What’s your ideal flow for entering races? What info is important/less important to you when picking horses to enter?
I’m planning to display energy, fitness, race records (per surface, so you can compare dirt/turf). Anything else you’d like to see?
I tend to prioritise picking horses based on their energy being high enough, them not hating the surface/distance combination of the race, and…that’s about it. But if you have different criteria for how you prefer to pick horses, let me know and I can see if it can be accommodated in the new app.
Hmm, if they are first up from a spell I normally start looking for a race after being in work for a month, I then base it off surface / distance & look for the lowest class available (There was a famous Australian horse trainer who always said keep your horses in the worst company and yourself in the best)
One thing I’d love to see is the ability to plan race starts out to 2 or 3 months instead of the current 1 month restriction.
So yeah, that’s more about entering races from the horse’s page. (Which is definitely planned, but will be a different debate .)
Right now I’m talking about entering horses from the race entries page, when you’re looking at “Race 2: Maiden for 2yo F (6 furlongs Turf)” and trying to decide who to enter.
I usually use the race entries page when I already know which horse I want to enter, and I really want to race it on a specific day (as soon as possible instead of waiting for the perfect race within the upcoming month).
Or sometimes I really want to enter a specific race, because I want to burn some money in the Breeders’ Cup for example
When I’m entering from the race entries page and deciding who to enter (vs looking for a race for a specific horse) I sort of follow the following:
Who’s at the track or nearby enough
Energy/fitness levels
Surface (I document this in my personal FF spreadsheets)
Distance (also documented)
Date of their last race (also documented)
Level (I have a rating system where I classify my horses. It tells me who to put in stakes and who is better of running lower levels)
Sometimes I also look at age. I’ve notice my three-year-olds are usually better off not running against older horses too much.
I usually use a spreadsheet to decide who to enter where I have this information in once glance vs going to the horse page.
Not sure how you’re planning the page, but I can imagine too much information will be very crammed. In addition to the things you’ve already mentioned I think last race date would be a nice addition. I always prioritize horses who haven’t run in a while when entering.
I often wish that the Race Entries page would list the races in Race # order, rather than the class of the race, as is done currently, but don’t know if anybody else prefers it the current way or not.
I know that this doesn’t really fall under the Race Entries category but, if the Race # could be included in the “Upcoming Races” lists, it would be really useful.
I’m reading everyone’s comments and just brainstorming from this. I’ll try to stay organized, but just go with it lol.
My method of entering is I have training summary open on one side and race entries on the other.
Major starting point is
Last time they raced, I usually like at least a month to month and a half.
Probably energy & fitness next
If they’ve recently shipped from the farm, I check to see how long they’ve been training, usually I like at least 2 weeks to a month of training.
After this, I usually go for distance & surface. This is hard to tell without actually clicking the horses page and checking race results. Doing this individually each time I want to enter is time consuming, but other than keeping a big spreadsheet of my 100+ horses preferences is just not possible.
I agree with Starfish, that I usually sort by Race # because if I have to stop I can note what # race I left off at.
Yeah honestly I never put my 3yos against older horses, I think we could just do 3yo races and then 4yo+ and do away with 3yo+ races. Maybe minus those Breeders Cup races, but are we really breeding the likes of American Pharoah lol
Side note: I would love some more 3yo only SC races.
I basically do exactly what Willa does, except I browse by horse first THEN find a race so I don’t pay any attention to race order. I personally prefer the current organization of listing races by “level” (Maiden, Starter, NW1, NW, etc). I do wish there was a way to tell “last race” vs. “last shipped,” because my Training Summary page says a horse last ran 2 months ago, which makes me think “oh crap I need to run this horse, how did I miss them?” but then I check their shipping history and see I had just shipped them a week ago, so actually they need to sit and train for a couple more weeks.
I would like to know how full a race is prior to entering–if I open a NW1 and there’s 10 entries, I typically skip it. I’ve also noticed a Maiden 2yo might be packed since it’s at the top of the list, but then a NW3 2yo race has maybe 3 entries. Same location, same surface, I definitely opt for the smaller field. If a stakes is already at 12+ entries I don’t usually bother.
I would LOOOVE more SC stakes in general. SC stakes basically end in early October unless you have a BC/BS-qualified horse, and there’s only two 3yo SC stakes in the entire game.
I don’t mind 3yo+ races, but would really like to see more 3yo only (and 3yo F only) races in general. I try to keep my 3yos in age-restricted races beyond the occasional tiny field or stakes race.
For those of you who care how long it’s been since a horse rested, what are you counting as a rest day? I’m going on the assumption that it’s any day spent boarded at a farm or at your home farm. Not just a day they were at a racetrack but didn’t train.
I tend to give my horses at least 21 days between races, although it often works out to be longer if I can’t find a suitable race for them when their 21 days are up. I also tend to send them back to the farm after three races, otherwise they are usually at the track that their last race was. They usually stay at the farm for 21 days after arrival then they get shipped to whch ever track their next race is at.
I have too many horses to try and ship them back to the farm between each race then remember to ship them to the track for their next race.
As for how long it is between races, I count the day after their last race as day 1.
One thing I quite enjoy is the Future Entries feature as it helps me to figure out what a horse’s next race will be. I find it a little confusion when you look at the Upcoming Races for a horse, you may see some races on a particular day that they are qualified to run in, but not all. I’ve never understood why that is.
But if you have different criteria for how you prefer to pick horses, let me know and I can see if it can be accommodated in the new app.
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