoy the reality, its just that it is a game and its becoming difficult to keep up with.  I am by no means an expert of real life TB racing but it has been my impression that most racing stables(breeding is another matter entirely) do not make much money on it because it is so expensive.  It appears to me that in RL, TB racing is mostly a bunch of very wealthy “hobbyists” pouring money in the “Sport of Kings” that in turn supports the people who appear to be making money:the breeding farms and associated trades. I think people in FF are mostly racing stables and want to make money so they can continue to expand their FF stable and it has been difficult for many.