Workout Comments

[rainee]

I know that it has been said in the past that comments from Jockeys after the race would be handy (and they would), but I came up with a few new ones for workouts -
Would it be possible to have a specific comment start coming up once the horse was past his prime (even well past his prime?) [ie - Horse had a lot of energy, but just doesn’t seem to have the heart anymore/doesn’t give it his all/doesn’t want to play/he’s feeling more like a pony horse than a race horse]?
Or comments about the surface [ie - Horse was really struggling in the slow dirt/I think he feels like a turf horse/have you ever thought of a jump trial?]

Also - in the update can we have jump trials listed on the horse’s workout page?

And a question also: How seriously should we take the “This horse seems to like running from behind” comments? Does anyone actually set their winners at there preferred running style?

[Grace_Littlef]

I do

[pureblarney]

Does anyone actually set their winners at there preferred running style?

When it’s come up 3+ times in their workout comments, I do, and it usually makes a difference.

[Grace_Littlef]

Me too if its suggested a few times I try it

[Shanthi]

@"rainee"

I know that it has been said in the past that comments from Jockeys after the race would be handy (and they would), but I came up with a few new ones for workouts -
Would it be possible to have a specific comment start coming up once the horse was past his prime (even well past his prime?) [ie - Horse had a lot of energy, but just doesn’t seem to have the heart anymore/doesn’t give it his all/doesn’t want to play/he’s feeling more like a pony horse than a race horse]?
Or comments about the surface [ie - Horse was really struggling in the slow dirt/I think he feels like a turf horse/have you ever thought of a jump trial?]

All of those things will likely be handled by a new feature (assistant trainer). You’ll be able to ask the trainer for suggestions about what to do with your horse, and they’ll offer stuff like “try blinkers”, “doesn’t seem to like turf”, “might prefer longer distance”, etc. It won’t be super catered to the horse (e.g. no "this horse would do best at 8.5-9.2 furlongs), but ideally will give you some ideas for what to try out if you can’t figure a horse out.

(Note that the assistant trainer would charge a fee and/or only be available every so often, so you couldn’t go back to them every single day to get hundreds of suggestions for your horse all at once.)

Also - in the update can we have jump trials listed on the horse’s workout page?

Already planned.

And a question also: How seriously should we take the “This horse seems to like running from behind” comments? Does anyone actually set their winners at there preferred running style?

This can help a lot, especially if you have a horse that doesn’t rate well. If they love running on the lead, and you tell the jock to run them on the lead, there’s much less chance of the horse spending the whole race fighting the jockey to be where he wants to be in the pack. If you leave it up to the jockey, it depends on his/her knowledge of the horse whether they’ll try and run the horse on the lead or not. (And, of course, if your horse doesn’t have a vast preference for one running style over others, and/or is super ratable, this is much less of an issue because s/he won’t mind either way.)

[Hilda_with_Clicker]

@"Shanthi"

If you leave it up to the jockey, it depends on his/her knowledge of the horse whether they’ll try and run the horse on the lead or not.

So if you “let the jockey decide”, will he try to make the horse run in one style or another, or will he let the horse do what it wants? Maybe there also should be an option to “let the horse decide”?

[Shanthi]

@"Hilda with Clicker"

So if you “let the jockey decide”, will he try to make the horse run in one style or another, or will he let the horse do what it wants? Maybe there also should be an option to “let the horse decide”?

S/he will try and figure out what the horse prefers, and then make the horse do that. If they don’t know the horse at all, they could get it wrong.

“Let the horse decide” is basically in force when you have a very unratable horse and a jockey that doesn’t know it well. Jockey picks one running style, horse hates it, and spends the entire race fighting for control to have the style it wants. It usually doesn’t end well.